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Monument Mountain Graduates Told To Reach Height of Potential

Mounument Mountain awarded diplomas to 119 students on Sunday. More photos can be found here.

LENOX, Mass. — On one of her last days at Monument Mountain, valedictorian Nicole Keefner took a snapshot of an empty classroom.

That photo tells more of a story than any taken of the school's exterior, she said.

"Anyone can take a picture of the school from the outside. But at Monument, it takes a student, a faculty member, janitorial staff to take a picture from the inside that has more meaning than what can be captured in the lens," Keefner said on Sunday while addressing her senior class at Tanglewood, when the 119 students gathered for the final time to graduate.

"That picture has no one in it. It is just desks and chairs. But it makes me laugh and cry every time I look at it."

Every student had their favorite place in the school where they learned life lessons and met great people, she said. But while that is now those four years in high school are coming to an end but she doesn't want her fellow classmates to stop being what made the Great Barrington high school special.

"Don't stop here. Meet new people, do great things and never stop learning. This unexplainable feeling we all felt in these last few weeks together, why it hurts so bad but feels so great and causes us to feel every emotion at once. It comes from our love of our time at Monument," she said.

Salutatorian Mikayla Morley hopes that when the students now head out into the world, that they find the passion to achieve the "height of our potential."

Morley told the story of a family vacation she took when she and her sister climbed a mountain where they "felt as though the world was at our fingertips."

"As the class of 2013 goes into the world, many of us may be feeling the way I did on top of that mountain — vibrant, capable and confident. I know I am also terrified. In the years to come, we hope to discover the interests and passion to make us feel alive and take us to the height of our potential," she said.

Superintendent Peter Dillon asked the students to "please stay in the Berkshires" or if they do leave, to come back.

"You all have so much to offer and it would be great for you to do it here," Dillon said.

And with a short walk across the Shed stage followed by a toss of their caps, the students had completed earning their high school education. They are at the "doorstep of your future," School Committee Chairman Stephen Bannon said, and charged the students to "continue to strive, to learn no matter where the future takes you."

ServiceNet Warming Center Hosted 126 People This Winter

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:46AM / Monday, April 07, 2025

ServiceNet manages the warming shelter next to the church. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — ServiceNet's warming center has provided more than heat to unhoused individuals over the last four months and will run to the end of April.

It opened on Dec. 1 in the First United Methodist Church's dining area, next to ServiceNet's 40-bed shelter The Pearl. The agency has seen 126 individuals utilize the warming center and provided some case management to regulars.

While this winter was a success, they are already considering next winter.

"I've been on this committee many years now. There's probably only a few months out of the year that I don't talk about winter, so I'm always trying to plan for next winter," Erin Forbush, ServiceNet's director of shelter and housing, told the Homelessness Advisory Committee on Wednesday.

"We are in this winter and I'm already thinking what's going to happen next winter because I want to be really clear, winter shelter is never a given. We don't have this built into the state budget. It's not built into our budget, so there is always trying to figure out where we get money, and then where do we go with winter shelter."

She pointed out that warming centers are "very different" from shelters, which have a bed. The warming center is set up like a dining room, open from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., and folks are welcome to stay for breakfast.

"We are asking people to come in, get warm, be out of the elements," Forbush explained.

The warming center will close on April 30.