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Berkshire Business News • February 18, 2015 • Page 15
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APPOINTMENTS, EXPANSIONS,
PROMOTIONS, & RECOGNITIONS
Erin Carlotto has joined Greylock Federal Credit
Union as a Mortgage Loan Officer. Carlotto was
raised in Berkshire County and attended local
schools, and has 11 years of banking experience.
CompuWorks promoted Joseph Andrews, John
Sinopoli, and Matthew Speed as heads of 3 operational areas. Joe Andrews has been promoted to Vice
President of Operations. John Sinopoli has been promoted to Vice President of Business Development.
Matt Speed has been promoted to Vice President of
Technology Services.
Berkshire Community College (BCC) named
Adam Emerson as the institution’s new registrar. In
this role, Emerson is responsible for the administration of student credit course records including: student registration, maintenance of academic records,
auditing and certification of student records for
degree completion, coordination of course offerings
and calendar planning. He previously served as
BCC’s assistant registrar/coordinator of records &
registration systems since 2006.
Berkshire Family and Individual Resources, Inc.
(BFAIR) has appointed Jennifer Civello as the
Director of Marketing. In her role, Civello will be
primarily responsible for marketing the organization
and its programming via print and electronic media,
cultivating external relationships and all public relation activities. Civello previously served as the
Executive Director of the Williamstown Chamber
of Commerce.
Toole Insurance has recently hired Shannan
Reber to serve as their primary Customer Service
Agent in their 117 Main St. Lenox, MA office. This
satellite location compliments their main offices in
Lee. Shannan’s responsibilities span new and renewal
business marketing, client relationship management
and meeting the insurance coverage needs of clients.
Shannan resides in Lenox with her husband and
three children and is a tenured claims representative,
who is practiced in handling automobile, homeowners, bodily injury, disability and general liability
claims for both personal and commercial lines.
O. Andreas Halvorsen and Robert G. Scott were
recently elected to lead the board of the Clark Art
Institute. Halvorsen will serve as chair, while Scott
will serve as vice chair. Halvorsen is the co-founder
and chief executive officer of Viking Global
Investors LP, an investment management firm with
offices in Greenwich, New York, Hong Kong, and
London. Scott was former president and chief operating officer and a director of Morgan Stanley, and is
currently the chairman of Genpact Limited, a business process outsourcing company.
Bobbie Orsi, MS, RN, Director of Community
Relations at Home Instead Senior Care, has
achieved certification as a dementia practitioner by
the National Council of Certified Dementia
Practitioners. This certification promotes standards
of excellence in direct-care skills, education, and
sensitivity in the area of dementia care.
Susan LeBeau of Adams recently celebrated a
milestone anniversary of 40 years of service with
Adams Community Bank. LeBeau has spent her
entire career as a teller with both the former Adams
Co-Operative Bank and its successor, Adams
Community Bank. LeBeau began her career on
January 10, 1975 and has worked in the Park Street
branch in Adams ever since. She lives in Adams
with her fiancé and has been a resident of Adams
her entire life.
BART Charter Public School will hold a ribbon
cutting ceremony on Wednesday, February 25th at
8:30am in celebration of the grand opening of their
newly built addition. A reception in the new space
will follow the brief outdoor ceremony. This will be
the first time that BART students have a gymnasium
for fitness classes, a designated area for eating lunch,
and a stage for performances. The additional 10,000
square feet will also help to relieve some of the space
constraints as the enrollment at BART climbs to
over 340 students.
The Berkshire Visitors Bureau participated in
the National Tour Association’s annual exchange
with tour operators from around the world who will
be bringing groups to the area. Michelle Murphy,
the BVB’s representative, had forty two, one-on-one
meetings over the course of two days with the majority of operators interested in cultural venues that
could accommodate groups of 30-40 people, as well
as some looking to bring student tour groups particularly interested into action adventures.
Greylock Federal Credit Union (GFCU)
announced that its annual United Way support surpassed previous records, with a total of $131,185.
Greylock employees raised $100,185 through raffles,
Shred Day, flower sales, employee recognition night,
trivia night, and employee payroll pledges. Greylock
provided corporate support for the campaign with
$31,000, plus half the cost of the Ford Fiesta donated
for the annual car raffle through Greylock’s partnership with Johnson Ford Lincoln Nissan.
AWARDS, GRANTS, PROGRAMS, &
SCHOLARSHIPS
The Berkshire Museum will present the third
annual Berkshire Awards to three honorees who
have made significant contributions to creating,
keeping, and promoting artistic, historical, and natural heritage in the Berkshires. They will be honored
at an awards ceremony on Friday, March 13 at the
Museum. The honorees are Lila Berle, Churchill
Cotton, and Mary Rentz. For the third year, we at
the Berkshire Museum are proud to recognize three
individuals who have contributed significantly to the
preservation of our culture and heritage.
Carr Hardware & Supply Co. was awarded the
2014 LED Retailer of the Year from Greenlite, the
leader in energy efficient lighting. The award is presented to the top retailer in the country for operational excellence from both a consumer and business
partner perspective. Carr Hardware earned full
points in the areas of Merchandise Sales and
Program Representation. Carr also received full
points for its strong business relationship practices in
the areas of Retailer Reliability, Effective
Communication, Management Interaction, and
Community Integration. The LED Retailer of the
Year Award is indicative of Carr Hardware’s commitment to “helping it’s community members save on
energy costs every single day.”
