Mill Town Foundation Announces 2025 Core Impact Award Honorees for Pittsfield Educators

PITTSFIELD, Mass.— The Mill Town Foundation, in partnership with Pittsfield Public Schools and with support from the Feigenbaum Foundation, has announced the honorees of the 2025 Core Impact Awards.

This initiative recognizes educators within the Pittsfield Public School District for their contributions to student learning, classroom innovation, and community involvement.

The Core Impact Awards annually select one full-time teacher or school staff member from each of Pittsfield's 14 public schools.

The nomination process involved an open community call for submissions from students, families, colleagues, and residents. A volunteer, independent Selection Committee, comprising professionals from education and youth-serving organizations in Berkshire County, reviewed the nominations and chose the awardees based on their demonstrated impact, innovation, and community engagement.

The 2025 Core Impact Award recipients are:

• Allendale Elementary – Morgan Zukowski
• Capeless Elementary – Lindsay Sayers
• Conte Community School – Senta Brodeur
• Crosby Elementary – Heather Topolski
• Crosby Academy – Tracy Kelleher
• Eagle Academy – Colleen Oleskiewicz
• Egremont Elementary – Gwynneth Featherstone
• Morningside Community School – Olivia Oberle
• Stearns Elementary – Brianna Sabato
• Williams Elementary – Samantha Farella
• Herberg Middle School – Mallory D'Aniello
• Reid Middle School – Pam Garwood
• Pittsfield High School – Ann Marie Mutz
• Taconic High School – Brittany Gardner

"These incredible educators are the backbone of our schools and a source of inspiration for our entire community," said Andy Wrba, Program Director at Mill Town Foundation. "The Core Impact Awards aim to elevate their stories and recognize the meaningful and lasting difference they make every day."

Among this year's recipients is Senta Brodeur, a music teacher with 26 years of experience in the classroom, who reflected on the honor by saying:

"I feel so honored to receive the first Core Impact Award for the Pittsfield Public Schools and have such admiration for so many other teachers, paraprofessionals and staff that work throughout the district and equally deserve this award. I started my career at Conte in 1999 as a young and terrified new classroom music teacher for grades k – 5 and special education and the diversity of my students and the dedication of my band families is what keeps me going year after year. If I can make a difference in a child's education and make them believe in themselves, I feel alive and successful.

I want to dedicate my Core Impact Award to all the teachers and staff that have to travel between multiple schools because while it's a bumpy journey the students and families need you. Be proud of the impact that you have made. Teaching in a vestibule or using your car as an office may be a reality, but together we all make a difference in Pittsfield Public Schools."

An awards celebration for the 2025 recipients is scheduled for May 27, 2025, in downtown Pittsfield.

WWII Veteran Reflects on D-Day at VFW Post Induction

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
12:25PM / Saturday, June 06, 2026

The members in the picture are Bret Miller, Coast Guard, Desert Storm; Hank Morris, Army, Vietnam; Brad Havill, Navy, Global War on Terror; VFW Post 448 Vice Cmdr. Mark Pompi, Army, Global War on Terrorism, Afghanistan; Post Cmdr. Arnold Perras, Korea; Joe Difillipo, Army, Vietnam; Teri Billington, Navy, Desert Storm; and Carmen Ostrander, Air Force, Afghanistan.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Anthony Salatino Jr. says his memory is getting a little foggy about his time in the Army. 

But he remembers how terrible D-Day was, and feeling lucky he wasn't among those in the initial invasion force 82 years ago. 

 

"One of the most horrible things was in Normandy. We went shortly after D-Day. I got lucky, very lucky on D-Day. We went to a staging area the night before … and at the very end, somebody called, I was in headquarters, they called all the headquarters personnel at the center," the 103-year-old said. "We did not go. There's about 30 of us. The rest of the battalion was gone, and the reason for that was because there was another battalion coming from the States, and they had no headquarters. 

 

"We stayed back, but we did go to Normandy shortly after that, and when we went to Normandy, it was all over."

 

Salatino was attending an induction ceremony on Thursday at the Lt. John N. Truden VFW Post 448. Joseph Texidor, who served in the Army for 17 years with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sworn in as the post's newest member. 

 

Salatino served in the Medical Corps and wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a World War I veteran wounded at Verdun. Salatino was in the Army for about three years.

 

"The whole memory is what I just told you, very, very alive to me," he said. "That is, I can never forget, never forget that."

 

D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the start of Operation Overlord, and the largest invading force to cross the English Channel since 1066. Their goal: to liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.