Dec. 29th Berkshire Beacon

December 29, 2011Volume II, Issue 32

www.berkshirebeacon.comLenox, MA 01240

FREE

1 Local News 6 Editorial6 From the Tower5 College Sports Report12 Calendar14 Fun & Games17 Movies 17 Girl-2-Girl

Christine Jor-dan’s whimsi-cal art

- 1

The Berkshire Beacon

Index

Bera DunauBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX - The Marketing and Events Committee is still working on setting the groundwork for its cam-paign to bring more business and tax revenue to Lenox

At the most recent meeting, the committee tackled topics ranging from a draft of an application form for groups interested in getting town funding for events in Lenox, to the planned roundtable with local busi-nesses, to the duration of the town’s contract with Bodden Partners and Hamilton Public Relations.

The subject of the preliminary ap-plication form was among the first tackled by the Marketing and Events Committee. The only major bone of

contention with the application, which was written by committee member Richard Wise, revolved around a question asking applicants how their event would cause more people to visit Lenox’s restaurants, inns, hotels and bed-and-breakfasts.

Mr. Wise’s reasoning for this word-ing sprung from the marketing com-mittee’s charge to generate money by increasing the amount of meals and lodging tax revenue collected by the Town of Lenox. The committee de-cided to revise the charge with broad-er language, however, in order be more inclusive to the larger Lenox business community.

The committee also discussed the schedule leading up to the roundtable

Marketing Committee looks to be inclusive

A friend in needsee MARKETING page 8


LEE - Apparently, solar can be con-troversial as well.

During debates over wind power on Lenox Mountain and elsewhere, solar power has often been touted as the low impact, non-divisive green energy alternative to wind.

This was not apparent at Lee’s latest board meeting, however, where oppo-nents of a proposed town solar project struck many of the same notes as anti-wind activists.

Lee’s solar power initiative involves putting solar panels at four sites in or-der to provide the town with the en-tirety of its municipal power.

These sites are the town landfill, the water treatment plant, the wastewater treatment plant and town property on Stockbridge Road that was origi-nally purchased for the construction of a golf course.

Solar panels have already been in-stalled at the water treatment plant,

but the other three projects are still under review, with no decision having been made on them by either the Se-lect Board or the Lee Town Meeting.

Of the three projects being consid-ered, the Stockbridge Road property is the most controversial.

One of the reasons the Stockbridge project has raised objections from some town residents is because it would also involve the construction of a high school soccer field.

The reason a new soccer field is be-ing proposed for the Stockbridge Road property is because the solar panels at the waste water treatment plant, as currently planned, would cover the high school’s current soccer field.

Lee Town Administrator Bob Na-son began the discussion at the meet-ing by showing a visual representation of what the solar panels at the waste-water treatment plant would look like from different angles, and answering

Residents balk at possible solar project in Lee

At a recent meeting many residents opposed building solar panels on Stockbridge Road.

Photo Credit / SuSan WiCker Guerrero

Guzzy, well-known seven-and-a-half-year-old Greater Swiss Moun-tain dog in Lenox has become ill. The whole town is gathering around him. Many local groups and businesses are planning a fund-raiser to help his family pay the medical bills.

See page 16 for the complete story see SOLAR page 7

2 The Berkshire Beacon December 29, 2011

Catherine KrummeyBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – Students from Sinai Academy of the Berkshires in Pittsfield celebrated the start of Hanukkah with a field trip to Lenox’s Kimball Farms.

“They warm our hearts,” Sherli Simkin, a Kimball Farms resident who also happens to be Jewish, said of the kids.

As part of the celebration, the students sang and danced to tradi-tional Hanukkah songs in Hebrew and English for the residents.

Accompanying the students from Sinai Academy were Head of School Esther Benari-Alt-mann, kindergarten teacher Patty Kay and second grade teacher Kadie Ertel.

“In our philosophy, we need to show our kids not only how to be good students, but also how to be a good ‘mench,’ a person that takes care of the community and is not self-centered,” Head of School Benari-Altmann said.

The Sinai students presented the Kimball Farms residents with a gift basket filled with Hanuk-kah treats such as oranges and chocolate coins, which Kimball Farms Activities Director Sharon Lazerson believed would last through the eight days of Hanukkah.

The Sinai students also gave the residents hand-crafted cards in Hebrew and English to wish them “Chag Urim Sameach!” (“A Joyful Festival of Lights”).

To close their visit, the students danced around the residents, stopping to form a line at the front of the room. In unison, the kids exclaimed, “Happy Hanuk-kah!” The residents replied with a round of applause for the Sinai students and by wishing the same to them.

The residents seemed happy to have the kids there, especially Ms. Simkin.

“It’s important for them to visit no matter what day it is,” she said.

Ms. Lazerson frequently invites kids from throughout Berkshire County to come visit the residents.

“I like to foster relationships with the schools,” she said. “Hav-ing the students come in brings so much joy to our residents.”

In addition to Sinai Academy, Montessori School of the Berk-shires and Taconic High School have also had students come in to perform and visit with the Kim-ball Farms residents.

The Hanukkah visit was the second for Sinai Academy, after coming in for Purim in March.

“We were happy to be asked to come again,” Head of School Be-nari-Altmann said. “We’re always trying to reach out to the Jewish residents of the county.”

In turn, Ms. Lazerson and the Kimball Farms residents were pleased with the Hanukkah visit.

“I’m so happy that Esther was willing to have the kids come over here again,” she said.

Susan Wicker GuerreroBeacon Staff Writer

LENOX – There’s still time to see the Berkshire Designer Show-case at Ventfort Hall. It runs through Sunday, Jan. 15.

An entire second floor of rooms in the mansion has been decorat-ed by 14 Berkshire-based design-ers. The showcase includes 14 rooms and hallways.

Thomas Hayes, chairman of the Showcase and Planning Committee, has called the entire project “a labor of enormous love.”

Berkshire designers participat-ing in the showcase are Karen Beckwith, Karen Cedar, Allison B. Crane, Eric Hilton, Evan Hughes, Vivian Kimmelman, the Lenox Garden Club, Kate Mor-ris, Cecil Pollen and Leslie Anne Snyder, Carol Newton Rumph, Carl Sprague, Thomas and Kath-leen Tetro, Berry C. Webber, and Valerie J. Winig.

The showcase, which actually opened in June, offers a smorgas-bord of design options for any-one interested in interior decorating.

The rooms are adorned in dif-ferent colors and styles, depend-ing on the creativity and tastes of the individual designers.

A Jacobean Revival Mansion

George and Sara Morgan built Vent fort Hall, a Jacobean Reviv-al mansion, as their summer home in the early 1890s. It is 28,000 square feet.

Boston architects designed the house.

According to a detailed cata-logue of the showcase, the man-sion was once described as “one of the most beautiful places in Lenox.”

It had 28 rooms, which includ-ed 15 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, and 17 fireplaces.

Carl Sprague of Stockbridge recreated the plush Morgan bed-room for the showcase. One can observe a writing desk and easily imagine Sarah Morgan penning a note at it.

Fringed velvet furniture in red and deep pink livens up the space and gives a look of femininity to the décor.

Two brass beds rest against one

wall, and flowers and a mirror adorn a dresser.

Lace curtains filter the pat-terned sunlight coming through the windows.

In the showcase literature, Mr. Sprague noted a few scraps of wallpaper were found in the bed-room and the Ventfort Hall Asso-ciation (VHA) spent a year recre-ating the bedroom wallpaper.

A fringed pink lamp shade cre-ates a pleasant atmosphere in the elegant room.

Mr. Sprague noted in the cata-logue that two inventories of the house had been found.

They offered a “kind of stereo-scopic view of a room which ap-parently didn’t change much over 15 years of Morgan ownership.”

In one inventory, it noted a chaise in the original room was indeed red and that it was made from silk and matched an easy chair.

The designer made the room look like it would have in the time of the original owners. He succeeded in letting visitors get a glimpse into what life for the wealthy Morgans must have been like in the early 1890s.

Plush Furniture, Curtains and Upholstery

In the catalogue, Mr. Sprague wrote, “These grand spaces cry out for the plush furniture, cur-tains and upholstery typical of a Gilded Age.”

Each of the rooms in the show-

case highlight the creativity of re-spective designers. Whether it’s a huge flower painted across an en-tire ceiling, or lime green fringed lamp shades, a chandelier used right side up on a table top in-stead of being placed hanging from a ceiling, unique sculptures or individually decorated fire-places, the Designer Showcase has it all.

Kristin Sprague, Ventfort Hall Association Board President, told the story of how far the associa-tion has come since it acquired Ventfort Hall in 1997.

A Mysterious Mansion

At that time, she wrote in the showcase catalogue, “the struc-ture lay abandoned, open to the elements, and completely shroud-ed by underbrush.

It was quite a mysterious man-sion to the residents of Lenox.”

Once the association formed, members began to plan the resto-ration of the mansion.

A small portion of the first floor opened to the public in 2000.

Throughout the next decade, craftsmen restored the mansion room by room at a cost of $3.5 million.

The Manton Foundation do-nated $1.5 million and there were also matching grants from the Massachusetts Preservation Proj-ects Fund and Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, Ms. Sprague wrote.

Sinai Academy celebrates holiday

traditions

Showcase highlights local designers this month

Photo Credit / Catherine krummey

Sinai Academy students wish Kimball Farms residents a Happy Hanukkah.


The showcase at Venfort Hall features 14 different designers decorating 14 rooms.

December 29, 2011 The Berkshire Beacon 3

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Who knew that drumming had the power to build commu-nity, promote well-being and cre-ate joy? Otha Day.

Day works with an increasing number of groups from four to 400 in the Berkshires, Vermont and New York.

Every kind of group has partic-ipated in one or more of his drumming circles: colleges and businesses; camps and communi-ty celebrations; religious groups and schools; and pre-school youngsters.

