image description — First prize winner Kaitlyn Pierce holds her prize along with her daughters as contest Judge Linda Dulye, left, looks on. (Photo by John Dolan)

Biz Briefs: 'Binka Bear' Wins All-Ideas Pitch Contest

04:47PM / Thursday, October 24, 2019Print Story | Email Story

Entrepreneurship for All

Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) Berkshire County ran their first All-Ideas Pitch Contest at the Berkshire Museum, awarding a first prize of $1,000 to Kaitlyn Pierce of Binka Bear, a product that helps wean children off pacifiers. She also won the "Fan Favorite" award of $500.

Second place prize of $750 went to Michelle Latimer and Leia Miller for their idea "413 Bubbly," a mobile prosecco/Champagne business. Third place went to Erin Laundry of Bottomless Bricks, a building-block birthday party business with a storefront in Adams. More than hundred members of the community came to support the new business ideas: 11 individuals were invited to showcase and eight pitched their ideas.

The Pitch Contest judges were Evan Valenti of Steven Valenti Clothing, Jodi Rathbun-Briggs of Greylock Federal Credit Union, John Lewis of Sp3ak Easy Studios, Laurie Mick of PERC and the City of Pittsfield, Linda Dulye of Dulye & Co. and Lindsey Schmid of 1Berkshire.

Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll) is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities nationwide to help under-resourced individuals successfully start and grow a business through intensive business training, mentorship and an extended professional support network.

$150 donations

In honor of celebrating their 150th year of service, Adams Community Bank donated gift certificates in the amount of $150 to each grade in the elementary schools where they have branch locations. Eighty grades from pre-K through eighth received a $150 gift certificate to purchase necessary school supplies for their classrooms.

The gift certificates are redeemable at a local vendor, Cascade School Supplies. The 11 public schools that benefited from this $12,000 donation are in Adams, Cheshire, Lanesborough, Lee, Lenox, North Adams and Williamstown.

BuzzFeed series filming

From left, Phil Sellers, Rebecca Pinsonnault, Gail Sellers and Evan Michael Pinsonnault are seen in the Sellers' River Hill Pottery studio in North Adams, where Rebecca and Evan were filmed for the BuzzFeed/Chevrolet 'Bring Me: Home' series.

As part of BuzzFeed's social media series "Bring Me: Home" (in partnership with Chevrolet), Evan Michael Pinsonnault of Adams shared his experiences growing up in The Berkshires with his wife, Rebecca, ahead of their first anniversary later this month. Pinsonnault is the son of Bernie Pinsonnault and Dianne Cutillo of Adams and Jan Charbonneau and Stan Spencer of Lenox.

The visit to Adams earlier in October was filmed by a 10-person professional crew -- some traveling from Los Angeles, where the Pinsonnaults now reside – others from New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., for the third installment in the popular online series. "Bring Me: Home" showcases visits home, such as a spouse bringing a partner home or high-school friends returning to their hometown.

The Pinsonnaults enjoyed chili cheese dogs at Jack's in North Adams, making baskets at River Hill Pottery in the Eclipse Mill, climbing across the Ramblewild adventure course, a cloudy walk around Mount Greylock's summit and driving around the Berkshires in a 2020 Equinox for the filming. The first "Bring Me: Home" clips featuring Evan and Rebecca Pinsonnault will air in late October on the BuzzFeed and Chevy websites.

Pinsonnault, a 2001 graduate of Hoosac Valley High School, is writing a candlepin bowling documentary based on his childhood. "It's more a mockumentary, like 'Best In Show' or 'A Mighty Wind.' But there’s a lot of truth in comedy, so perhaps we'll 'strike' the perfect balance. I just need to find the funding first," he said.

Tanglewood award

MassEcon, the state's private sector partner in promoting business growth in Massachusetts, has announced that Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Lenox, Mass., will receive its 2019 Community Impact Award. Employing more than 1,100 in a typical year, including full-time, part-time, and seasonal staff, orchestra members and extra players, Tanglewood brings more than $100 million in economic activity to the Berkshires annually. The $33 million Linde Center for Music and Learning, Tanglewood's first year-round facility, opened in June of 2019.

Tanglewood will receive the Community Impact Award as part of the 16th annual Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards Luncheon on Nov. 26 at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel.

Workforce Board awards

The MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board held its quarterly meeting in September at their offices in Pittsfield. As a state certified High Performing Workforce Board, the BWB highlighted several accomplishments including the college & career readiness programming, training in healthcare & manufacturing, employer outreach and engagement, rapid response services to assist those impacted by company closings, and more collaborative efforts in meeting the demand for more highly skilled workers.

The BWB recognized three outstanding leaders for their efforts: Melissa O’Brien, HR Generalist at Interprint, received the Employer of the Year award for her longstanding support of the region’s career readiness programming, STEM engagement, hosting teacher externships, and participation in the region’s Advanced Manufacturing training programs; Joshua Mendel, director of Recruitment and Outreach for MCLA's Graduate and Continuing Education Division received the Workforce Professional Award; and Erik Ungewitter is a licensed insurance broker at Scarafoni Financial and received the Workforce Ambassador Award.

During FY2019 the BWB leveraged over $2.8 million which convened 46 companies for human resource networking; evaluated 18 programs impacting 150 people; trained 50 individuals; placed 389 high school students in internships, assisted more than 3,174 students in college and career readiness activities; provided data to 120 organizations which generated $1.6M in new resources; convened the Berkshire Skills Cabinet generating $1.5M; assisted 3 companies in transition impacting 150 workers; and the MassHire Career Center provided employment services to 3,900 job seekers and 321 employers. This investment of public funds is a critical piece of the economic and workforce development strategy of Berkshire County.

