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A community-run event on North Street brought out some ghoulish treats and creepy 'trunks.'
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Pittsfield Community Comes Together to Host 'Trick or Trunk'

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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Participants say it was a nice event for the children.
PITTSFIELD, Mass.— North Street on Thursday night was full of masked, socially distancing trick-or-treaters participating in the community organized "Trick or Trunk" event.
 
From the corner of Linden Street to Bradford Street, cars lined up in parking spots with their trunks open and decorated spooky for Halloween. To comply with the city's COVID-19 Halloween procedures, individual treat bags were made up for each ghoul and goblin.
 
Some trunks offered Halloween-themed pencils, and small toys that could be easily sanitized.
 
The event was planned two weeks before Halloween so that if parents wished to quarantine the candy they received 14 days, their kids could enjoy it on Oct. 31.
 
The event started as a Facebook page made by community members. Currently, the Trick or Trunk Pittsfield page has 81 likes.
 
The page's first post read:
 
"Hey everyone, thank you for being interested in this event. Just for clarification ... this is a community planned event. It is not being organized by one single person or a group but organized by the community. The idea is to run this like a [potluck]; meaning if you are planning to attend this event, it would be great if you also planned to decorate your trunk. It is not necessary, but if we all work together we can guarantee a successful turn out. We decided on this date for people who may want to quarantine their candy for 14 days and let their kids have it on Halloween."
 
The participating cars went all out with banners, hanging monsters, spooky props, and the owners dressing up themselves.
 
Cheryl Cleveland and Vicki Mazzer represented the Kiwanis Club of Pittsfield at the event by decking out Mazzer's husband's muscle car and hosting treats in the trunk.
 
"The Kiwanis mission is to change one community at a time, and one child at a time," Cleveland said. "So this is all for kids and they have been so left out of everything all summer so we thought, what a great idea."
 
Editor's note: an earlier version misidentified the women in the image above.

Tags: Halloween,   North Street,   

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Housing Secretary Applauds County's Collaborative Housing Efforts

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
PITTSFIELD, Mass.—State leadership recognized the collaborative spirit that drives Berkshire County to address hard-hitting issues with a multi-faceted approach.
 
On Thursday, Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augustus visited Pittsfield Housing Authority (PHA) and Berkshire Community Action Council's central office.  
 
His overarching observation? The collaborative spirit that surrounds nonprofit providers, state, federal, and local government.
 
"It's not about turf, it's not about fiefdom, it's about who you're trying to serve and the difference you're trying to make with your targeted population," he said, adding that there is still a lot of work to do and they will need that state's help with funding and technical assistance.
 
PHA owns and administers public housing for over 200 families and more than 400 individual tenants.  Augustus walked through Columbia Arms, which houses elders and disabled community members through income-based rental apartments.
 
Earlier this year, Tina Danzy was hired as the executive director.  During a private meeting, she and other PHA representatives discussed the city's aging housing stock, CARES Act funding increases, and community coordinators' positive impact.
 
Augustus explained that both the housing authority and state are enthused about community coordinators, which track issues and assist with developing programs and events.  
 
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