He has taught at Williams Col-lege (a course called Rhythm-Based Communication and Cre-ativity) and presently teaches at schools in Bennington, Vt., and Clarksburg, Mass., in addition to giving private lessons in piano.

Day was born in Yazoo City, Miss., but soon moved with his family to Chicago.

There, to keep him out of trou-ble on Chicago streets, his father, a guitarist, started him on the pi-ano, and later, at 16, he fell in love with a concert pianist and determined to play as well as she did.

Subsequently, he himself gave performances as a pianist, travel-ing throughout the Midwest as well as here on the east coast, spe-cializing in “lecture concerts” and the classical music of black composers.

He now feels that audience and pianist exist too separately in a concert hall compared to the ex-perience of a drumming circle through which “we experience what it means to beat as one heart – become a vibrant community.”

Rhythm, he believes, has the power to build community, pro-mote well-being and create joy.

Participants in his drumming circles agree. “Thank you for drumming with us, that was way cool,” one participant said.

“An activity I had always imag-ined as far beyond my abilities had been brought within reach and rather than struggle in vain in attempting it, I’d had a blast,” said another. “Your drumming circle really helped open up and

relax a group of up-tight academ-ics,” a participant said. “Whew, what a wonderful release of ten-sion at the end of the semester,” a participant said. “Otha brings a passion to music that all of the children pick up on,” said anoth-er. And there are many more such comments.

Day has had two strokes: one as a result of an accident during a soccer game in 2002 and one when a couple picked him up during a contact improvisation dance session, then dropped him.

That was seven years later. He had to relearn skills like reading and walking both times.

Day now owns dozens of drums of every kind which he freely lends to participants in a drum-ming circle. “Drumming circles are all over the world”, he said, “a world-wide movement like yoga

or acupuncture. Ancient as drumming is, it is

now seen everywhere as a form of healing – not drumming by one-self – that doesn’t do much – but participatory, totally active drum-ming – creating rhythms in groups.”

“After all,” he said, “it isn’t a matter of learning. If you have a heartbeat, you have rhythm; you’re a singer at birth and be-come a dancer when you can walk. Even so, it surprises people that drumming comes so easily.”

That is mostly because Day is a skilled conductor, teacher and enthusiast at the same time; hands out his colorful drums; mixes and matches them to create “Just plain fun”

“Connecting with people is what music is about for me,” said Day.

Photo Credit / otha day

Otha Day has been leading has lead and taught drumming groups throughout The Berkshires.

Local man keeps the beat alive


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Dick SyriacBeacon Staff Writer

While researching a previous feature on John Salavantis, I was fortunate to stumble onto an in-teresting story regarding his for-mer teammate at Drury High School and Ottawa University,: Bob Heisler.

Bob, the son of former North Adams Health Inspector George Heisler, had quite a career in edu-cation and coaching.

While at Herington Middle School in Herington, Kan., he, like many teachers in that era, coached four sports and unlike many coaches, taught biology and earth science.

After seven years he moved his gym bag to Seaman High School in Topeka, where he stayed for 24 years.

Aside from being the head of the science department, he was defensive coordinator in football and assistant wrestling coach. During his tenure his teams were very successful and won several championships.

Since his college days, Heisler always was a very active weight lifter. He organized and super-vised an after-school program for boys and girls of all ages, which was a very popular activity for the kids.

He lifted weights because he liked doing it and it kept him in good shape.

He was never really involved in any competitions and never gave it much thought.

In 2006, when he was 63, an age when most guys I know would have trouble bench press-ing a Sunday Daily Racing Form, his wife, Elaine, signed him up for the Senior Olympics Compe-titions in Tulsa and St. Louis.

He had much success initially and went on to set many records

in his weight and age groups. In 2009, he set a record in the

bench press and has leg pressed 800 lbs. Elaine is now also com-peting and doing very well.

They have both competed in the Show-Me-State games in Missouri, where 147 folks, rang-ing in age from 14-70 tested their skills.

So if you are growing tired of shuffleboard and bingo, and you want to maintain flexibility and dexterity, might I suggest that you commence a career in com-petitive weight lifting.

Let me know how it works out, I’ll be at the off-track betting.

Apples and Oranges:

*A real sports fan should know the answer to this one. Beno Udrih is: A) a promising two-year-old colt trained by Bill Mott, B) a great sports bar in Benning-ton, C) a tailback in the NFL, D) an international soccer star or E) none of the above. (Answer below.)

*Have you checked out Randy-trabold.com yet? Each day 10 of his photos are featured. During his 44-year tenure at The Tran-script in North Adams, he snapped over 5,000 pictures. There is a chance your baby pic-ture, wedding picture and mug shot could be there. Enjoy.

*Attention golfers! Time is run-ning out to get your 2012 West-ern Mass Golf Pass. Go to west-ernmassgolf.com for details.

It is a no-brainer, and a great Christmas gift.

*Answer to above quiz: That would be E. He is a player in the NBA with the Sacramento Kings and makes over $7 million a year.

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Local Sports Report

Thursday, Dec. 29MM @ PHS 7 p.m.McCann @ Lee 7:30 p.m.MG @ Hoosac 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 30New Leader @ St. Joe 7 p.m.Tac @ Central 7 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 2McCann @ MG 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 3Taconic @ Holyoke 7 p.m.Lee @ Wahconah 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 4Hoosac @ MM 7 p.m.Lenox @ Drury 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 30PHS @ MM 7 p.m.St. Joe @ Lenox 7 p.m.ME @ Hoosac 7 p.m.Drury @ Wahconah 7:30 p.m.Taconic @ Lee 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 3Hoosac @ St. Joe 6:30 p.m.Wahconah @ PHS 7 p.m.MM @ Taconic 7 p.m.MG @ Everett 7 p.m.Lee @ Drury 7:30 p.m.Lenox @ Holy Cath 7:30 p.m.

Boys’ Basketball Girls’ Basketball

WILLIAMSTOWN - Wil-liams College junior back and captain Matt Ratajczak (Brook-lyn, N.Y.) has received another post-season honor -- his second in two days -- by being named to the D3Soccer.com All-America Third Team.

Ratajczak becomes the 47th player under Eph Head Coach Mike Russo to be named an All-American.

Williams finished 9-4-3 in 2011, allowing only 10 goals in 16 games. Ratajczak was a key figure in the back for the Ephs, starting 12 games and playing in 13 games. He also scored one

goal this season. He was sidelined by injury for three games this fall.

Previously Ratjczak was named First Team ECAC-All New Eng-land, First Team All-NESCAC and First Team All-New England North by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA).

A starter from his first day on campus as a central back, Ratajc-zak has appeared in 52 games in his first three years and has start-ed 51. He has netted five goals from the backline and has assist-ed on two in his career.

He also owns one game-win-ning goal.

Ratajczak keeps piling up awards

Tuesday, Dec. 27th

Girls BasketballDrury 39, Monument 18

Lee 60, Wahconah 36Lenox 44, Greylock 28Everett 49, St. Joe's 35Hoosac 71, Sci-Tech 33

Boys BasketballGreenfield 54, Hoosac 38

Lenox 52, McCann 36Monument 58, Wahconah 28

St. Joe's 96, Everett 35

HockeySt. Joe's 7, Chicopee 4

Taconic 2, Chicopee Comp 1

Friday Dec. 23rd

Girls BasketballMt. Greylock 43, Tantasqua 40

Boys BasketballMt. Anthony 56, Wahconah 39

St. Joseph's 73, Pittsfield 30

SwimmingMonument boys 42, N.Leb. 17Monument girls 62, N. Leb. 29

Wednesday, Dec. 21st

Boys BasketballSmith Voc 66, Mount Everett 45

Drury 53, Mohawk 27Frontier 57, Wahconah 39

HockeyWahconah 8, Mount Everett 0

St. Joseph’s 5, Taconic 3

WrestlingMount Greylock 48, Taconic 26

Local High School Scores

WILLIAMSTOWN - A year ago the Williams College Ephs netted 236 points in the fall por-tion of the annual Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup competi-tion and found themselves in fifth place.

The Ephs rebounded in the winter in spring of 2011 and claimed their 15th Directors’ Cup in 16 years and 13th in a row.

This fall with a total of 230 points the Ephs are currently in sixth place, 142 points behind leader Washington Univ. (MO).

In the 17-year history of the Directors’ Cup in NCAA Divi-sion III Williams has placed first after the fall just seven times.

In 2005 (252 points) and 2006 (212 points) the Ephs were 6th after the fall.

The Ephs’ lowest fall finish came in 1997 when they tallied just 50 points and were in 35th place. The fall of 1997 was the beginning of the only year that the Ephs have not won the Di-rectors’ Cup.

That 50-point fall season was almost overcome by the Ephs, but they could only climb to 4th overall by the end of June in 1998 as UC-San Diego captured the Cup. The UC San Diego Tri-tons are now proud members of NCAA Division II and they even have designs on moving up to Division I.

Once again NESCAC shapes up as the nation's strongest NCAA Division III conference with three schools placing in the

top six: Middlebury (2), Amherst (3) and Williams (6) and five in the top twenty-five with Bow-doin in 14th place (178) and Tufts in 24th (147).

Eph points this fall came from three teams. Women’s cross coun-try which finished 3rd at the NCAA Championships and earned 85 points and was led by sophomore Chiara Del Piccolo who won the individual title.

Women’s soccer netted 73 points with a 5th place finish, while men’s cross country con-tributed 72 points by capturing 6th at the NCAA Championships.

On January 25th representa-tives of Learfield Sports, USA To-day, and the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) will be in Chandler Gym to present the Ephs with the 2011 Cup between games of the Williams vs. Amherst wom-en’s and men’s basketball doubleheader.

Williams again is in the thick of cup race

Photo Credit / kameron SPauldinG

Matt Ratajczak goes after the ball against Wesleyan.

