Guardian Life and the Pittsfield Suns team up to help celebrate the City of Pittsfield's love of baseball at the June 20th 3rd.Thursday. From 5pm-8pm, upstreet Pittsfield is busting with baseball, and the friends, music, food and games you enjoy most at your favorite ballpark. The Green Mile Road Race also heads down North Street for the fourth consecutive year, organized by local running gurus at the Berkshire Running Center, this time with special help from youth musicians from Berkshire Rocks. Expect to see over 200 runners flying by at 6pm in a race that benefits upstreet Pittsfield's new farmers market.

Hotchkiss Portals Chamber Music
10 Years of Concerts With a View
2013 Opening Concert: 
Melvin Chen and 2013 Portals Resident Quartet
Monday, June 24, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
FREE ADMISSION

2013 marks the 10th year anniversary of the Hotchkiss Portals Chamber Music Series, Concerts With a View, June 24-July 20. This incredible concert series features internationally acclaimed musicians who perform in the magnificent Katherine M. Elfers Hall, Esther Eastman Music Center on the bucolic grounds of The Hotchkiss School campus. The concerts are free and open to the public; the hall is air-conditioned and handicapped accessible. Throughout the series, student musicians will also offer public performances. Please visit www.hotchkissportals.org for a complete schedule, or phone the concert hotline, (860) 435-3775.

Led by science educator Lisa Provencher, Science in the Parks is a FREE program where kids will learn about water and the environment and why keeping our parks clean is important. All ages are invited.

Join us this summer and discover a fascinating world right in our own city parks. Parents plan on your kids having fun and getting wet and dirty. We will be testing the pH of the water, identifying water plants, aquatic insects, frogs and turtles. Children will learn to identify invasive species. There will be observations of wild animals as well as meeting some live animals up close and personal. Come on out and play with us and learn some new stuff at the same time.

Third Saturdays Pittsfield Repair Cafe

The next Pittsfield Repair Cafe will be Saturday, June 15th, between 1:00 and 5:00 pm in the basement of St. Stephen's Church, 67 East Street, in Pittsfield.

The Pittsfield Resilience Circle has been holding monthly repair events since January, fixing Berkshire County residents' broken and damaged items for free, at the Pittsfield Repair Cafe.

The next Repair Cafe on June 15 is in need of a sewing volunteer or two, a computer repair person, and a bicycle repair person. If you would like to volunteer, contact Tom Harter at 413-212-8589 or email Janet Henderson at [email protected].

The original Repair Cafe idea started with one event in the Netherlands in 2009 (repaircafe.org) and has spread throughout that country, where there are now 100 groups holding the free events. Recently, people in other countries have started their own Repair Cafes. The Pittsfield Repair Cafe is one of the few being held in the United States to date.

Anyone is welcome to bring non-working lamps, vacuum cleaners and other small appliances, and all types of clothing and fabric items to the Repair Cafe, where they will be repaired by volunteers.

If you are interested in having something repaired, remember the event is held only once a month, on the third Saturday, from 1:00 until 5:00 pm. You needn't arrive right at 1:00; in fact, organizers say, it works better if people stagger their arrival times throughout the afternoon, so there isn't a rush all at once.

Volunteers fix as many articles as possible in the time available. Guests can watch their item being repaired and learn a little about how repairs are done. Repair persons say that, if your broken item needs a part, and you know what it needs, it will save time if you bring the part with you.

You can see photos of past Pittsfield Repair Cafes on Facebook at The Pittsfield Repair Cafe: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pittsfield-Repair-Cafe/349694531801567

The next Great Barrington Green Drinks is Thursday, Feb 7, at Route 7 Grill, from 5:15 on. This month they have their semi annual Benefit Book Sale of great, brand new green titles on topics like: Green building, Sustainable agriculture, Green living Natural history, Gardening . . . and more, all received at the Orion magazine office from book publishers eager for a review in the magazine. The best part is that whether you buy a book for your organization or for personal enjoyment, all the proceeds will go to Route 7 Grill's nonprofit of choice, and this time, Greenagers gets all the cash!

