Berkshire Community College staff and students in October donated ten large boxes of school supplies to a village school in Afghanistan.
Part of the Peter M. Goodrich Memorial Foundation, these supplies are in memory of north county resident Peter Goodrich, who was in the second plane that crashed into the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001.
One of the college's student clubs, the Global Issues Resource Organization (GIRO), sponsored and publicized the project, at the request of one of its members, Margalis Riera-Filson, a 65-year-old student in the Physical Therapy Assistant program.
She brought the idea to the BCC club because it was her son, Marine Corps Major Rush Filson (a BCC graduate), who discovered a village school of 300 where he is stationed in Afghanistan that had no money and no supplies.
Rush Filson had been a childhood friend of Peter Goodrich, and was in regular touch with Peter's parents. When the Goodrich's learned of the school, it gave them the answer to how to best honor their son's memory. The memorial trust fund in their son's name has funded this project.
When one faculty member tried to buy some supplies for the project at the college store, store manager James Bowman recalled the seven boxes of old paper and pencils that he'd been intending to clean out since he began working there twelve years ago. He donated all of them. The other three boxes contain miscellaneous materials donated by other BCC faculty, staff, and students.
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Local Soccer Enthusiasts Look to Compete in Iceland Tournament
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
The members of the Stateline Strikers team are raising funds to compete in a tournament in Iceland this November.
CANAAN, N.Y. — A group of area women, including some self-described "soccer moms" are preparing to take their game on the road — and across the ocean.
This November, the small team of soccer enthusiasts are aiming to compete in "Wurth Iceland," a six-on-six tournament that bills itself as "fun and football" and brings teams from around the world to the Land of Fire and Ice.
"I've actually been part of this adventure previously," Yessica Soriano of Lanesborough, Mass., said recently. "I played in the tournament six or seven years ago.
"It was lovely. I had never had the opportunity to travel internationally to play soccer until this came about. It was a great experience going there with other women who enjoyed playing the sport — not just women but soccer moms."
For about a year, Soriano has been enjoying the beautiful game with a different group of like-minded women who get together on Tuesdays and Thursdays as part of the Columbia County Women's Soccer League.
The group plays on Tuesdays at the Fieldhouse in Canaan and on Thursdays at Crellin Community Park in Chatham.
The league was founded in the summer of 2023 by Melanie Snyder, a resident of the eastern New York county who founded Tri-State Psychotherapy Group in Pittsfield, Mass.
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