Chiara Del Piccolo ran Wil-liams into the cup race.


Editorial:Remote

participation hurts our right to open government

View From the Tower

George C. Jordan III

George C. Jordan IIIEDITOR & PUBLISHER

Kameron Z. SpauldingEDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Susan G. RobinsonGRAPHIC DESIGNER

Catherine Krummey, Janel M. Harrison, Bera B. Dunau, Rae Eastman, Susan Wicker GuerreroCONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Janel M. Harrison, Jacqueline WendlingADVERTISING SALES

The Berkshire Beacon is published weekly. The Beacon is distributed throughout Berkshire County, MA. The Berkshire Beacon assumes no financial responsibility for failure to publish an advertisement, incorrect placement or typographical errors published. Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertising and claims and offers contained within their advertising. The Berkshire Beacon reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason. All contents copyright ©2011 The Berkshire Beacon. No portion may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.

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The Berkshire Beacon takes exception to a proposal by the Five Town Cable Committee to seek permission of the select board from Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington and Sheffield to allow Remote Participation.

The Beacon stands for open government and calls for strict adherence of the Open Meeting Laws formerly en-forced by local district attorneys and now by the attorney generals office.

The Beacon filed a complain with the AGs office against the Lenox Select Board and the Kennedy Park Committee for their failure to inform the public of the proposed Belver-dere which the newspaper has carried on its pages. Jona-than Sclarsic Assistant Attorney General Division of Open Government told The Beacon: our office recently authorized remote participation in public meetings.

That information can be found in the Attorney General’s regulations website. Atty. Sclarsic noted that I think you may be a little confused about the details of what we authorized, so I hope you will read the regulations.

The bottom line: Is one must attend a meeting to cast a vote while the public-at-large can attend and speak or write a letter for the record.

We must continue to demand participatory government. not off-sight deliberations that Harkin back to the days when government was run from the back rooms of town halls.

It has been a tumultuous year for the Lenox Selectmen, who have on occasions looked brow-beaten or down-trodden, but in the final analysis, no resignations were announced.

Our beat reporter Bera Dunau got most of the selectmen on the record refuting the idea of resignation.

Most of the dialogue came due to the process and procedure by the Kennedy Committee and the rubber stamp of the Board of Se-lectmen in approving the Feld-man Belvedere resulting in a local community group opposed and threatening legal action if it were not removed.

I wrote in Dec. 1 issue that liked the Belvedere, but did not approve of the procedure and the process because it was done out of camera and in violation of the Open Meeting Law. Since June, when the Belvedere was discov-ered, I filled a complaint with the attorney general’s office.

On Nov. 24, reporter Dunau wrote that “Lenox’s Selectmen aren’t going anywhere.”

“Although the Berkshire Bea-con could not reach Chairman John McNinch and Selectman Ken Fowler for comment, all three of their fellow selectman an-swered in no uncertain terms that they were sticking to their posts.”

The next meeting on the plan will be Jan. 4 held by the Lenox Conservation Commission re-garding the Scenic Mountain

Act. Some members believe it does not apply, but the local group headed by Sonya Bykofsky disagrees.

As the New Year begins, the Se-lect Board, individually and as a whole, in writing should issue apologies to the community-at-large and to the local group for creating a ruse and operating in an underhanded manner so that the public-at-large was unaware.

Then they should attempt to bring all parties together and de-velop a common commitment to maintain and improve the Ken-nedy Park Belvedere dedicated to Dr. Jordan Fieldman, a Pittsfield resident who practiced medicine at Berkshire Medical Center.

If it were my design, it might have been laid out differently. Robert T. Akroyd, who served on the Kennedy Park Committee and was paid a reported $5,000 to aid in the planning of the proj-ect, may face his own involve-ment and review.

As to each member of the Se-lect Board’s comments:

“No one’s resigning,” said Se-lectwoman Claudia “Dia” Tran-cynger without any hesitation, when asked whether she was planning to stay in office.

“I have no intention of resign-ing,” echoed Selectwoman Linda (Procopio) Messana, when asked the same question by The Beacon.

Lenox Selectman W. David Roche assured The Beacon he was not resigning either, and

downplayed the significance of the lawsuit.

“For almost 250 years this town has been governed by town meeting(s) and not litigation and I’d certainly like to see the town continue to be governed by town meeting(s) and not litigation ev-ery time someone disagrees with you,” said Selectman Roche.

“We’ve just got to come up with a plan that makes the most sense for the voters of the town,” said Selectman Roche.

Selectman Roche could not say whether or not the Select Board would call a special town meeting to decide the Belvedere issue if Citizens Advocacy for All chose not to drop their plans for a law-suit against the town of Lenox.

As to Kenneth L. Fowler:“Let me assume that you would

be asking in light of all the public turmoil that has been stirred up over the Belvedere in Kennedy Park, the proposed wind turbines on Lenox Mountain or the dis-dain some people seem to have for the Bodden Hamilton ‘Lenox-ology’ slogan,” Selectman Fowler said.

Fowler added, “My first taste of failure to perform the job I was asked to do came back when I was involved with Tri-Town Ro-tary. I was the chair for a spaghet-ti dinner fundraiser. I was unable to get a committee together that agreed on how to make the event happen let alone be a success. As a result the event never happened and the president of club came to me and said, ‘Don’t let the nega-tive people run the show. They are a minority. Find good people and get your strength from them.”

“The short answer to your question: No, I am not resigning. There is a job to do and I will see it through,” Selectman Fowler said.

As we raise our glasses of champagne and reflect on the year’s past, we wonder in some context what has occurred?

-The economy has been slow to recover here in The Berkshires.

-There has been some ex-pansion, Price Chopper in Lenox along with some movement in Pittsfield on its GE campus.

Meanwhile the Christmas shopping season has pro-duced an up tick in retail spending which is a good sign for the local economy.

Sadly, there have been a number of deaths-some public others just ordinary people missed by their neighbors and friends.

Periodicals have remained, yet the Women’s Times went out of business.

The Berkshire Beacon and its tourist paper The Berk-shire Sonata has moved for-ward with its weekly printing. And a new change for The Beacon will be announced in

January. The staff of The Beacon

wishes you a safe holiday and hopes that your goals for 2012 will be fulfilled.

Our goal here is to make The Berkshire Beacon even more community-minded.

A Footnote: Much of the stories covered by the press in Berkshire County have emanated here in Lenox this year.

This has been good for coverage by The Beacon.

If the County courthouse had remained in Lenox, it is fair to say that more than 75% of the news would have come from this county seat.

There is no dispute that much of the news came from promoters and those with opposing opinions that ap-peared before the select board.

Our goal is to profile each Berkshire city and town and find that unique story of your friends and neighbors. We want to be Berkshire Home-town News First.

A happy New Year from The Beacon



When each new year is about to begin, it’s a tradition to think about what one would like to ac-complish in the next 12 months.

Making a list is always a good idea. No longer are the items on the list called resolutions. That was too restricting. Goals seem much more preferable.

Goals that are really possible make my list, written in favorite felt tipped pens. It’s too easy to write goals that get tossed out with the New Year’s party paper plates.

No, no, no, it’s better to make goals that really can be accomplished.

As the decades have flown by, no longer do I put “lose 50 pounds.” Instead, it’s “eat health-ier” or “exercise several times a week.” Those are much more do-able at this stage of the game than trying to get a body like Julia Roberts.

Of course, the healthy eating means ditching sugar (again) all together. It’s also bye-bye to half and half in the morning coffee and whizzing the shopping cart quickly by the ice cream aisle in the supermarket.

Same goes for favorite wines and breads. They have to be left on the shelves of the stores, not come home for awhile.

Rather than think about “for-ever” ditching, it’s saner to think of doing without them for “awhile.”

For years now, a comfortable couch to stretch out on while watching television has been on my mind.

Now it’s on the list. I’d really love something comfy, maybe filled with down. The one couch we do have could break your neck if one stretched out without care.

Added to that new couch is a new rug and tables. Hey, if we don’t envision something it can never come to fruition, right? All accomplished “goals” have had to begin with a vision. So new couch, rug and tables for the liv-ing room is right up there at the top of the list.

New laptop made the list, too, but it’s farther down. It’s a much

more ambitious financial chal-lenge but it’s not out of the realm of possibility for 2012. At the be-ginning of a year many things seem possible.

Okay, all material goals aside, this year I’d also like to write more.

Writing is as important to me as brushing teeth or breathing. Expanding that is definitely on the list.

2012 is also going to be the year to take on some challenging projects rather than depend on my hubs to do them. For exam-ple, there’s a counter cabinet in the kitchen that’s just about useless.

Once something gets slipped behind any of those doors, it’s like dropping them into a deep, dark cave. If an item gets shoved to the back, forget it.

It’s easier to go out and buy a replacement than to try to re-trieve it.

One has to practically stand on one’s head to look way back there. Sometimes I even expect to see two lighted eyes staring back at me. Yikes!

Now a solution to those dread-ful cabinet shelves is to add roll-ers. I know they have them at Home Depot.

I have no clue how to install them but the cabinet shelves can be measured and the rollers can be purchased to get the project started, right?

Maybe there’s even an online demonstration video. Get rollers for cabinet shelves is on the list-about half-way down.

Okay. The 2012 list is ready to roll. It’s not a good idea to make it too long because then it be-comes overwhelming. Plus, it’s fun to check items off once they are accomplished. Check. Check. Check.

What’s on your list?

Ditch the resolutions and bring on the goals

for this new year

questions about the site and the initiative in general from the se-lectmen before the floor was opened up to the public.

The first person to speak was Fairview Street resident Bob Bar-tini. Mr. Bartini’s property abuts the proposed Stockbridge Road project, a development he objects to both out of principle and be-cause of the pace he perceives that it is going at.

