Elizabeth Freeman Center RISE Together 2025

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Join Elizabeth Freeman Center in September for RISE Together 2025 - six community walks to end domestic and sexual violence in Berkshire County and beyond. 
 
Rise Together brings friends, families, neighbors, and community leaders together to honor survivors, remember those we have lost, and take a stand for a safer, more just future for all.
 
Walks are scheduled for Pittsfield: Thursday Sept. at 5:30 pm; Great Barrington: Wednesday Sept. 17 at 4:30 pm; Lenox: Thursday Sept. 18 at 5:30 pm; Lee: Wednesday Sept. 24 at 5:30 pm; Williamstown: Thursday Sept. 25 at 5:30 pm; and North Adams: Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 5:30 pm. 
 
At each walk, after a welcome ceremony, participants will set out together on a roughly one-mile walk. Attendees can bring their own signs or borrow one of Elizabeth Freeman Center's signs.
 
Ways to get involved: follow this link to make a donation, start a fundraising team or sponsor the event. Rewards: Raise $200+ to earn an exclusive 2025 Rise Together t-shirt; raise $500+ to add a limited-edition Rise Together hoodie. 
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Wahconah Students Join Statewide 'SOS' Call for Rural School Funding

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff

DALTON, Mass. — Students at Wahconah Regional High School are urging the state to fully fund Rural School Aid that supports essential services that shape their future.
 
Rural districts across the state participated in Rural and Declining Enrollment Schools Week of Action to insist Beacon Hill fully fund rural aid at $60 million. 
 
Schools across Massachusetts sent their pleas for aid to lawmakers through letter-writing campaigns, sign-making, and coordinated gatherings where students and educators formed the letters "SOS."

Wahconah students did something different — they created an educational video detailing the need for increased funding for rural schools with the school's music teacher Brian Rabuse, who edited the video, Assistant Superintendent Aaron Robb said. 

The advocacy efforts move the issue from spreadsheets to show the human cost of a funding formula previously described as "remarkably wrong." 
 
During an interview with iBerkshires, students expressed how districts without rural aid would have to make reductions in world language programing, mental health support, extracurricular opportunities, and other areas they find essential. 
 
"Our students deserve the same quality of education as any child in Massachusetts, regardless of their ZIP code," Superintendent Mike Henault said in a press release.
 
"The week of action is an opportunity for our communities to come together and make it clear to Beacon Hill that the status quo is no longer acceptable." 
 
Rural schools attempt to create the same quality education as urban and suburban areas while balancing high fixed costs of transportation and operations of geographically large, low-population districts.
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