Students in Grade 8 at Drury learned about nonprofit organizations through the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, 'Philanthropy in Schools.' On Tuesday, they gave presentations on the organizations they researched.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Drury High eighth-graders recently spent their semester researching and learning about the work that Berkshire nonprofits do in the community.
The course was a program of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires, "Philanthropy in Schools." The students researched what they were passionate about and found the organizations that aligned with their passion. They wrote an essay and presented a persuasive speech to convince their classmate to vote for their organization to receive a monetary donation.
Founder Liana Toscanini started the program in 2020 as a way to introduce young minds to community service and understanding what nonprofit organizations can accomplish.
"I created this program actually, because my parents made me volunteer for everything. And so I had the opportunity to know what nonprofits are, to know what it feels like to volunteer and give back," Toscanini said Tuesday morning, after the students had presented essays at the school.
"And I thought today, so many parents are working, you know, and maybe don't have the luxury of modeling that behavior. And so I thought it would be great for middle school students, specifically, which is a very impressionable age, to have the same opportunities that I had to get a little bit involved, figure out what their passions were, and become kind of mini philanthropists."
The Drury High is the first school in North County to adopt the program. The eighth-grade civics teacher David Demary taught the course and helped the students with their presentations.
"Just watching these kids interact and find stuff locally and contribute has been very uplifting," he said.
The students were provided with $1,000 from Greylock Federal Credit Union and anonymous donors to give to charity.
The class decided on two organizations, Child Care of the Berkshires and the AYJ Fund, giving each one $500.
"We wanted to do it [Child Care of the Berkshires] because we liked children and especially like volunteering for children and we think that overall Child Care of the Berkshires is just a good cause for the community and can help a lot of people so we chose it," said student Roan Kane. "It's been a good experience. We would like to volunteer there maybe or just give our time to the community."
The AYJ Fund, founded by Joe and Kathy Arabia in memory of their late daughter, Anna Yan Ji Arabia, has raised more than $1.3 million for child cancer research and helps local families with children suffering from cancer.
"When I was younger my uncle had cancer and he was in the hospital for a long time and my mom had to go live with him," student Jayden Cote said. "When I found that out when I was younger, I've always had a passion on donating and helping people with cancer and when I found out about the AYJ Fund I knew I really wanted to donate to them when I had the opportunity."
State Rep. John Barrett III also spoke to the class and mentioned how great it was to see kids being able to touch the lives of people they may never know and how important it is to give back that they learned.
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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