Crosby will be having a “GREEN” fundraiser starting Monday, January 23rd through Friday, February 3rd. The school, located on West Street, will be selling WEMCO products and will receive 100% of the profit from sales.

“We will have a kick off assembly on Monday and will find out then about when they will be delivered,” says Eric Lamoureaux, Crosby’s School-Community Coordinator.

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in ordering please get in touch with Eric Lamoureaux at elamoureaux@pittsfield.net!

For more information on the fundraiser and products you can purchase, click here!

The Service-Learning Office has the opportunity to hear from community members and leaders about issues facing the community. Over the last few months, some interesting events have taken place such as the school committee and city council inaugural events for the new term starting January 2nd. Additionally, several new projects have come to fruition that will help the Pittsfield to continue to develop its’ assets from cultural, economy and community development perspectives.

Both the Morningside and Westside Initiatives are exploring new safety, health and environmental opportunities that could help revitalize their neighborhoods (and our Pittsfield community) with projects that include neighborhood watches, neighborhood clean-ups and new community gardens. As this new year begins, local non-profits are beginning to offer tax assistance, clothing suitable for cold weather, and school supplies for the new semester.

The Service-Learning Office and the students serving the community through the office will have a few new opportunities to enjoy including several new projects with new (and previous) community partners. As usual, students will be encouraged to participate in a variety of trainings to prepare them for the community. More updates to come!

Crosby Elementary Students who participated in the Robotics Program receive their reward, from BCC Faculty Member John Tatro, for a job well done!

On December 13th and December 15th, Crosby Elementary School and Conte Community School, respectively, held their Session One showcases. These showcases provided an opportunity for students in their afterschool programs to share what they have learned and created over the course of the 1st session.

At Crosby, BCC Faculty Member John Tatro created a video montage of the students programming the robots and preparing them for real-world applications (like determining colors, driving around a perimeter of a square, etc). Additionally, students in his engineering and math classes were an excellent support to the students, provided a few lessons themselves and assisted students one-on-one. It was easy to tell they enjoyed the experience.

At Conte, BCC Students in education, environmental sciences, and spanish helped to run a holistic and very educational garden program. Patrick and Lisa attended the showcase and assisted their students, along with Hannah from Berkshire Community Action Council, in creating a beautiful collage of the activities they participated both in the garden and in the classroom. The students enjoyed learning spanish and having a green thumb!

BCC Student, Patrick, and Berkshire Community Action Council's, Hannah Bracken, and a Conte Student pose for the camera as others look at the collage of their accomplishments.

Ed takes the time to speak on his experiences at Harvest Table.

On December 8th, Students, Faculty and Community Site Supervisors came together to enjoy lunch and recognition for their hard work throughout the semester. Students and Supervisors sat side by side listening to others speak on their experiences and the value of the volunteering. Berkshire Health System’s Kimberly Kelly expressed a great appreciation for the students in Annette Guertin’s Math Classes that took extra time to pull the Healthy Food Drive project together. Ed shared his love of cooking and serving people who are less fortunate. Other experiences as supervisors and students were shared; following the reflections on service,  site supervisor and faculty received gifts and students received certificates. Altogether, all had a good time and it was nice for Service-Learning to end the semester with such an outstanding celebration of service!

1,000 lbs of food was donated to the healthy food drive.

This total represents the combined collections from both Berkshire Health Systems and Berkshire Community College.

Additionally, recipes created by Carl Maaia’s Culinary Arts students were made into beautiful recipe cards, designed by BCC Service-learning work study student Tammara.  The recipe cards will be included in the healthy food tote bags given out to the recipients of the food drive. The two YouTube videos below are demonstrations by BCC Culinary students Ed, Audrey and Mckyla on how to make two of the recipes. These links have been added to each recipe card.

Check them out:

Follow along with Ed to make fabulous Fettucini with Ham and Peas

Aubrey and McKyla show you how to whip up Oatmeal Cookies

Mark Bushey and Pete White answer questions from students regarding their past and current successes.

Last Monday, November 7th, Service-Learning Student Leader, Kimberly, kicked off CHILL: A Series of Workshops about Your Future. Her session provided an opportunity to reflect on one’s current experiences as well as their past; thus, providing an opportunity to travel hopefully into the future. Kimberly began the session with a short personality assessment and applied what the audience learned about themselves to simulate real life situations that students might face in their lives currently and in the future.