“Does anybody give any con-sideration what that does to… (the) value of my property?” said Mr. Bartini, who asserted that placing solar panels and con-structing a soccer field on Stock-bridge road would negatively af-fect the property values of abutters like himself.

Mr. Bartini also asked why the panels and soccer field weren’t be-ing constructed on the eight acres the town co-owns on Laurel Lake Road with the Town of Lee, which is a more isolated property.

He also suggested that solar panels could be placed on the roof of the school, as well as at a number of other possible loca-tions in the township of Lee.

“There’s a lot of areas of Lee I think we could look at before we jump into this,” said Mr. Bartini

Mr. Bartini was told that the Laurel Lake property had been gifted to the town for the express purpose of giving Lee a beach on Laurel Lake, and that trying to use it for solar power or a soccer field would be complicated by this fact.

Mr. Bartini was also informed that the school roof had been as-sessed as not being strong enough to hold solar panels.

Still, the Selectmen empha-sized that they hadn’t made their mind up about the project, and that they were still in the early stages of examining it.

“We’re going slowly,” said Se-lectwoman Patricia Carlino. “It’s not like we’re voting on this tonight.”

Mr. Bartini also called on the Select Board to have the propos-als voted on by the town’s taxpay-ers as a whole, and not just by the Select Board or the Town Meet-ing Representatives.

Mr. Bartini was followed by his son Kevin Bartini, who owns a house on Stockbridge Road.

Mr. Bartini asked whether the area was properly zoned for the activity and was informed by the Select Board that, as a municipal project, the proposed project met

legal zoning requirements. Mr. Bartini also questioned

whether the savings provided by installing solar power on Stock-bridge Road was worth the com-munal conflict it might create.

“Whose to say that we have to go all out, and get 100 percent of our energy off the grid,” said Mr. Bartini, questioning the town’s goal of getting all its municipal energy from solar. “Maybe we could cover half or two thirds the cost and not upset half the town.”

Lee resident Monica Ryan was also critical of the Stockbridge Road project, although she was careful to point out that she was a lifetime supporter of green energy.

In particular, she criticized the Lee Energy Committee, which had helped vet the solar power projects currently being reviewed by the Select Board.

In particular, Ms. Ryan criti-cized the lack of minutes for many of the committee’s meetings, and asserted that their deliberations had lacked transparency and that they were moving too fast.

Ms. Ryan also asked the Select Board to take a look at putting solar panels at the school again, and to weigh the cost of destroy-ing open space when deciding where to install solar panels.

She also read a letter from the group Concerned Citizens of Lee that criticized the Lee Town Ad-ministrator and the Energy Com-mittee, and sounded similar notes to her critiques of the Energy Committee.

Lenox Energy Committee member Tom Wickham ad-dressed the Select Board to an-

swer the criticisms of his commit-tee and the Stockbridge Road project.

“Our job at the energy com-mittee in Lee is to look at the en-ergy consumed in Lee and figure out a way to save the taxpayers money,” said Mr. Wickham, who also pointed out that the Energy Committee followed the open meeting law, and that their meet-ings were open to the public.

“A 20 percent savings on elec-tricity is a lot to me personally,” said Mr. Wickham, highlighting the estimated savings the town’s solar initiative would produce.

Mr. Wickham also asserted that most people looking to buy the property of an abutter to a solar project, like the one being pro-posed on Stockbridge Road, wouldn’t care that the property was next door to a solar power facility.

“They’re dark, they’re low, they’re quiet and they produce clean energy,” said Mr. Wickham, describing the solar panels.

Mr. Wickham also said that the U.S. needed more energy, and that the alternative to building more clean energy would be building more gas, oil and coal fired plants.

“It’s important to me to really look at every energy aspect that we can, how we can save money for the entire town,” said Mr. Wickham, in describing his work on the Energy Committee.

Still, Mr. Wickham said that the Energy Committee wasn’t for or against any energy project, and that their job was to present via-ble projects for review.

CourteSy: GooGle maPS

The area marked as “Possible Golf Course” is now under con-sideration to be a location for solar power in Lee.

SOLAR from page 1



PITTSFIELD – In the coming new year, during times of stress, you might find the perfect solu-tion at V.Baird Connections, a unique, offbeat metaphysical shop at 75 North St.

Many of the things in the shop, such as lavender-filled eye pil-lows, might help a person de-stress. The attractive and colorful satiny pillows can be popped into the microwave and placed on one’s eyes.

Owned by Vicki and Howard Baird, the shop carries medita-tion CDs, incense sticks, essen-tial oils and a wide range of other gift items for all occasions.

Also on hand is a huge variety of gemstones which have healing properties, Mr. Baird said.

The shop carries jewelry and other products from at least eight local artists. From bird figures and frogs to special soaps and an-gels, V.Baird Connections has a bit of everything.

They have several shelves filled with self-help and alternative healing books, which Mr. Baird said is the biggest selection in the county.

One of the books is “Heal Your Body” by Louise Hay.

Good Listening Skills

Mr. Baird, who is from Sharon, Conn., worked in retail, in hard-ware stores, for 15 years. He said that helped him hone his listen-ing skills.

He is a very talented photogra-pher and many of his photo-graphs are for sale in the shop.

As a matter of fact, another business, Aim and Shoot Photog-raphy, shares space behind the shop.

Mr. Baird has captured stun-ning images of birds, ducks and other animals, as well as pictur-esque sunsets. They are all avail-able framed or unframed.

Intuitive Medium

Vicki Baird, from Pine Plains, N.Y., is an “intuitive medium” who gives readings and also does

personal and business coaching.She said she really cares about

people. She has an outgoing and welcoming personality.

The Bairds actually started their business out of their Pitts-field home. Then, they moved to a facility on West Housatonic Street, which they eventually outgrew.

They needed to expand, Mr. Baird said, and opened in the 75 North St. location in September 2010.

“We’ve grown every six months for the past five years,” Mr. Baird said, “and we anticipate growing all the time.”

He said he and his wife believe in helping others.

Bola Maya Keychains

Among the many different kinds of items the shop carries are “bola maya” keychains. They are made by members of the Mayan community in Mexico and repre-

sent different concepts such as freedom, love, luck, patience, sin-cerity and tolerance.

They look like round balls cov-ered with woven material.

V.Baird Connections also car-ries “Moon Honey Bee Bowls.”

These can be used as memory bowls for someone who has died, Mr. Baird said, or, they can be used to float candles.

Meditation Classes Offered

In addition to de-stressing kinds of products, the shop offers classes such as meditation by Wa-terfall Perry every Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Referrals are made to a massage therapist as well, Mr. Baird indi-cated, and massages are given by appointment.

The non-denominational shop has been welcomed into the com-munity, Mr. Baird said. Custom-ers come in for all different reasons.

discussion between Bodden and Hamilton, the companies re-sponsible for the Lenoxology marketing campaign, and local businesses.

The committee agreed to meet with the new leadership of the Lenox Chamber of Commerce before holding the roundtable. The committee also decided that getting feedback from attendees about the Discover Lenox website would make up the large thrust of the roundtable.

They also concluded that they would meet with Bodden and Hamilton separately before the roundtable was held.

On the subject of Bodden and Hamilton, and their contract with the town, Town Manager Gregory Federspiel, when asked about the contracts duration by committee alternate Eiran Gazit, said that it was his position that the contract was good until March.

“The contract was based on de-liverables, it didn’t have an end date,” said Town Manager Feder-spiel. “I feel that they still owe us some deliverables, and I think those deliverables can be com-pleted by the end of Februrary. My position is they’ve got basical-ly two months to finish things up.”

Town Manager Federspiel also said that he’d written Bodden and Hamilton a letter outlining what he saw as incomplete in their contract, and that they were re-viewing it.

Another Bodden and Hamil-ton topic that was discussed was feedback for the storyboard of the video that the companies were developing for the website.

Marketing and Events Com-

mittee Chairwoman Kim Flynn read from a letter that she’d draft-ed earlier that synthesized some of the feedback about the current storyboard that the committee had expressed in previous meet-ings. This letter was generally well-received by the rest of the committee.

Chairwoman Flynn also showed some photographs that she’d gotten from the Chamber of Commerce which she thought could be sent to Bodden and Hamilton to be used as stills in the video.

This prompted a brief discus-sion amongst the committee about where additional photos could be found, and why photos like the ones found by Chair-woman Flynn hadn’t been given to the EDAPSC, the Marketing and Events Committee’s prede-cessor, when they sent out a re-quest for photos earlier in 2011.

The committee then decided that the businesses that would be invited to participate in the roundtable would be selected by Committee Member Bob Romeo and Chairwoman Flynn, who would report back to and present their list to the committee at their next meeting.

Finally, Eiran Gazit proposed that the Town of Lenox set up an award to honor a person once a year who had positively impacted the town economically.

An offshoot of Mr. Gazit’s idea was then proposed by audience member Billy Soto. Mr. Soto’s proposal would involve Lenox honoring a lodging owner, a res-taurant owner and a retailer every year for excellence.

The committee decided to mull over these ideas and discuss them at a later date.


Tourist locations like Tanglewood have long drawn large crowds to Lenox. The Marketing and Events Committee is working on the groundwork to expand this type of business.


Howard Baird, above, owns V.Baird Connections with his wife Vicki on 75 North St. in Pittsfield.

V.Baird Connections has lots of way to melt away

stress in the new year

MARKETING from page 1


800-221-MILK

Quality Milk ForParticular People

Crescent Creamery, Inc.85 South Onota Street

Pittsfi eld, MA

Mailing Address:PO Box 638

Pittsfi eld, MA 01202

Telephone: 413-445-4548

Fax: 413-447-8856

Kameron SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

NORTH ADAMS - For $5, residents of North Adams, Clarksburg and Williamstown can get their Christmas trees dis-posed of and support local youth.

Boy Scout Troop 88 is offering $5 Christmas tree disposal for residents of these towns. The troop will pick up trees on Dec. 31 or Jan. 7 starting at 9 a.m.

"Christmas trees can be hard to get rid of," said scoutmaster Bill Meranti. "They don't fit easily into a car trunk, and they leave a mess. For $5, our troop will pick up the trees and take the hassle out of it. At the same time, folks can feel good about supporting the Boy Scouts."

To schedule a tree for pickup, residents should call 663-6353 and leave a name, address, tele-phone number and the date they wish to have the tree picked up.

Residents also can e-mail their information to [email protected].

Trees should be free of orna-ments, lights and garlands and at the curb by 9 a.m. on the day of pickup. The scouts are not able to remove trees from homes. The cost is $5 per tree, cash only.

"The money we raise goes di-rectly to the boys in our troop," Meranti said. "The troop will use it to help scouts pay for activities, annual dues or fees for summer camp.”

“Some of it goes to help the troop purchase new equipment. We depend on fundraisers like this because we get no other fi-nancial support."

Troop 88 meets Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the First Congregation-al Church of North Adams. Visi-tors are always welcome and should enter through the kitchen door facing the corner of Sum-mer and Church Streets.

Troop dues are $35 per year, and scholarships and fundraising opportunities to help defray the cost of dues are available. Boys can join Boy Scouting when they turn 11 years old.

Local troop will help remove trees


Troop 88 in North Adams will again be willing to remove your tree for a $5 donation.



Residents of Massachusetts can ring in the New Year by receiving 10 free flowering trees by joining the Arbor Day Foundation any time during January 2012.

By becoming a member of the nonprofit Arbor Day Founda-tion, you will receive two white flowering dogwoods, two flower-ing crabapples, two Washington hawthorns, two American red-buds and two golden rain trees.

White flowering dogwoods are probably the most widely recog-nized spring flowering tree vari-ety with its striking white blos-soms that arrive before the trees even leaf out.

“These beautiful trees will give your home in Massachusetts love-ly flowers with pink, yellow and white colors,” said John Rose-now, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation. “These trees are perfect for large and small spaces, and they will

provide food and habitat for songbirds.”

The free trees are part of the non-profit foundation’s Trees for America campaign.

The trees will be shipped post-paid at the right time for planting, between Feb. 1 and May 31, with enclosed planting instructions.

The six to 12-inch tall trees are guaranteed to grow or they will be replaced free of charge.

Arbor Day Foundation mem-bers also receive a subscription to the foundation’s bimonthly pub-lication, Arbor Day, and The Tree Book, which includes informa-tion about tree planting and care.

To become a member of the Foundation and to receive your free trees, send a $10 contribu-tion to Ten Free Flowering Trees, Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Ar-bor Avenue, Nebraska City, NE 68410, by January 31, 2012.

Local Berkshire residents can also join online at arborday.org/january.

Arbor Day Foundation offers 10 trees to members to start the new year


The white flowering dogwood is one the trees included in the 10-packs being sent to all new members this year.

NORTH ADAMS - The Berk-shire Chamber of Commerce has announced the 2011 Francis H. Hayden Memorial Award Win-ner, Dr. Mary K. Grant, Presi-dent of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA).

The award was established in May 1968 to honor the memory of Francis H. Hayden, a two-term president of the Northern Berkshire Chamber who made significant contributions to the community as president and through his involvement with several other organizations.

Candidates are judged on the basis of volunteer efforts rather than any measure of success in the field in which they normally are employed or the accomplish-ments or successes by an individ-ual’s membership in one organization.

The award is given annually to a person who has volunteered time, made personal sacrifices, and shown leadership resulting in significant contributions to the economic, social and cultural im-provements of any or all of the communities of Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg, Florida, New Ashford, North Adams, Sa-voy and Williamstown.

Over the years, Dr. Mary K. Grant has made significant con-tributions to her community, which have included service to educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and eco-nomic development initiatives.

"Under Dr. Mary K. Grant's leadership, a culture of civic en-gagement, community service, and volunteerism has flourished at MCLA, and serves as a vitally important resource to the com-munity," remarked a member of the Nominating Committee.

"The values of public purpose and engagement are shared and supported by faculty, staff, and students across the campus, and modeled in action through their service projects and volunteers activities."

Dr. Mary K. Grant consistently champions responsibility and commitment to community, helping MCLA to strengthen its

civic engagement as a direct result.

Under Grant's leadership, the college now partners with the city of North Adams for major days of service, including a citywide day of service in the spring that brings together faculty, staff, students, community members, and the city together with a common goal of cleanup and beautification of the North Adams community, as well as a fall day of service that in-cludes crosswalk painting, com-munity cleanup, and work with human services agencies.

“It is not a stretch to say that virtually every citizen of North Berkshire has or will benefit from the extraordinary leadership, vi-sion and energy of President Mary Grant and the change she has brought and will continue to bring to MCLA,” said Alan L. Marden, Chairman of the Francis H. Hayden Award Committee.

“The Hayden Award is usually given for voluntary efforts, but over the course of its 42-year ten-

ure, the committee occasionally has been presented with a nomi-nee whose professional endeavors have been so extraordinary that the award committee has been compelled to select that person.”

“Such is the case this year with President Grant who 24/7 is making ‘significant contribution to the economic, social and cul-tural improvement’ of the region.”

The Hayden Award has been presented annually since 1969.

The very first recipient of this prestigious award was Donald Thurston.

Among the most recent past re-cipients are George Fairs, Mary and Henry Flint, Eric Rudd, George Kennedy, Joseph H. Wolfe, Donald R. Dubendorf, Joseph Thompson, Marci and Sandy Plumb, John DeRosa, Bruce Grinnell, Hulda Hard-man-Jowett, Stephen A. Green, Stephen Pagnotta, Bernie Pinson-nault, and last year's winners, Dan Bosley and John Barrett III.

MCLA President, Dr. Mary K. Grant, wins this years Hayden Memorial Award

Dr. Mary K. Grant is the 11th president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and the first alumna of the College to serve as its president.



LENOX – Christine Jordan’s artistic creations are as changing as New England weather.

Some pieces are humorous and whimsical.

Others are light, airy and color-ful. Still others hover a tad on the dark side, making the observer stop and think.

Her occasional landscapes, such as a scene by the ocean, mesmerize.

One wonders how anyone can create a scene on paper so real one can smell the salt in the air and hear the waves crashing against the shore.

Some of Mrs. Jordan’s work sprung from “muck-ups” where art class members stepped on pa-per and did everything to make it look messy. The assignment was to create something from the “mucked-up paper,” using inspiration.

She even splashed hot sauce onto paper and created absolutely charming little figures.

“I really do have some odd things,” Mrs. Jordan said.

She’s used shiny nail polish in some of her art pieces and even food coloring blown through straws that made a whimsical, colored flower garden.

Her former art teacher discour-aged the last technique but Mrs. Jordan liked it anyway.

She rarely, if ever, uses only one medium in her art. It’s usually a combination of mediums such as colored pencils, charcoal and waxy “Cray-pas.”

Mrs. Jordan never had much personal time or energy for doing individual art projects during her life-long teaching career.

For 35 years she drove to Egre-mont School in Pittsfield, five days a week. She taught first through fourth grades.

She loved doing some art proj-ects with her students, whenever possible, especially when she taught ancient civilization to fourth graders. They studied Chi-na, Egypt, Greece and Rome.

They did art pertaining to the pyramids, Grecian pottery and so forth.

The students, as well as their teacher, used to love going on field trips to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Then came 9/11 and all the out-of-state field trips came to an abrupt end.

Five years ago, Mrs. Jordan re-tired from teaching and never looked back.

She saw an ad in a newspaper advertising an art class for older people. Titled “Late Bloomers,” Phyllis Kornfeld taught it at the Lenox Community Center.

There were eight other people in the class which started in the dead of winter, Mrs. Jordan said. Some people dropped out and that left five students.

The instructor, she said, was very unconventional and often encouraged that quality in stu-dents as well.

The class started by using black and white pencils, then colored pencils, and, eventually, waxy col-ored oil pastels called “Cray-pas.”

For eight months, Mrs. Jordan tried every imaginable technique and became very prolific. In the fall of that first year, the students held an art show to display their work to the public.

Some members of the original group broke away and started their own art group called “The Crooked Fingers School of Art.” They met in each others’ homes every Monday.

Even that group eventually dis-banded but members from Lenox and Stockbridge plan to regroup in the new year, Mrs. Jordan said. They plan to meet, once again, in each others’ homes.

The number of art pieces she created is astounding and there are no two alike. She might see an intricate spider web outside in her yard and do a piece on that. There’s a picture of a fish so col-orful it could brighten up an en-tire wall.

It’s easy to tell she loves retirement as well as her artistic creations.

Mrs. Jordan has enough artistic pieces to fill an entire gallery.

“I would like to put a bunch of stuff up and let people look at my crazy art,” she said. “Maybe it’d bring a smile to someone’s face.”

Retired teacher learns a

new craft


Christine Jordan has made quite a collection of art since her retirement five years ago. To learn art she took several classes at the Lenox Community Center.


Christine Jordan has painted all kinds of topics, including several paintings of fish and other animals.


Community Calendar THuRSDAY,

DECEmBER 29TH

MOZART LIVENorth Adams, 7 p.m.“Mozart Live” is coming to town on Thursday, in a special concert performance to benefit the Mi-nerva Arts Center, 1288 Massa-chusetts Ave., concert features noted Clarinetist and Julliard Graduate William A. Hagenah playing the role of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who travels through musical history to enter-tain, awe and inspire his audience.

