Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Awards Scholarships

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LUDLOW, Mass. — The Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation (BWPCC) has selected two students from the Lanesborough/Hancock area, one from the Mount Greylock Regional High School class of 2025 and one from the McCann Technical School class of 2025, to receive $1,000 scholarships. 
 
The scholarships are awarded to qualifying seniors at select schools in the Berkshires who are planning to attend either a two- or four-year college or trade school program.
 
This is the third year of the BWPCC scholarship program. The BWPCC owns and operates the Berkshire Wind Power Project, a 12-turbine, 19.6-megawatt wind farm located on Brodie Mountain in Hancock and Lanesborough. The non-profit BWPCC consists of 16 municipal utilities located in Ashburnham, Boylston, Chicopee, Groton, Holden, Hull, Ipswich, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody, Russell, Shrewsbury, Sterling, Templeton, Wakefield, and West Boylston, and their joint action agency, the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. 
 
This year's scholarship recipients are Malia Koffi (Mount Greylock) of Lanesborough and Dylan Turner (McCann) of Hancock.
 
Koffi will attend Berkshire Community College and major in Health Sciences. In high school, she served as captain of the Mount Greylock softball team, as a member of the Black Student Union, and was a three-time recipient of the Greylock Way Award, which recognizes students and staff who exemplify the school's core values of Accountability, Respect, Integrity, Stewardship, and Excellence in their daily lives.
 
Turner will attend the Elite Lineman Training Institute in Georgia. While at McCann, he played on the varsity baseball team, was a member of the National Honor Society, and participated in SkillsUSA, and McCann's Corporate Work Experience, where he worked for a local electrician.
 
"We are proud to support the 2025 Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation scholarship recipients, whose proactive perseverance was demonstrated throughout their successful high school journeys,” said MMWEC Chief Executive Officer Ron DeCurzio.
 
Since 1998, MMWEC has awarded $70,000 in scholarships to help students defray the cost of higher education.
 
MMWEC is a not-for-profit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created by an Act of the General Court in 1975 and authorized to issue tax-exempt debt to finance a wide range of energy facilities.  MMWEC provides a variety of power supply, financial, risk management and other services to the state's consumer-owned, municipal utilities.  It is the largest provider of asset-owned generation for municipal light departments in New England.

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Vermont National Guard Members Depart From North Adams

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff

About 50 people waved flags to the see the Guardsmen off on their bus. The members were staying in North Adams because of a lack of hotel rooms in Bennington, Vt.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Residents came together Friday to see some Vermont National Guard members off.
 
The American Legion Riders organized a send off for a group of 75 or so Guard members who were staying at Hotel Downstreet.
 
"We are going to escort them to the Bennington Armory," Riders President Mike Lewis said. "They are going to gear up there, and then I am not sure where they are going. I don’t even know if they are all going to the same place."
 
Fifty or so people met in the Hotel Downstreet parking lot to show their appreciation. They waved flags and held signs. A bagpiper was also present.
 
The Riders contacted the Fire Department who helped organize the send off. North Adams Police cruisers and Northern Berkshire EMS were also on site to help see the bus off.
 
Lewis said there was not enough rooms in Bennington for the National Guard members. He added because of the trend to use vacant hotel rooms as low-income housing, the group had to look toward North Adams.
 
It's not clear where these Guard were off to, but about 500 members of 3-172 Infantry Battalion were expected to go to the Middle East with U.S. Central Command. According to Vermont Digger, this deployment was scheduled prior to the strikes on Iran. 
 
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