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Ski for Scholarship: Bartels Community Ski Race 2026

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The 19th Mathias Jessup Bartels benefit cross-country ski race and tour will be held on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 11:30 a.m. at Mount Greylock Regional School. 
 
The event will feature a 3-kilometer kids’/beginner’s race, a lollipop race for young children, and a 6K classic race. Races are suitable for all ages and abilities. 
 
Prizes will be awarded to overall and age category winners. A $15 donation is requested at day of race registration. All proceeds benefit the Mathias Jessup Bartels Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Mt. Greylock Nordic Ski Team. Checks can be made out to: Mount Greylock Regional High School, M.J. Bartels Scholarship Fund.
 
Mathias was an outstanding young man, a scholar, athlete, and leader of his class. He was a high school junior and standout member of the Mt. Greylock Nordic Ski Team when he died in his sleep on Jan. 31, 2004, of sudden cardiac arrest due to a heart arrhythmia of unknown cause. The Mathias Jessup Bartels Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to a graduating senior who exhibits the integrity, kindness, and commitment to excellence shown by Mathias.
 
For more information, email Hilary Greene at hgreene@williams.edu.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2027 Absence Said Not to Cause 'Panic'

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — News this week that the Williamstown Theatre Festival will go dark again this summer has not yet engendered widespread concern in the town's business community.
 
"None of the members have reached out in panic," Williamstown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sue Briggs said on Wednesday afternoon. "I'm really pleased.
 
"The rumor on the street has been this is what they need in order to come back and be a viable festival. … With that said, I have not had any real one-on-one conversations with business owners about it yet."
 
"It" was the announcement Tuesday, in the form of interviews reported in the Washington Post and Berkshire Eagle, that the WTF would not be staging any theatrical events in Williamstown in the summer of 2026 — just the second time since the Tony Award-winning festival has been absent from the summer scene since it was founded in 1955.
 
The first time was the summer of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned for a scaled down 2021 season and staged four straight seasons that de-emphasized the kind of fully-staged productions of standards and new works that characterized the festival's first 65 years.
 
In 2021, the WTF's return from the COVID shutdown was marred by allegations of "dangerous working conditions."
 
Last summer, the festival hosted its most ambitious program since before the pandemic, including a Tennessee Williams play featuring Hollywood star Pamela Anderson, the world premiere of a drama written by a Tony-nominated playwright, and two events in North Adams, one of which was performed on the ice sheet at the Peter W. Foote Vietnam Veterans Memorial Rink.
 
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