DAVID GROVER AND GROVER’S GANG WITH THE BTG CHILDREN’S CHORUSStockbridge, 11 a.m.Berkshire Theatre Group is thrilled to announced David Grover and Grover’s Gang with The BTG Children’s Chorus at The Unicorn Theatre, 6 East St., Wednesday, and Thursday, David Grover’s unique children’s show is the perfect Holiday event for the whole family.

THE RELUCTANT DRAGON WITH PUPPE-TEER CARL SPRAGUELenox, 3 p.m.Puppeteer Carl Sprague, whose annual performances at Ventfort Hall have delighted everyone with their old-world style and hu-mor, will present a production of Kenneth Grahame’s classic fairy tale The Reluctant Dragon.

THE BERKSHIRE HEALTH SYSTEMS BLOODMOBILEPittsfield, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.The Berkshire Health Systems Bloodmobile will be at the fol-lowing sites through the end of the year: All units donated with the Berkshire Health Systems Bloodmobile stay in Berkshire County and go directly to local patients in need. Anyone interested in donating can set up an appointment by calling (413) 447-2114, Ext: 3981.

NAPL YOUTH SERVICES PROGRAMS DURING SCHOOL VACATIONNorth Adams, 10:30 a.m.Mad Science presents HOLID-AZE, an interactive show pre-senting the how and why of the season. Suitable for ages 5-12. All programs are free and do not re-quire pre-registration. All chil-dren must be accompanied by an adult. For more information, please call the NAPL Youth Services De-partment at 413-662-3133 ext. 14. North Adams Public Library, 74 Church St.

SATuRDAY, DECEmBER 31ST

BACH AT NEW YEAR’SGreat Barrington, 6 p.m.Bach at New Year’s: The most spirited and uplifting New Year’s celebration imaginable, this year’s annual tradition offers the virtuo-si of the Berkshire Bach Ensem-ble, directed by harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper, and their “irre-pressible” versions of The Six Brandenburg Concerti of Johann

Sebastian Bach with a cast of fa-vorites and special guests.

OPEN MARRIAGE: REN-EGADE WIFE OF THE GILDED AGE, NEW YEAR’S EVE CHAM-PAGNE RECEPTIONLenox, 4 P.M.Back for the Holidays, this special performance will be followed by a champagne reception with light refreshments and a cash bar Vent-fort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum opened its 10th summer theater season on Wednesday, June 29, with the world premiere of Open Mar-riage: Renegade Wife of the Gild-ed Age. Produced by Ventfort Hall in co-operation with Shakespeare & Company, the play is based on the unorthodox life of Elsie Clews Parsons, who lived with her fam-ily at Stonover Farm on Under-mountain Road in Lenox, less than a mile from Ventfort Hall.

NATIVE AMERICAN NEW YEAR FAMILY CELEBRATIONLENOX, 6 p.m.Joseph Firecrow and Friends Special Guests: Rodney Mashia, Jordon Loder, Kri BloziePuppet Show, Magic Show and Children’s Pow Wow. General Admission: $5.00 Children un-der 10 free. Held at the Econo Lodge 130 Pittsfield Rd. Lenox. Alcohol free! All Ages Appropri-ate! Native American Arts and Crafts Vendors and a Taco and Hot Dog Bar available for purchase.

It hasn’t been much longer than a year since MillerCo-ors created Tenth and Blake Beer Company. Last August, execs tapped a new division of the company to focus on those of its brands that play in the ‘better beer’ segment. They include Blue Moon Brewing, Jacob Leinenku-gel Brewing, Killian’s and a hand-ful of others.

This year, the brands under the Tenth and Blake umbrella will produce around three mil-lion barrels collectively. Miller-Coors CEO, Tom Long, recently told the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to grow the division by at least 60% over the next three years.

If MillerCoors meets that goal, in 2014, Tenth and Blake will produce five million barrels or nearly half of the combined out-put of the nation’s 1,800+ craft breweries.

Depending on where you stand, that is either music to your ears or brings visions of doom and gloom.

Opinions of Tenth and Blake vary widely across beer circles. Some see the company as areal threat to ‘craft’. Others…a paper tiger…or a gateway to the category.

Most of Tenth and Blake’s cus-tomers are most likely oblivious to its existence. Meanwhile, de-tractors align their views of the division with their views of its creator, MillerCoors.

It’s hard to blame them consid-ering the tone at the top has been to drive the light lager agenda and relatively little else for decades.

But what about all those other people at the company?

One of them is Jeff White. White cut his teeth in the busi-ness with Boston Beer Company in the early 90s. He departed the company after nearly eighteen years in 2007, leaving his post as Chief Operating Officer behind. White has now been with Miller-Coors for nearly three years and is Senior Director of Strategy and Operations for Tenth and Blake.

And then there is Lisa Zimmer. If you are a devoted Twitter user, you may already be familiar with Zimmer as the talkative @zim-merino. She is the Digital and

Consumer Outreach Specialist for Tenth and Blake, also having spent nearly three years at MillerCoors.

White and Zimmer, both self-proclaimed beer geeks, are at the forefront of a movement at the company, one that unofficially crystallized shortly after White’s epiphany in 2009.

One night, White attends a MillerCoors-sponsored event where he recalls being “con-cerned” as to what he will find to drink. Someone there recom-mends a beer called, “Wild Ting.”

Miller Valley, located in Mil-waukee and one of Miller’s pilot breweries, has brewed this Single Hop IPA brewed with Citra. It is named after MillerCoors em-ployee, Pat Ting, whom Techni-cal Quarterly notes was “instru-mental in the recognition of the unique brewing qualities of Ci-tra, and MillerCoors followed with financial support of the first commercial production of Citra.”

White is so impressed with the beer that he goes back to the Miller offices and discusses it with Zimmer.

Here are all these small brewer-ies under the MillerCoors um-brella that are experimenting and producing flavorful beers and re-ceiving relatively little recogni-tion for them in the public sphere. And that is when it hits him…

“We can’t get the public to be-lieve that we make great beer un-til we believe that we make great beer.”

White and Zimmer devise a plan to get these “side projects” out to the company and spread beer appreciation throughout the organization.

Next week we will continue to look at this new arm in the major brewer arsenal.

Is your favorite craft beer really a “craft”

Large breweries like Miller are now in the “better beer” market

If you have an event you would like listed in our calendar please email us at [email protected]!


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LENOX – The town is coming together on an issue that is near and dear to many human hearts-- the plight of Guzzy, a well-known seven-and-a-half-year-old Great-er Swiss Mountain dog.

Dozens of business owners as well as private citizens in Lenox and beyond are participating in a fundraiser to get medical help for Guzzy, who has sad eyes and a gentle spirit and who is strug-gling with poor health.

He belongs to Ruth Wheeler, a partner at Clearwater Natural Foods at 11 Housatonic St. She’s partner with her sister, Maggie Sadoway.

At Clearwater is where many townspeople first met Guzzy.

The Lenox VFW Post 12079 is now supporting the huge, town-wide and beyond fundraiser, “Say Yes to Guzzy,” and the outpour-ing of help has been overwhelming.

Sean Ward, commander of the local VFW post, said that the or-ganization wanted to help since they like to support community projects.

An Avalanche of Goods and Services

Merchants are offering an ava-lanche of goods and services ranging from dinner for two and a night’s stay at the Village Inn at 11 Church St. in town and wine from Najaime’s at 60 Main St., to a free adjustment from Marc Ru-din, a local chiropractor at 68 Main St. and a free yoga lesson from Linda Novick, a Kripalu yoga instructor, said Elizabeth Tierney, a major organizer of the fund raiser.

People throughout Berkshire County and beyond can buy tickets printed by Berkshire Print Shop in Pittsfield.

They are available at Clearwa-ter Natural Foods as well as through some townspeople.

Lou Fortune of Fortune Auto-motive, 211 West St., in town will also have tickets available, Mrs. Tierney said.

Ms. Wheeler, at Clearwater Natural Foods, can let people know other places the tickets are available. The number of the

store is (413) 637-2721.

Clearwater Facebook Page

More information can also be obtained on Clearwater’s Face-book page on the Internet.

On Jan. 26 at 8 p.m., Olde Heritage Tavern, 2 Housatonic St., will sponsor an event at which the prize winners will be announced.

Suggested payment for the tickets is $10 each.

Cash donations in any amount will also be welcomed so Guzzy can get the medical help he needs, if anyone wants to help in that way.

Ms. Wheeler, Guzzy’s owner, has already paid more than $6,000 for two major surgeries Guzzy had for torn ligaments in his hind legs.

“He’s my new car,” she said, re-ferring to her beloved pet.

Guzzy is well-known in the community. Anyone coming into Clearwater has been welcomed by him.

“Everybody knows Guzzy,” said Mrs. Tierney, a Lenox resi-dent and Clearwater customer. When she heard about the dog’s health problems and his need for care from a specialist in Latham, N.Y., she swung into action.

Mrs. Tierney let everyone, and then some, know that Guzzy needs expensive medical care. That’s when the Lenox VFW of-fered their support of the project.

“This is about joy,” Mrs. Tier-ney said of the town’s positive re-sponse to the fundraiser for the ailing dog.

“This is about happiness. This is about doing good. This is about saying yes and helping Guzzy feel better.”

Guzzy Might Have Wobbler’s Disease

Guzzy has symptoms that point to Wobbler’s Disease, a degenera-tive neurological disorder that ad-versely affects his neck, Ms. Wheeler said.

Because of the huge expense in-volved, the animal has been un-able to have x-rays or a possible MRI, both of which would help pinpoint his medical problem.

“Veterinary medicine has be-

come very sophisticated,” Ms. Wheeler said. Guzzy’s veterinari-an at South Street Veterinary re-ferred him to the veterinary spe-cialists in Latham, N.Y.

The equipment there is state-of-the-art and there are doctors who specialize in animal cardiol-ogy, orthopedics and so forth, Ms. Wheeler said.

