Berkshire United Way Seeks Volunteer Grant Reviewers

Print Story | Email Story
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire United Way (BUW) is seeking volunteers to assist in its two-year funding cycle grant review process.  
 
Volunteers will participate in up to 25 hours of training, individual evaluations, and group meetings to make funding recommendations. These recommendations will be presented to the BUW Community Impact Committee and Board for final approval, with funding disbursed starting in mid-July. 
 
BUW will host three training sessions for volunteer reviewers in March.  Interested individuals can register and find more information at www.berkshireunitedway.org/funding-application.
 
Concurrently, BUW is accepting applications for funding from local non-profit organizations.  Applicants must meet specific eligibility requirements and align their impact goals with one of BUW's updated priority areas: Household Stability, School and Career Readiness, and Mental Health.  The application deadline is March 10 at midnight.  
 
Application assistance and application materials are available on the BUW funding application webpage.

Tags: Berkshire United Way,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Companion Corner: Baby at Berkshire Humane Society

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — There's a sweet and chatty girl at the Berkshire Humane Society awaiting her new home.

iBerkshire's Companion Corner is a weekly series spotlighting an animal in our local shelters that is ready to find a home.

Baby is a 10-year-old shorthair feline that has been at the shelter since December.

Feline/small animal adoption counselor Alyssa Petell introduced us to her.

"She is our lovely senior lady. She's about 10 years old, is what we estimate her to be. She's a very, very affectionate, sweet girlie," she said. 

Baby came from a home that couldn't care for her anymore because of an abundance of animals in the house. 

"When she first came in, she, of course, was surrendered because there were so many animals in the home that people couldn't handle the amount of animals they had, mostly cats. I think there was a dog, but it was too much for them," Petell said. "We quickly realized she had an upper respiratory infection, and she eventually got over it. It did take her a pretty long time, but she's since recovered from that issue, and she's doing much, much better."

Even though she came from a family of animals she would do well as the only pet. 

"The perfect home for our girl, baby would be a nice, quiet home with adults, preferably adults only. She does not like other animals, although she did come from a home with a bunch of other animals, she prefers to be the only pet in the home," she said. "But she is a very lovely girl, and I think that she would do really well in a nice home, quiet, maybe older people."

Baby is quite affectionate, curious, and can be quirky.

"I honestly think she is a very, very sweet girl. She loves … one quirky thing that she does is walls. She pretends that they're scratching posts, so she'll kind of scratch them a little bit. And it's very, very funny. She does that in her cage. She loves her scratching posts."

She also loves to play with toys and eat treats. 

"She actually does have a pretty playful side when she gets the time. I've seen her have the zoomies before, and it was very cute. Once she has the space and the energy, she does like to play and chase things around, Baby, she's very curious," Petell said.

She also loves to have conversations with you and will chat with you all day if she could.

"She's a very, very sweet girl. She will come up to you and rub on you and give you all the love in the world. She's also very vocal. She will talk to you all the time," she said.

Baby is a senior and she might need some dental work and some blood work to make sure she is completely healthy.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories