Poetry Event to Celebrate Earth Day and the Hoosic River Watershed

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A poetry event focused on the Hoosic River Watershed will take place on Thursday, April 24, at 4:30 PM.

Poets and individuals interested in poetry of all ages are invited to participate in this Earth Day celebration.

The event will begin at the Mohican Recreational Path – Syndicate Road Trailhead parking lot. Participants will walk along the Hoosic bike trail in Williamstown to seek poetic inspiration. Writing prompts will be available for those who wish to use them. Time will be allotted for participants to share their poems, phrases, or other creative expressions inspired by the river. The program is scheduled to last for 1.5 hours.

This free workshop is open to the public and is funded by a grant from the Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire, a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. Registration is required and limited to 16 participants. Interested individuals can register at the provided link.

The facilitator for this event is Arianna Alexsandra Collins, the Executive Director of the Hoosic River Watershed Association. Ms. Collins is also a naturalist educator and poet with over 30 years of experience in outdoor education and community engagement. She has been facilitating quarterly Poetry Shares at her local library in Ashfield for several years. Samples of Ms. Collins’ poetry can be found at https://hearkentoavalon.com/earthvoice-poetry/.

Area Cyclists Gear Up for Dana-Farber Fund-Raiser

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
07:39AM / Saturday, July 18, 2026

Matthew Behnke, left, and ForzaG teammate and Living Proof rider Abraham Landau with a photo of a Pan-Mass Challenge 'Pedal Partner,' a pediatric patient paired with a rider.

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute calls its biggest fund-raiser of the year the Pan-Mass Challenge.

 

But participants know that the challenge of riding their bicycles 177 miles from Worcester to Provincetown pales in comparison to the day-to-day challenge faced by cancer survivors.

 

"Riding side-by-side, you share stories," Great Barrington's Peter Whitehead said recently. "Everyone has a story, whether it's personal themselves or a family member. There's a lot of back-and forth.

 

"And there's the Living Proof group that gathers together on Saturday afternoon at the end of the ride. All the people who have had cancer or still have cancer. People often at the end of that meeting get up to tell a story, and it's just amazing some of the things people have gone through in their fight against cancer.

 

"It's inspirational."

 

For 46 years, riders have been drawing on those inspirations to power through a two-day ride across the commonwealth and raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since 1980, the event has raised $1.125 billion for the treatment and research center, and it accounts for 67 percent of the Jimmy Fund's annual revenue.

 

This year's ride, scheduled for Aug. 1 and 2, includes at least 17 Berkshire County residents among the 6,000 cyclists planning to complete the ride to the tip of Cape Cod.