Today, students heard from Pete White and Mark Bushey, both BCC Alumni, about their successes after graduation. Pete White, the current Ward 2 Councilor, and Coordinator at The Brien Center, expressed the need for students to be involved in their community, pursue opportunities with Service-Learning and provided students with networking tips. Mark Bushey, a full-time member of BCC Faculty, and Seargant with the Pittsfield Police department, encouraged students by sharing his experience at BCC and beyond. In this, he shared how he turned around his negative attitude towards academics to later become a source for academic success and positive growth.

Both panelist reflected on the fact that the campus has valuable resources for students to grow over the course of their education. In the end, Mark Bushey left an important message to students that they needed to follow their passion and to pursue positive growth and knowledge.

Join the Service-Learning Student Leaders on:

Monday, November 7th from 1:00 – 2:00

in the Student Lounge (rear) to kick-off

CHILL: A Series of Workshops about your future!

This weeks workshop “Where are you going after BCC?”will provide an opportunity to reflect on one’s current experiences

as well as their past; thus, providing an opportunity to travel hopefully into the future.

Refreshments served!

View “CHILL” poster

Check out the link below to the Eagle’s article covering BCC’s Healthy Food Drive. A Service-Learning project in partnership with Berkshire Health Systems and the Salvation Army. BCC Service-Learning students in Culinary Arts, Math, Visual Art and Sociology are all contributing their time and talents to helping our neighbors in need.

This Food Drive ends tomorrow, Friday Nov. 4th. We welcome any additional donation of food items!

Berkshire Eagle: BCC cooks give recipes in food drive

On her own volunteer experience with the Ice Shockers Speed Skating Program.

My role as the Service-Learning Coordinator at BCC is to provide college students with the opportunity to participate in meaningful service experiences that broaden their academic, personal and civic experiences. Personally, I believe in serving my community and the importance of empowering young people. On October 4^th began my own volunteer experience with the Ice Shockers Speed Skating program. This is a speed skating program for girls in 6th through 8th grade sponsored by Pittsfield Parks Speed Skating Club, Girls Inc. of the Berkshires, & Boys and Girls Club of Pittsfield. A member the Speed Skating Club since age 6, I was delighted share my knowledge and enthusiasm as an assistant coach for this program. I teach the girls how to skate on the ice and how to practice yoga off the ice.

Now in its second year, the program is packed with 15 tweens and teen. Through generous local donations, the young skaters are outfitted with top of the line gear. On the first day, four girls had never been on ice skates before! They were holding on to the boards – terrified of falling and unsure of how to move on their new 13 inch blades. It was more challenging to teach total beginners how to ice skate than I expected. Skating is second nature to me. But I jumped in, offered my arm and broke it down into small steps. First, we practiced standing on two feet, then gliding next to the boards until they could find their balance and begin to let go of the boards. Patience and persistence; with yourself and others. Two virtues I’ve found to be the foundation of learning (and teaching) anything new.

Club’s blog: See video and pictures. http://pittsfieldspeedskating.net/?page_id=64

My next challenge was teaching yoga to this group of energetic and empowered teens. I didn’t have any illusions that the girls would be focused for 45 minutes, but I was expecting a few moment of peace and quiet! I played soft music in the background to set the tone, but it was barely audible over the giggles, commentary and other adolescent outbursts! I persisted. Giving consistent and clear instructions for each of the poses I had researched as being appropriate for teens and tweens. “Close your mouth and breath through your nose” was a frequent and timely reminder throughout the class.  I walked around the room, demonstrating patience (I hope!) and attention to each yogini struggling to find her body position on the mat. Finally, it was time for relaxation pose! “Please lay down for a few minutes of quiet reflection.” I turned off the lights: pitch black. Followed immediately by eruptions of “Ohhs” and other noises of surprise. “Breathe,” I directed, “In through the nose, out through the nose. Slow…everything…down.” For a moment the room was still. Then a few giggles welled up and rippled around the room. Time was up. The girls returned to a seated position and learned the meaning of the traditional Indian greeting, “Namaste: the light within me honors the light within you.” The fluorescent lights flashed back on, signaling the end of our first yoga class.