In addition to surgeries for the torn ligaments, in the past, Guzzy also had to have emergency sur-gery for a twisted stomach, called “bloat,” Ms. Wheeler said.

With that medical problem, an animal’s stomach flips and gas builds up. Surgery is required to untwist the stomach.

At the same time, Guzzy had his spleen removed.

The operation cost his owner “big bucks,” she said.

Reluctant To Ask for Help

Because customers donated a total of $2,000 toward the cost of surgery for Guzzy in the past, and because she is a very private per-son, Ms. Wheeler was very reti-cent to consent to a community fundraiser. Mrs. Tierney, howev-er, was determined to ask for help from people who love Guzzy.

Guzzy, short for Guzzler, is a kind of therapy dog, his owner said. “People just love him.” He’s a gentle giant of an animal and he especially loves little children, she said.

People have come into the shop and given Guzzy massages and Reiki treatments. Others who have lost their own pets have been known to find solace through Guzzy.

In addition to hosting the night the prizes will be awarded, the Olde Heritage Tavern also donat-ed a gift certificate.

Offers of Help So Far

Ms. Wheeler, Guzzy’s owner, first came to Lenox in 1975. At that time, Holliston Junior Col-lege had a branch in Lenox that offered, among other things, a veterinary technical course and she enrolled.

Store Opened 32 Years Ago

Five years later, when she heard that a health food was for sale,

she called her sister, Maggie, who was living in Greece, and asked her if she wanted to go in with her on buying it.

“It was a perfect opportunity,” Ms. Wheeler said. Her sister agreed and today, 32 years later, the store is still going strong.

She’s had Guzzy since he was 12 weeks old. Unfortunately, he’s had a long list of medical prob-lems. He’s also gone from 135 to 125 lbs.

Good Things Can Happen

He wears a harness on his back because at times when he lays down, he’s unable to get up, Ms. Wheeler said. The harness helps her hoist up Guzzy.

It’s safe to say when the people in an entire town and beyond ral-ly together during the holiday season to help an ailing dog, good things are bound to happen.

Town Rallies support for a “Gentle Giant” of a dog

The Village Inn has offered a dinner for two people as well as an additional combination dinner for two plus a free night’s stay.

Gift certificates have come from B. Mango and Bird, 2 Main St., #2; The Haven Café and Bakery, 8 Franklin St.; and The Gifted Child, 72 Church St., all in Lenox.

Shear Design, 25 Church St., #101, has donated a basket of products and the Arcadian Shop, 91 Pittsfield Lenox Rd., free kayak and snowshoe rentals.

Jack Sadoway, whose wife, Maggie, is the second partner of Clearwater Health Store, also happens to be an artist. He’s donating one of his prints.

Dr. Andrew J. Breslin of South Street Veterinary Services, 864 South St., donated an annual visit, excluding llamas.

Howard Baird of Aim and Shoot Photography, 75 North St., in Pittsfield is offering three photographs.

Tickets from Shakespeare and Company, 70 Kemble St.Connor and Tucker McNinch and their classmate, Matt Fenton, all stu-

dents, have offered to sell tickets.

Who has helped Guzzy?


Guzzy, and his owner Ruth Wheeler have scene the commu-nity rally around them to help Guzzy.


Girl-2-GirlRemembering

the AuldJanel Harrison

Beacon Staff Writer

Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot in “Auld Lang Syne” (days of long ago)?

Today I’d like to ponder what exactly this popular New Year’s song means.

Obviously we shouldn’t just forget about our pasts and never think about them again. After all, our pasts are what have molded us into the people we are today, and so have our past acquaintances.

So in retrospect this is a rhetor-ical question that makes us stop and think about old friends, old loves, old memories and drink to them in celebration of life and re-union with them in our hearts.

It’s a wonderful song about the passing of time and the signifi-cance of those who pass through our lives, with the melody and popular Scottish/English lyrics written by farmer and poet Rob-ert Burns in 1788.

Previous to his version, James Watson had printed the original verses in 1711, and it’s clear that the original verses are bittersweet about a lost love. They read as this:

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot, and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extin-guished, and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold, that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once re-flect on Old long syne.

CHORUS:On Old long syne my Jo, in

Old long syne,That thou canst never once re-

flect, on Old long syne.My Heart is ravisht with de-

light, when thee I think upon;All Grief and Sorrow takes the

flight, and speedily is gone;The bright resemblance of thy

Face, so fills this, Heart of mine;That Force nor Fate can me

displease, for Old long syne.

CHORUS

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,when from thee I am gone;will not thy presence yield relief, to this sad Heart of mine:

Why doth thy presence me defeat,with excellence divine?

Especially when I reflect on Old long syne

Our own internal struggles with past relationships can be found in Mr. Watson’s poem. He is sadly missing his love, and when he thinks upon her it brings him joy, but to actually be reac-quainted with her presence, he is defeated.

When we think back on old re-lationships, friendships, angels who have come and gone from our lives, past loves, we remind ourselves of all we felt during those periods, moments, minutes of our existence. Some of those thoughts are just fabulous, and yet some, not so much.

In friendships where people were toxic it’s difficult to look upon with great, positive thoughts; we all know that isn’t easy especially when it comes to love, but perhaps we could say to ourselves they were there in our lives, and maybe for a bloody reason?

To teach us, to help us grow in some way, to carry us to the next step which could take us to a whole different level. Yeah, that’s it. We can thank that person for doing what they did because look where we are now.

I can say that for sure. I love the movie Along Came Polly, with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston, because in the very end he looks at his nemesis with genuine thanks, as due to his actions of sleeping with his ex-wife on their honeymoon, he has now found the love of his life.

So let’s think about it like that, shall we? That all our relation-ships bring us to a new place, un-til we are where we stay. Here’s to a wonderful New Year, and to cel-ebration of days past!

-Ciao Bella


I have mixed feelings about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

On the one hand, it is an admi-rably faithful adaptation of its source material that features a stellar performance by Rooney Mara and exquisite directing by David Fincher. On the other hand, the movie is so relentlessly dark that at times it can be oppressive.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based off the bestselling novel of the same name by Swedish au-thor Stieg Larsson, the Swedish title of which translates as Men Who Hate Women.

The Girl with the Dragon Tat-too was previously adapted into a Swedish-language film, as were its two sequels, that received in-ternational attention and praise, so the bar for the new movie was set pretty high from the beginning.

The man behind the English-language remake, however, is no lightweight.

David Fincher, whose credits include Fight Club, Se7en and The Social Network, is one of the best and most distinctive direc-tors working today, and his pen-chant for the dark and disturbing has proven to be a perfect match for Stieg Larsson’s work.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo centers around two characters: Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig), a middle-aged, crusading journalist, recently convicted of libel and Lisbeth Sa-lander (played by Rooney Mara), a pierced, tattooed, borderline autistic young woman and bril-liant computer hacker, hired to do a background check on Blomkvist.

Blomkvist, disgraced and fi-nancially hurting from his libel conviction, is hired by aging in-dustrialist Henrik Vanger, played by Christopher Plummer, to in-vestigate the disappearance of Henrik’s niece Harriet 40 years ago, whom Henrik is convinced was murdered by a member of his family,

Blomkvist takes the job reluc-tantly, believing that he will find nothing, but soon uncovers a dis-turbing series of clues. It is only when Blomkvist teams up with

Salander, however, that things re-ally begin to fall into place, and a horrifying secret is revealed.

One of the pleasures of Finch-er’s adaptation is how completely he brings many of the novel’s scenes to life. What is often for-gotten about Fincher is that one of his most acclaimed films, Fight Club, was also a successful adap-tation of an acclaimed novel, and in The Girl with the Dragon Tat-too, we see that the skills and sen-sibility that allowed him to suc-cessfully adapt Fight Club have not dulled in the slightest.

Of course, Fincher would not have been able to pull this off without the aid of some tremen-dous acting.

The entire supporting cast is quite strong, and Daniel Craig plays quite an effective Blom-kvist. The real star of the show, however, is Rooney Mara, who simply embodies the character of Salander in her performance.

The movie also features a bril-liant soundtrack by composer At-ticus Ross and composer and in-dustrial music legend Trent Reznor. In particular Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “The Immigrant Song,” which is played over the film’s opening montage, is nothing short of pitch perfect.

So, with so many good things going for it, why does my review of The Girl with the Dragon Tat-too contain a caveat?

The reason why I stop short of a full embrace of the new movie is because, while faithful to the book, David Fincher’s adaptation focuses on and emphasizes the darkness within the text, while leaving little room for any of its light.

Steig Larsson’s novels have de-veloped a just reputation for be-ing dark, gritty and gruesome, and these elements contribute to their power and effectiveness. But they also have a core of humanity that, while still very much pres-ent in the Fincher adaptation, is emphasized less, particularly in the character of Blomkvist.

This is in striking contrast to the Swedish film, which gave more screen time to Blomkvist, and displayed more of his empa-thetic qualities, in addition to giving greater attention to Sa-lander’s more humanizing traits.

In the end, however, I would definitely still recommend you see David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

While intense, it is the first movie in a long while that I want-ed to see again immediately after exiting the theatre, if only so I could absorb more of its intricate details.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a truly compelling film, and if you have a strong stomach and enjoy your drama pitch black, you should not hesitate to buy a ticket.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is shines, but is not perfect

Rooney Mara was received a lot of attention and recognition for her latest performance.

18 The Berkshire Beacon December 29, 201114 The Berkshire Beacon December 8, 2011

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Anna ShippeeBeacon Contributor

Now that we are in the full hol-iday swing its time to start baking like the season. I love gingerbread men.

So this weekend I felt festive and I wanted to make them. But I did not have a recipe and so I just googled one.

I ended up with a Betty Crock-er (which claimed to be gift mate-rial) and I trusted the Betty Crocker name as she has done me no harm in the past. Now most of the time with Betty you cannot go wrong, well this time you sure could.

