Steve Bannon: Public Service Superstar
The world is filled with people who give their free time to what they care about. And there are some who do it consistently for years and years, even while raising a family and holding down a job. One of those is Great Barrington native Steve Bannon, Chair of the Berkshire Hills Regional School District School Committee. Bannon was picked to receive the Massachusetts Association of School Committee’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2014. The Award honors people like Bannon, who through their service to their community and their local school committee, have exhibited the best characteristics of public service.
The Award will be presented at the annual MASC/MASS conference in Hyannis in November.
Bannon, who also serves on the Great Barrington Selectboard, has served on the Berkshire Hills School Committee for 17 years, and has been chair for 15. He has worked to support student growth through policy-setting and budgets, and supporting shifts in curriculum and teaching practices through robust professional development. He also helped create co-curricular guidelines, encouraged volunteerism, and more recently undertook grant writing and community partnerships.
Bannon supported the building of Muddy Brook Regional Elementary School and Monument Valley Regional Middle School, and endorses, as well, the current renovation and addition of Monument Mountain Regional High School, from where he graduated in 1976.
“Steve has done an exceptional job balancing the needs of kids and the community and keeping his eyes on a long-term vision for the schools,” said Berkshire Hills Superintendent Peter Dillon. “The Award is well deserved and our communities are lucky to have someone who cares so deeply about learning.”
Bannon is also a long-time Rotary Club member, and is on other numerous boards and committees, including the Great Barrington Parks & Recreation and Cemetery Committees. He even finds time to take a 5-mile run — with a little walking, he jokes — every day after work.
Bannon, a pharmacist at Fairview Hospital — where he was born –was delighted by the announcement, and expressed his “love for this district” at the last school committee meeting. “I’m honored to be recognized for my efforts,” said Bannon, “and I’m indebted to the nine other School Committee members and countless volunteers and staff who over these 17 years have done their best on behalf of students.”
The Massachusetts Association of School Committees’ mission is to achieve excellence in school committee leadership through advocacy, training and service.
* * *
Support Great Barrington’s Open Space
Run for the Hills — a pace of various distances through the fall foliage for folks of all ages — is a fundraiser for the Great Barrington Land Conservancy and will take place Sunday, October 5. See below for entry information.Some of the greatest assets in the Berkshires are its open space, and those who protect it.
The Great Barrington Land Conservancy, with its volunteer board and members, has conserved more than 300 acres of privately owned land as “forever wild.” The Conservancy has numerous other accomplishments under its belt, including protection of open space for public recreation and farmland, and the creation of walking and hiking trails.
One way to support the Conservancy is to “Run for the Hills” on Sunday, October 5. The day will, no doubt, be crisp and lit with fall-foliage.
Anyone can participate in the 10K, 5K or 1K Run/Walk fundraiser, which is sponsored by many local businesses. This year there are activities for everyone: folks can walk or run, kids can fun run 1K, and experienced runners can compete with one another in the new 10K distance. Prizes go to winners and all kids. The first 200 registrants get a race T-shirt. Registration is simple: go to www.greatbarringtonlandconservancy.org, click the “Run for the Hills” link, and follow the registration directions. Anyone interested in lending a hand can sign up by emailing info@greatbarringtonlandconservancy.org.
“Run for the Hills is inspirational,” said Conservancy President Christine Ward. “So many folks getting involved in so many ways. This community support of Great Barrington Land Conservancy enables our conservation and stewardship to work. We are deeply grateful.”
* * *
The Berkshire Pottery Tour
Six Berkshire potters will open their studios for the first annual Berkshire Pottery Tour this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 27 and 28 from 10-5 each day. Each potter will host a sale of their work in the environment where it is made, offering a tour of their studios, kilns and showrooms with live demonstrations of throwing, hand-building, and decorating techniques.
You might start your tour at the Good Purpose Gallery in Lee, where the six potters have a show and you can get an overview of the entire tour. From there your self-guided itinerary winds east or west through the beautiful valleys of the Southern Berkshires.
While the potters all work in clay, that is where the resemblance ends. Each artist uses different materials, and different making and firing techniques for a diversity of forms, textures and colors. Some make functional work; others favor a more sculptural approach.
In addition to selling in galleries regionally and nationally, each of these artists make pots for the local market and participate in the local economy, supplying restaurants and galleries, selling at local events.
The pottery tour is an excellent format for exposing potters’ work to a larger market, allowing patrons to transcend the paradigm of consumerism by actually meeting the maker of the goods they purchase.
Visit the studios of Paula Shalan, Lorimer Burns, Ben C. Evans, Ben Krupka, Daniel Bellow, and Ellen Grenadier.
Look for the Pottery Tour roadside signs at key turns on the weekend of the event. Maps are available at each studio, at the Good Purpose Gallery, or at www.berkshirepotterytour.com. For more information call 413-429-7111
The post News bits & bytes: Bannon earns public service award; Run for the Hills; Berkshire pottery tour appeared first on The Berkshire Edge.