BCC and BRPC Offer Free 'Choke Saver' Training Certification

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PITTSFIELD, Mass. —Berkshire Community College (BCC) and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) will offer a free Choke Saver Training class offered on various dates in several locations throughout Berkshire County.  
 
The 75-minute class provides participants with a two-year certification. 
 
Local businesses, such as restaurants, that are required to have Choke Safe certified individuals on site are particularly encouraged to participate. Space is limited; each class can accept up to 30 students. 
 
Classes will be held on Mondays from 10:15–11:30 am on the following dates:
  • Jan. 9 at the Great Barrington Fire Station, 67 State Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230
  • Jan. 23 at 413 Bistro, 40 Main Street, North Adams, MA 01247
  • Feb. 27 at Berkshire Palate, 297 North Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201
  • March 13 at 413 Bistro, 40 Main Street, North Adams, MA 01247
  • April 10 at Berkshire Community College, 1350 West St, Pittsfield, MA 01201
To register, visit www.berkshirecc.edu/choke-saver.
 
Massachusetts law requires at least one employee to be trained in Approved Manual Choke Saving Procedures, which include the Heimlich Maneuver and Sequence of Obstructed Airway Maneuvers, for all food service establishments with 25 seats or more on-premises when food is being served.

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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."
 
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