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Drury High Class of 2013 Speeds Into the Future

Drury High School graduated 111 seniors on Thursday night.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The class 2013 at Drury High School was urged to open up the throttle as they speed off into the world.

Valedictorian Molly Howe, taking her cue from "Talladega Nights" told the graduates seated before her in the gymnasium to "rev up our engines and open the throttle, jump right into that hot, nasty, badass world, grab live by the horns and hold on tight."

She did offer some parting advice for her 110 classmates — the "spunkiest, boldest and most unique group of students ever to rattle the halls of this building" — to help navigate the road ahead: Be compassionate, take care of yourself, make time for fun, surround yoruself with people who matter and "do not let high school define you."

"I urge you to strive to be better than your biggest mistakes, and prove to yourself that you will never make them again. ... Never forget to forgive yourself."

The closeness of this class — the last to graduate from the Conte Middle School — became apparent as each senior stepped on the stage to accept his or her diploma from Mayor Richard Alcombright and Principal Amy Meehan. The sea of blue and white cheered in increasing volume during the evening as each name was called.

Alcombright noted one student who had decorated her mortarboard with van Gogh's "Starry Night," prompting memories of one of his favorite songs by Don McLean about the painter and the painting.

"This is your starry, starry night," he told the graduates.

For salutatorian Abigail Bolner, it was less a starry night — and more of rainy one — than ending of chapter in the story of the class of 2013.

"From the moment we stepped into Drury High School in September 2009, that's when our stories began," she said. "The leap from middle school to high school was a scary one. But we had no choice; we had to take the risk."

Valedictorian Molly Howe told the class to rev their engines.

Seniors joined there bandmates for one last performance; the chorus for one last song. Class President Michael Schmidt welcomed the audience and guests, and led the pledge and national anthem. Superintendent of Schools James Montepare presented the class.

Meehan said her charges had arrived "trying to take root at Drury in our classrooms and our school culture." She had wondered if the school had cultivated these saplings enough "to allow your roots to develop, to reach deep into the earth to firmly take hold enough to prosper."

She and the faculty had watched them grow and blossom in boldness and beauty. Remember, she told them, "in the fierceness of any storm, your deep Drury High School roots know that your strength will always come."

The culmination of the ceremonies was tossing of caps, snappers and the ubiqitous beach balls as the 111 graduates sang the traditional alma mater.

Rob Thomas, Paul Doucette, Kyle Cook and Brian Yale sent their classmates off with a singular ode, wondering what tomorrow will bring and what life "is going to be without school."

"I believe the world is ours to control/Oh yes I guess we're gonna find out."

2024 Year in Review: North Adams' Year of New Life to Old Institutions

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
05:42AM / Thursday, January 02, 2025

President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz poses in one of the new patient rooms on 2 North at North Adams Regional Hospital.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — On March 28, 2014, the last of the 500 employees at North Adams Regional Hospital walked out the doors with little hope it would reopen. 

 

But in 2024, exactly 10 years to the day, North Adams Regional was revived through the efforts of local officials, BHS President and CEO Darlene Rodowicz, and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who was able to get the U.S. Health and Human Services to tweak regulations that had prevented NARH from gaining "rural critical access" status.

 

It was something of a miracle for North Adams and the North Berkshire region.

 

Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, under the BHS umbrella, purchased the campus and affiliated systems when Northern Berkshire Healthcare declared bankruptcy and abruptly closed in 2014. NBH had been beset by falling admissions, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and investments that had gone sour leaving it more than $30 million in debt. 

 

BMC had renovated the building and added in other services, including an emergency satellite facility, over the decade. But it took one small revision to allow the hospital — and its name — to be restored: the federal government's new definition of a connecting highway made Route 7 a "secondary road" and dropped the distance maximum between hospitals for "mountainous" roads to 15 miles. 

 

"Today the historic opportunity to enhance the health and wellness of Northern Berkshire community is here. And we've been waiting for this moment for 10 years," Rodowicz said. "It is the key to keeping in line with our strategic plan which is to increase access and support coordinated countywide system of care." 

 

The public got to tour the fully refurbished 2 North, which had been sectioned off for nearly a decade in hopes of restoring patient beds; the official critical hospital designation came in August.