BOSTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will send more than $2.9 million to Massachusetts to reimburse Berkshire Medical Center (BMC) for the additional costs of operating safely and handling increased patient loads during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hospital will receive a total of $2,908,751 in federal funding through FEMA's Public Assistance grant program to reimburse some of the costs associated with operating in a pandemic environment between June and September 2020, including:
Setting up a temporary COVID-19 testing site in the hospital's parking lot and providing 17,044 tests;
Contracting for security, diagnostic/laboratory services, nursing labor, and ambulatory services; and
Converting a total of 48 additional rooms to airborne isolation rooms
"FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Berkshire Medical Center with these costs," said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. "Providing resources for our partners on the front lines of the pandemic fight is critical to their success, and our success as a nation."
So far, FEMA has provided nearly $867 million in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.
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Lenox Class of 2024 'a Really Good Bunch of Kids'
By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
Valedictorian Genevieve Collins tells her classmates that they have had a bountiful harvest in what they had experienced at Lenox Memorial. See more photos here.
LENOX, Mass. — The Lenox Memorial High School class of 2024 will be remembered as "a really good bunch of kids."
Superintendent William Collins said they earned the label early on — it's followed them from kindergarten through high school.
"There was something special about the chemistry and history of individuals comprising the class of 2024," he told the family and friends in the Shed at Tanglewood for graduation ceremonies. I need not remind you that this is a class that began high school during the pandemic, a fate undeserved by anyone. It is a testament to their resiliency. They not only returned to in-person instruction but they made up the lost time. They've done a lot."
Collins called the 61 graduates on the Tanglewood stage "doers, achievers and accomplishers, highly intelligent and exceedingly kind."
He noted that the pursuit of happiness was held as equal to life and liberty in the Declaration of Independence. And rarely is the shortest line between two points the fastest road to happiness. A study on common factors of happiness, he said, found that rather than material wealth, "having a happy, connected friends for a wide social network, we are more likely to bring about enduring happiness."
"Circuitous routes are the best routes, serendipity by its very nature lives where we don't expect a pleasant surprises lie waiting unseen and unforeseen around the next bend on paths that we've never expected or intended to do," he said.
Don't be afraid to ask for help, Collins said, make friends, or a friend. Know that Lenox Memorial is a better place because of the class, he said, "we know that you will carry a piece of us with you whether you stay in Lenox or travel halfway around the globe."
Under an arch of purple and white balloons, 184 seniors concluded their high school experience at Tanglewood on Sunday. It was the first time in five years that graduation had been held at the Lenox institute. click for more
The rain eased right before Taconic's 54th graduation ceremony on Sunday. Families, friends, and alumni gathered on the school's lawn in raincoats and smiles to celebrate 190 graduates.
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The district administration, school committee members, and students' families gathered around the cafeteria's stage to watch as students performed the transformation of a very hungry caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.
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The Pittsfield baseball team Saturday rallied for five runs in the top of the sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie and went on to a 12-5 win over Clinton in the quarter-finals of the Division 4 State Tournament. click for more