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Hoosac Valley Names Top Students for Class of 2025

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CHESHIRE, Mass. — Hoosac Valley High School has named Kimberly Mach and Maryn Cappiello as the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, of the class of 2025. 
 
Both will speak at graduation on Friday, June 4, at 6 p.m. in the school gym. 
 
Mach, daughter of Lawrence and Loretta Mach of Adams, has been a Student Council member and treasurer all four years, as well as a member and treasurer of the school chapter of the National Honor Society. She was also a peer mentor, member of the Art Club, Girls Who Code and Student-Adult Advisory Board, and participated in the General Dynamics High School Engineering Competition.
 
She is an Advanced Placement scholar with honors and recipient of the Superintendent's Award, Rensselaer (N.Y.) Polytechnic Institute Medal, Presidential awards for numerous honors and AP courses, and the National and the College Board's National Rural and Small Town Recognition Program. She was a member of the Nordic and downhill ski clubs,
and played soccer for Hoosac and the Berkshire Ajax Club and was volunteer travel soccer coach for middle school girls.
 
Mach will be attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. 
 
Cappiello, daughter of Timothy and Brittney Cappiello of Adams, was a member of Student Council all four years, the National Honor Society, Student-Adult Advisory Board and Athletic Council and was class secretary and a peer mentor. She also completed the 1Berkshire Youth Leadership Program.
 
She is the recipient of the Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award and the Scholar-Athlete Award. She was a member of the soccer, lacrosse and basketball teams, including Hoosac's state champion basketball teams in 2024 and 2025, and volunteered with youth sports and domestic violence victims. 
 
Cappiello plans to attend Assumption University to major in nursing. 

Tags: graduation 2025,   val & sal,   

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Adams Applies for CDBG Grant to Address Blight

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
ADAMS, Mass. — The town continues its efforts to address blight in the community by applying for funds through the Community Development Block Grant, as it has done years prior.  
 
The Select Board recently approved the grant application requesting $950,000 to fund the highly anticipated Winter Street reconstruction and the town's Adams Housing Rehabilitation Program. 
 
CDBG is a federally funded competitive grant program administered by the state. It can be used for activities that address blight, housing, beautification, demolition and economic development.
 
The need for these funds is substantial as towns work to balance addressing high-cost infrastructure repairs with limited state and federal funding, such as Chapter 90, said Donna Cesan, community development director. 
 
"Adams is one of the poor communities in the commonwealth.  Here in the Northern Berkshires, we're still recovering from the '60s and the loss of our manufacturing base, so it's been a slow recovery," she said. 
 
Cesan has been working with the town for more than 20 years and during that time has seen improvements but there are still setbacks, including the rising costs to address the communities needs. 
 
"To continue to work on projects like this to improve the community. So, I think Adams is very deserving of this. I think the community needs this," she said. 
 
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