Dalton Swap Shed Seeks Volunteers; Wahconah Umbrella Club Designs Shed
The swap shed has usable goods looking for a second life.
The initiative provides individuals the opportunity to leave items they no longer need and/or take some items they need for free which prevents usable items from being tossed in landfills, reducing waste and supporting sustainability.
The shop is currently open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with hopes to expand operating hours as community awareness grows and additional volunteers become available to help staff the space.
"It's a way of reusing other people's stuff that's still in good condition," Green Committee member Kathy Perney said, highlighting a few items often found in the shop including toys, books, and dinnerware.
The town opened the shop last June and to spread awareness invited Wahconah Regional High School students in the Umbrella Club to paint it.
When presented with this experience, 19 students stepped up to help design the illustration, although only eight were able to go on the field trip to paint.
The students researched indigenous flowers and fauna to incorporate in its design, featuring the area's four seasons. Prominently displayed on the front are images that bring to light fall and spring and a native blue butterfly.
Everything from the trees to the wild flowers are important elements to showcase the Berkshires, said Kassidee Bolduc, sophomore and umbrella club member.
Perney said when community members see the illustration they think about how great nature is and in doing so, inspires them to help keep it that way.
Since opening, transfer station attendant Brian Lavinio said he has heard a lot of positive things from transfer station users about the swap shop.
"It's just another way to get rid of things that normally would have been thrown out. Now, maybe someone can get use out of it," he said.
Reuse and recycling are important components of the town's climate action plan, which was approved in April 2025, said Laurie Martinelli, green committee member.
"Our successful compost program has removed much food from the waste stream, and now we want to encourage Dalton residents to reuse and recycle their once beloved possessions,"
"Our landfills have limited capacity, which is why reusing and recycling are critical for a sustainable Dalton."
Several surrounding towns have swap shops that are open for longer periods and have a "very robust volunteer networks."
Having volunteers at Dalton's shop is "critical" to its success because they not only help demonstrate that the shop is open but they provide guidance on which items are accepted and which are not, Martinelli said. Swap shop policies and accepted items here.
This is not the first time the Green Committee and the Umbrella Club club collaborated. In April, the groups joined forces to help plan earth week celebrations.
The Green Umbrella Club has more than 100 students, with more than 20 active participants each week, though the specific students involved change weekly based on availability.
The student-driven organization allows students to undertake initiatives that interest them most and make sustainable change to their school, district, and community.
Bolduc said she has always cared about topics surrounding environmentalism, such as animals and nature, so when she got to high school and heard about the Umbrella Club, she jumped at the opportunity to be part of saving the environment that is being destroyed.
"All my life I've kind of cared, but this was finally giving me a chance to actually help and actually do something. I hope that we can get more people and raise awareness," she said.
The club has grown since Bolduc's freshman year, with many students joining yearly, she said.
"I'm hoping we can raise awareness and inspire more people to do similar stuff to what we're doing, and try to do their part, and hopefully we can stop all of these environmental issues, or at least slow them down," Bolduc said.
One initiative that the club has been working towards is bringing the schools composting program back.
The old Dalton High School had a composting program but when the new school was built it didn't transfer over.
To do this the district would have to purchase compost bins, which is about $3,000 per school and secure an external hauler contract, estimated to cost about $30 to 60 a week per school depending on volume
"I met with the superintendent, and he's on board. We're looking for funding right now through grants, so hopefully we can get some funding," science teacher April LeSage previously told iBerkshires.
"If we could get the funding to get that up and running. We were hoping in the fall to start this in the elementary schools and have the high schoolers from Green Umbrella teach the elementary schoolers what can and can't be composted."
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