NBT Bank Donates Berkshire County Community Organizations

11:49AM / Wednesday, March 18, 2026Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. NBT Bank representatives presented 13 area organizations with year-end contributions totaling $29,000 as part of NBT's Days of Giving campaign in Berkshire County.

The donations supported food assistance, clothing donations, counseling, housing, healthcare, heating and veterans' needs.

NBT Bank Massachusetts Senior Commercial Banking Relationship Manager Aidan Gilligan; Market Manager Amanda Goewey; Business Banking Officer Michael Hogan; and Branch Managers Abby Rossi, Amber Wilson, Al Bedini, Stephen Raftery and Trey Sondrini visited the organizations in December and presented each with donations.

"As a community bank, NBT is honored to give back and support local organizations that make our communities better places to live and work," said Gilligan. "Getting out into the community to meet the amazing people behind these impactful organizations is one of my favorite parts of my role. There is nothing more important than local support."

The organizations receiving funds from NBT included:

Sheffield Food Assistance
The People's Pantry
Berkshire Food Project
Al Nelson Center Food Pantry
Living Hope Community Church
Berkshire Nursing Families
Berkshire Community Action Council
Berkshire Veterans Outreach
Berkshire Helping Hands
Roots Rising
Pittsfield Community Food Pantry
Berkshire Grown
Construct Inc.

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MCLA STEM Week Brings Hands-On Science to Berkshire Students

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
06:20AM / Saturday, October 31, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — From exploring the night sky in an inflatable planetarium to measuring the copper content of pennies in a college chemistry lab, students from across Berkshire County visited MCLA for a hands-on opportunity to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics concepts

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts welcomed elementary, middle and high school students throughout the week of Oct. 19 through 23 as part of the state's STEM week.

The college serves as the regional center for the Berkshire STEM Network, a state-funded partnership that aims to broaden efforts to expand science education through partnerships with local schools, museums and community organizations, said Ann Billetz, Berkshire STEM network coordinator and MCLA biology teacher.

The week's activities benefited both local students and the college community by providing hands-on learning experiences for younger students while giving MCLA students opportunities to apply their classroom knowledge by interacting with them, Billetz said.

Throughout the week, MCLA welcomed students from Abbott Memorial Elementary School in the town of Florida and Clarksburg Elementary School, and from Hoosac Valley Middle School in Cheshire for hands-on activities exploring astronomy, biology, chemistry and marine science, along with opportunities to interact with college students.

The excitement among younger students was evident throughout the week, Billetz said, recalling a seventh-grade physics activity in which a student correctly identified Galileo during a discussion of Newton's work and later excitedly shared the moment with her teacher.

"To see them excited about what they're doing, to have them be able to go home and talk about the experience they had at MCLA is phenomenal," Billetz said.

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