Letter: Breen Has Right Experience for North Adams Council

To the Editor:

Well, I just voted, and I gave my first vote for City Council to Pete Breen. Why, you ask?

No other new candidate has the experience and devotion and has been as generous with their time. Over the past 40 years, Pete has served on many boards and commissions. He has worked for a variety of employers including MCLA, where Pete was a facilitator and instructor for technology and curriculum development and assistant registrar. Pete took that experience over into the town of Adams, where he implemented the town's entire computer system, serving as the town's technology administrator. Pete then went farther south, where he was a member of the adjunct faculty at BCC for four years.

Shifting gears into education, Pete taught computer science at Hoosac Valley for 12 years, while also serving in the district office and as the pupil transportation officer.

David Willette
North Adams, Mass.

Northern Berkshire United Way: Big Goals, Shifting Needs

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:18PM / Monday, September 07, 2026

Northern Berkshire United Way is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Each month, we will take a look back at the agency's milestones over the decades. This part looks at the 1990s era as reported in the North Adams Transcript.

 

Northern Berkshire United Way saw its campaign goals rise to a half-million or more over the decade.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Northern Berkshire United Way entered the 1990s with big goals — and met almost all of them. It ended the decade with the largest campaign in its history.

 

It wasn't easy; the area was still reeling from closures and layoffs, including from General Electric and Waverly Fabrics. The first campaign of the decade saw a historic $500,000 goal only meet 93 percent of its goal. 

 

"We lost tens of thousands of dollars from firms and employees that contributed last year," said Daniel Bird, board vice president told the 150 gathered for the 1990 campaign conclusion, as reported by the Transcript. "There were just fewer to give because of closings and layoffs. What we did see were tens of thousands in new and increased gifts which brought us to the high percentage of  goal, and we are grateful."

 

The agency lowered its sights to $480,000 the following year and beat that number, possibly by pulling out all the stops. The four co-chairs that year could heavily rely on prayer — the Rev. Lawrence Provenzano of St. John's, the Rev. Betty Lou Ure of First Congregational, and Lts. Cheriann and Kevin Stoops of the Salvation Army.

 

They even sang a rap song that year, with lyrics including "the United Way is in our town to help the people who are down / some are young, some are old, some are living, some are cold / but you are here to make this work, to raise the funds, you will not shirk!"

 

Mayor John Barrett III and state Rep. Daniel Bosley promised a "big splash" for the campaign with a set up photo of a "plunge" into a wading pool. (They had promised the YMCA pool but were in Boston to talk about a museum in the former Sprague complex.)

 

Provenzano thought the success was because "people knew how desperate the situation was."