The gingerbread was very cake like, I tasted more fl our than mo-lasses, ginger, and cinnamon. I know this may not be popular but I hate cake so naturally a cakey-cookie is not my thing.

I mean the BC cookie has 7 cups of fl our- holy gluten! It tast-ed like a gingerbread cookie that was mass-produced and shipped out for millions aka store-bought!

I am not hating on Betty (truth

be told I love her) but this cookie was no good and I now have doz-ens of them (hence the 7cups of fl our)!

So I went and found a winner of a recipe for you to use this year.

So after looking around I was surprised who made the recipe I love the most. It turns out that this is the Better Homes and Gar-dens recipe. I just love it. It is such a strong spiced taste; the ginger really shines through.

They are great as cookies but my family loves to cook them a bit longer and use them as crack-ers with brie.

This combination may sound a bit strange but trust me and try this for your next holiday party-you will need puff pastry, a brie wheel, a favorite jam and some gingerbread cookies.

So take your brie and cut it in half. Place the jam in between the two circles ( you could also use apples and walnuts if desired but I love using raspberry jam) and then seal the inside of the puff pastry.

Bake until golden brown and puffed, then enjoy!

Solving the gingerbread mystery this year

Kameron Z. SpauldingBeacon Staff Writer

Remember these numbers: 4, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17.

The Pick-6 Lotto, they’re not. But they are winning numbers, nonetheless.

Two of them are Saturdays – Dec. 10 and Dec. 17. The other four are Exits from the Cellar.

A shortage of brewing capacity and plans to exit Cherry Hill for bigger digs in Somerdale, about 10 miles south, have iced any hopes of Flying Fish releasing this year’s trio of brews under the Exit Series banner, as was the per-year plan when the brewery began re-leasing the specialty brews in 2009.

This year, it’s been Exit 9, and Exit 9 alone, that saw release.Alas.

Flying Fish is a small craft brewery who opened up shop in Cherry Hill, NJ back in 1996. They have grown to be the big-gest craft brewer pn MY amd

they ship all the way up here to The Berkshires.

But with everything that’s been going on at Flying Fish, some-thing had to give. So the brewery has come up with another Exit strategy.

Which means, Flying Fish is digging into its private stock of previously released Exits, namely Exit 4 American Trippel, Exit 9 Hoppy Scarlet Ale, Exit 13 Choc-olate Stout and Exit 16 Wild Rice

Double IPA, and making the 750 milliliter bottles available for pur-chase during Saturday tours of Dec. 10th and 17th.

As most everyone knows, Exit 4 is available in six-packs these days. But in the big bottle, with the ruby-red wrapping on the top, it’s the original release.

Exits 1 (oyster stout), 6 (Wal-lonian rye) and 11 (hoppy wheat), sadly, are history.

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Anna ShippeeBeacon Contributor

I hope everyone had a wonder-ful Christmas.

Even though Christmas is over, gifts are still exchanged through the New Year! If you have just fin-ished with dozens of cookies and a Christmas feast-you may be not very interested in making any-thing too complicated to bring as a hostess gift to your New Year's party.

I have a quick and delicious op-tion, bark. It is my personal belief that nothing made from choco-late can be bad.

I have made some delectable options and here they are:

Peanut Butter- Chocolate Bark

12 ounces of semisweet choco-late, chopped

1 cup of roasted peanuts

12 ounces of peanut butter chips

Melt semisweet chocolate in a

double-boiler until completely melted. Spread the melted choco-late onto a wax-paper covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle the pea-nuts over the melted chocolate and then chill until hard.

In the mean time when the choc-olate is hardening, melt the peanut butter chips in a double-boiler.

Once melted spread over choc-olate and let the entire mixture harden. Once hard-break into bit-size pieces.

White Peppermint Bark

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped

3-4 crushed candy canes

Melt the semisweet chocolate in a double-boiler and spread onto a baking sheet-as you did with the previous recipe. Let the chocolate harden.

While hardening, melt the white chocolate. Spread this over the hard semisweet chocolate and

then sprinkle with the crushed candy canes. You may want to place a piece of wax paper over the bark to press the candy cane into the white chocolate. Chill until hard and then break into pieces.

Festive Chocolate Bark

1 cup shelled pistachio nuts (about ½ pound in shell)

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped

¾ dup dried, sweetened cranberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly toast the pistachio nuts on a baking sheet, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the nuts cool.

Melt the semisweet chocolate in the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, stirring until smooth.

Or Microwave it, in a dry mi-crowave-safe bowl, uncovered, on

medium power for 2-3 minutes stirring once. Remove the choco-late fro the microwave and stir until smooth. Melt the white chocolate separately, following the same directions.

In a small bowl, combine the nuts and cranberries, and then stir half of them into the semi-sweet chocolate.

Using a spatula spread the mix-ture to about a ½ inch thickness on a large cookie sheet.

Drop the white chocolate by tablespoonfuls over the dark.

With the tip of a butter knife, swirl the chocolates together to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle on the rest of the berries and nuts.

Refrigerate the bark for about 1 hour or until firm, and then break into pieces. Store the bark in an airtight container in the re-frigerator for up to a month.

Side Note: This is my personal favorite. It seems a bit more so-phisticated than the other barks but this also means it may not be everyone’s favorite!

One more delicious holiday treat for New Years



GREAT BARRINGTON - Rudolf Steiner School, in part-nership with Matrushka Toys and Gifts, has announced the return of “Rhyme Time,” every Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. at Ma-trushka Toys and Gifts, 309 Main St. in Great Barrington, starting Jan. 3, 2012.

Rhyme Time offers rhymes, finger plays, circle games and simple puppetry especially de-signed to delight and engage in-fants, crawlers, toddlers and young children.

Led by Early Childhood teach-ers with a Waldorf background, Rhyme Time is a free, drop-in weekly event for young children with their caregivers, and all are welcome.

Matrushka brings a love of “ac-tion” to children of the Berk-shires, specializing in a unique collection of “child-powered” toys, entertaining games, classic books, beautiful children’s cloth-ing and natural baby gifts, in a store that makes room for imagi-native play, including free in-store events for families.

Matrushka is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Early Childhood at GBRSS

According to many experts watching puppet plays, hearing stories and learning songs culti-vates the child’s imagination, strengthens the ability to concen-trate and inspires a love of language.

“The Great Barrington Rudolf

Steiner School understands how important the early years are to healthy development and lifelong well being, offering Parent-Tod-dler Circle, Nursery and Kinder-garten,” according to a release.

About the School

Founded in 1971, the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School provides a warm welcome to learning through Early Child-hood programs, including Par-ent/Toddler, Nursery and Kin-dergarten, progressing into engaging elementary education for First through Eighth grade.

The Early Childhood program nurtures children ages 2 to 6 in five classrooms in the Early Childhood building, surrounded by gardens, woods and play areas, and prepares them for elementa-ry school on the other side of the 30 acre campus.

First through eighth grade stu-dents (from the Berkshires, northern Connecticut and New York’s Columbia County) follow a rigorous academic and artistic curriculum, preparing them for their choice of high school and college.

One of over 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide, and part of the movement of independent schools developed over 80 years ago by scientist, philosopher and writer Rudolf Steiner.

The Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School operates from a core belief that to educate the whole child is to engage the intel-lectual, spiritual and physical self in all areas of learning.

Rhyme Time is back for 2012

Catherine Krummey Beacon Staff Writer

LEE - This January, the Lee El-ementary Drama Club will bring the fairy tale world of the Broth-ers Grimm to life with a produc-tion of The Frog Prince and Snow White.

The drama club, now in its sev-enth year, will put on two public performances of the timeless tales.

The drama club is comprised of about 60 Lee Elementary stu-dents in grades kindergarten through sixth. Additionally, sev-enth and eighth grade students participate in the club as interns.

“It helps the kids learn about the process of putting on a pro-duction,” said Jessica Pollard, Lee Elementary’s drama teacher and a co-creator of the drama club.

The preparation for this year’s production began in September, when the students themselves worked on adapting scenes. Ms. Pollard put the kids in pairs to write, pairing a younger, inexpe-rienced child with an older one who has been in at least one pre-vious drama production.

The method of having the kids involved in the writing process seems to have paid off, as, by mid-December, the young thes-pians seem to have memorized their lines.

In addition to a high demand for involvement by the kids in the drama club, several parents contribute their time and skills to put the production together, do-ing everything from line-readings and stage managing to set con-struction and choreography.

“Both of my parents are scenic artists, so they help with our sets,” said Iris Courchaine, a sixth grader in the drama club.

Miss Courchaine has been in-volved with the drama club since it started when she was in kindergarten.

“I like getting to do all the plays, getting to play new charac-ters and meeting new people,” Miss Courchaine, who plays the Evil Queen in Snow White, said.

The parents seem to be equally excited about their children par-ticipating in the drama club.

“I wanted my son to be in-volved in something artistic,” said Erin Pollard, a parent and

the stage manager for this year’s production. “It’s amazing that they can come in here as young as six years old and participate in what is basically a professional play.”

As co-creator of the club and director of the production, Jessica Pollard makes sure the students treat the experience in a profes-sional manner.

“We do everything for them like we would for a group of adults,” Ms. Pollard said.

To help fund this artistic en-deavor, the club has support from the Lee Educational Enrichment Fund (LEEF) and Lee Bank.

The Lee Elementary Drama Club productions of The Frog Prince and Snow White will take place Friday, Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. in Lee Middle and High School’s Performing Arts Center.

There is no ticket cost or ad-mission fee, but donations to the drama club will be accepted.

Photo Credit / Catherine krummey

ABOVE: A drawing by Isley Gagnon of the proposed play background.BELOW: Students portraying the Evil Queen and the Magic Mirror practice a scene from Snow White.

Lee Elementary Drama Club to bring the Brothers Grimm to stage


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