Calendar Photos

After receiving more than 1,000 image submissions, Qualprint has selected its top three grand-prize winners for its iconic 36th annual "A Closer Look at the Berkshires" calendar photo contest. Qualprint has also selected nine runners-up and 12 honorable mentions. All 12 winning images, along with the honorable mentions and Berkshire Bank's Pick of the Year, will be published in Qualprint's 2020 "A Closer Look at the Berkshires" calendar. This is the calendar’s 36th year in production.

The first-place prize of $250 was awarded to Jane McWhorter of Great Barrington for her May image of a barnyard goose in Egremont. Jared Thomson of Monterey received the second-place prize of $200 for his October image of resting kayaks in Lee. Terri Thorne of Lee received the third-place prize of $150 for her January image of an icy Belmont Reservoir in Hinsdale. Hope Young of Pittsfield and Robert Watroba of Becket received $50 runner-up awards for two of their images. Jennifer Richard, Dan Morgan, Joshua Mantello, all of North Adams; Cindy Mathias and David Jakacky of Lee; and Michael Arace and Bruce Carnevale, both of Pittsfield, also received runner-up awards.

Another 12 contestants received honorable mention: Scott Plantier of Pittsfield; Marisa Burntitus of Great Barrington; Cheri Allison of Becket; Richard Hoebel of Lenox Dale; Robert Kudlate Jr. of Pittsfield; Debbie Storie of Lanesborough; Ruth Pierce of Cheshire; Alexander Giesser of North Adams; Jennifer Radwich of Peru; James Smith of Adams; Michelle Gage of Adams; and Lynne Anstett of Winchester Center, Conn. Sharon Siter of South Egremont was awarded Berkshire Bank’s Pick of the Year.

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BRTA Focuses on a New Run Schedule

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
01:26PM / Wednesday, April 29, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is still working on maintaining its run schedules after dropping the route realignment proposal.

Last Thursday's meeting was Administrator Kathleen Lambert's first official meeting taking over the reins; retiring director Robert Malnati stayed during a transition period that ended last month.

Lambert is trying to create a schedule that will lessen cancellations. There was a two-hour meeting the week before with the drivers union to negotiate run bids and Lambert is working with the new operating company Keolis, which is taking over from Transdev.

The board spoke about anonymous emails from drivers, which Lambert said she has not seen. iBerkshires was not able to see those letters, but has received some.

"They were lengthy emails from someone describing themselves as concerning BRTA employee, and there was a signed letter from a whole group of employees basically stating their concerns. So, you know, to me, it was a set of whistleblowers, and that, what my understanding is that this really triggers a need for some type of process to review the merits of these whistleblowers, not going to call them accusations, but basically expressions of concern," said member Stephen Bannon.

A letter iBerkshires received spoke of unhappy drivers who were considering quitting because of decisions being made without "input from frontline staff," frustration and falling morale, and the removal of the former general manager shortly after Lambert came in.

Lambert said it's difficult to navigate a new change. She also noted many drivers don't want to do Saturday runs and it has been hard negotiating with drivers on the new runs.

"I would like you all to keep in mind that the process of change is super difficult. Transdev has been here for 20 years, and some of these drivers have never known any other operating company, the way some of the operations have been handled has been archaic," she said. "So getting folks up to speed on how a modern transit system works is going to be painful for them. So I don't want to say that I'm unsympathetic, because I am sympathetic, but I am trying to coax people along with a system that's going to seem very strange to them."

The board spoke about better communication between them and Lambert, citing cooperation will be best moving forward.

"There's just a lot of stuff in the air right now, and there are a lot of fires to put out to make this a coordinated effort. And if we don't keep our communications open and be straightforward, then you get blindsided about how you know the input that you could get from us about your position, and how you know what's going on in your direction, and we get blindsided. And I think that we have to make sure that this is a collaboration," said member Sherry Youngkin.

"Both sides have responsibilities, because in the long run, this advisory board is going to have to make decisions as to how we brought forward and if we've gone forward in a fair and helpful way. And I think that's hopefully what everybody is looking for also."

Transdev and Keolis held a three-day recruiting event interviewing almost 40 candidates and offering jobs to eight, but only three stayed on to start training. Lambert said it was disappointing but she will keep trying to retain more people.

In her first report to the board, she noted that ridership dipped a little over 10 percent, but still remains higher than last year, adding that was because of cancellations of services because of the lack of drivers.

Like the last meeting, some of the advisory board members were torn over the start of the Link413 service, worried that the start of the service took drivers away and the numbers of riders are low.

Lambert, however, said the ridership has doubled from last month.

"As I've spoken before, we have, generally, a six-month adoption for brand-new service before you can really go in and evaluate, are you being successful based on the grant that my predecessor wrote along with the team for PBTA and RTA, we are ahead of schedule, which is pretty good, so I'm hoping that will continue to improve," she said.

Member Renee Wood said the board never approved the service, adding the only thing she could find in the minutes was a vote to accept the equipment. She said it was supposed to be put on the agenda to discuss.

"The Link413 service has been three years in the making. It's been a grant that was accepted and has been working with our partners, PVTA and FRTA, to put into place. So I don't have the entire history of how that process worked, but it's been three years in the making, and did we not understand that once we accept that grant that we were going to put in new service?" Lambert said.

The board discussed if Title VI, the Civil Rights Act, was followed with an accurate review and accurate amount of time for public comment period on the service changes and if its attorney should review if the grant conditions were properly followed.

Lambert said changes had the 60-day comment period included in the proposed route realignment packet, giving the opportunity for the community to respond to that as well but will look into the legality of the situation with their attorney.

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