Berkshire HorseWorks recently secured its
501(C)3 nonprofit status which will now allow them
to provide EAGALA Model Equine Assisted
Learning (EAL) and Equine Assisted Psychotherapy
(EAP) to a greater number of those in need in
Berkshire County and neighboring cities.
Kensington High Performance Products, the supplier of choice to many window professionals across
the country, honored Morrison’s Home
Improvement Specialists, Inc., of Pittsfield
Massachusetts this week with the “Silver” dealership award. As one of the first companies to produce high performance custom vinyl windows,
Kensington HPP has always stayed at the forefront
of technology. They recognize and support the
adoption of state-of-the-art innovation in products
and manufacturing techniques. These same qualities are shared by Morrison’s.
Youth Center, Inc., located in Adams, recently
received a $2,500 Honorable Mention Award
through the Massachusetts Bankers Association
Charitable Foundation. The Massachusetts Bankers
Association represents and is supported by approximately 170 commercial, savings and co-operative
banks and savings and loan institutions located in
Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England, giving
awards to deserving social service agencies which are
recommended by their members. The Youth Center
award was recommended by member bank, Adams
Community Bank.
Berkshire Bank‘s initiative to move customers from
paper statements to eStatements—in an effort to
reduce their carbon footprint—resulted in 1,099 customer conversions. As a result of this campaign,
Berkshire Bank Foundation is donating $3,500 to local
food banks—having previously pledged donations for
every account that converted to eStatements.
Hillcrest Educational Centers, Inc. will be hosting their Annual Bees Prendergast St. Patrick’s
Reception on March 19th at the Country Club of
Pittsfield. Massachusetts Representative John
Scibak will be honored as the 2015 Irish Person of
the Year, and HEC will pay tribute to George
Haddad and Michael Coggins from Haddad
Dealerships with the Judge A. Barry Community
Service Award. Greylock Federal Credit Union
has partnered with HEC as the lead underwriter of
the event.
Jacob Shores-Argüello has been named the 19th
recipient of the Amy Clampitt residency, a program
of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation that
provides poets and literary scholars a six- or
12-month stay at Clampitt’s former residence in
Lenox, along with a stipend.
Berkshire Family And Individual Resources,
Inc. (BFAIR) announced the successful culmination
of their third annual campaign. The campaign took
in $17,000 from December 2014 through February
2015. As BFAIR is celebrating their 20th anniversary, a campaign of this magnitude is a testament to
the stellar work of the organization.
The Berkshire Community College Foundation is
accepting scholarship applications for students entering the college, returning for continued study, or
graduating and transferring from BCC. More than
160 scholarships valued at $300,000 are available.
Awards range from $250 to full tuition and fees and
are based on academic merit and financial need.
Many scholarships place importance on community
service, specific career goals and individual characteristics. Visit berkshirecc.edu/scholarships to learn
more. Deadline March 2.
BART Charter School was recently awarded a
$14,992 Creativity and Innovation grant from the
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (DESE). This two-year grant
provides funding to purchase equipment for a new
digital fabrication lab or makerspace, and for the
design and implementation of a new high school
course, “Discover, Design and Build”. “Discover,
Design and Build” is a yearlong, cross-disciplinary
course, that BART will offer starting in the 2015-16
school year. Students will learn how to use digital
tools that include a 3-D printer, 3-D scanner, laser
cutter, large format printer and design and modeling
software. As members of a team students will work
with a high level of autonomy and independence in
a class that will combine mathematics, engineering,
physics and digital media.
ARTS & CULTURE
Norman Rockwell Museum announced the
acquisition of Norman Rockwell’s 1926 painting,
“Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon (Puppy Love)” to its
permanent collection. One of Rockwell’s most iconic
images, “Boy and Girl Gazing at Moon” was donated
to the Museum as a gift from Bill, Casey, Maggie,
Jenny, and Jesse Millis, “in honor of Norman
Rockwell, an incredible American.”
The Pittsfield Parade Committee announced that
the 2015 Fourth of July Parade theme is “Celebrating
Our Independence.” The winning theme was chosen
from a field of over 50 suggestions from Facebook
fans and other sources.
Berkshire Eagle staff photographer Gillian Jones,
an instructor at Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts (MCLA), announced that her first book, “B is
for Berkshires,” will be available in March from
Islandport Press of Yarmouth, Maine. A children’s
alphabet book, “B is for Berkshires” was written by
Joan Duris, and features Jones’ photographs of various scenes from throughout the region. The book
combines short verses with informative text to introduce children to the Berkshires.
The Progressive Palette will be celebrating its
first year of business and their new location at 71
Spring Street on Saturday March 7th from 7-9 PM.
This business was started by two sisters with a shared
passion for art and inspiring others to discover their
inner artist. Over the last year, The Progressive
Palette has hosted more than 200 public and private
gatherings, hired a staff that includes another fulltime employee besides the founding sisters as well as
several part-time employees. Their fundraising
events have raised over $15,000 for local charities.
The Clark Art Institute will consider the history
and politics that inspired many artists working during and between World Wars I and II in the exhibition Machine Age Modernism: Prints from the
Daniel Cowin Collection. Machine Age Modernism
will be on view in the Clark Center February 28–
May 17, 2015.
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