Starting January 23 at Matrushka Toys and Gifts - Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (GBRSS) announces the Spring 2013 performance schedule of children’s puppet plays, starting with “The Starry Night,” a gentle tale about a baby who cannot sleep and a mother who lulls the child by reminding her about the stars and moon watching lovingly from above.  “The Starry Night,” first of three puppet plays in the series to take place at Matrushka Toys and Gifts, 309 Main Street, Great Barrington, starts Saturday morning January 26 at 10:30am, with a second show at 11:30am. More “Mornings at Matrushka” puppet plays continue February 16 and March 23, 2013, with two morning shows each performance day. As spring advances, puppet plays will continue in the GBRSS Early Childhood center at 35 West Plain Road, Great Barrington, on April 6 and May 11 at 10am, followed by an opportunity to learn more about early childhood programs at the school. All events are free. To learn more, call Tracy Fernbacher at (413) 528-4015, ext. 106 or visit gbrss.org 

What do you do with a broken toaster? Or with a bike that needs repair? Or with a pair of pants when a seam rips? Or a partially dysfunctional umbrella? Throw it away? Certainly not! 

The Pittsfield Resilience Circle is organizing the Berkshires’ first ever Repair Café. It will be held in Pittsfield on Saturday,‏ ‎January ‬19, 2013,‭ ‬from‭ ‬1‭-‬5‭pm‭ ‬in the St.‭ ‬Stephen's Church basement at‭ ‬67‭ ‬East Street. ‭‬
The event is entirely free.‭ 

The Jewish Federation of the Berkshires presents Energize with Tai Chi — A Workshop,with certified traditional Tai Chi instructors Kathy and David Crowe.  These workshops are open to the public.

Mondays, January 14 & February 4 & 25 | 1pm | Congregation Knesset Israel | 16 Colt Road | 413-442-4360 x15 | $3

Try Hilltop Orchards award-winning Furnace Brook Wines, produced on their site. Warm up by the fire with their free wine tasting! Also taste their delicious cheeses and fresh baked good.  RSVP for moonlit snowshoe trek & bonfire on Saturday, January 26, 2013.

Our BerkshireTimes Magazine's upcoming February-March 2013 issue will contain an exciting feature for all things bride and wedding related. 

If you would like your business, product, or service to reach well over 75,000 readers (including all those future brides and engaged couples out there) contact us now. Deadline for this feature is December 31, 2012. 

Categories include but are not limited to:

Alchemy Initiative Fifth Annual Handmade Holiday Festival
Mark your calendars for the best holiday shopping in the Berkshires . . . Alchemy Initiative is thrilled to present their fourth annual Handmade Holiday Festival!  

Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2012, 10am-5pm, 
          and Sun, Dec 2, 2012, 10am-5pm
Place: Masonic Temple, 
           116 South Street,  Pittsfield, MA - (413) 394-9942
Price: $4.00/children under 12 free

7th Annual Rock, Rattle & Drum Pow Wow
America – Healing Her Spirit!

WHEN: Saturday, August 11, 2012 (10am-7pm)
             Sunday, August 12, 2012 (10am-6pm)
             Grand Entry on both days at 1pm.
WHERE: Mount Greylock (at the base of the mountain)
              Wirtes Farm, 45 Greylock Road , Lanesboro, MA 
              (Access road from Route 7 next to Vacation Village)

• Grammy & Nammy Award Winner Joseph FireCrow!
  
• Nammy Award Winner, “Lord of the Strings,” Arvel Bird!
  
• A Cultural Council of Northern Berkshire 2012 grant recipient!

Pow Wow is happening rain or shine! Rain place - Mt. Greylock High School on Route 7, Williamstown, MA. All tickets are available at the gate. Pow Wow One Day Admission: $8 for Adults, $6 for Seniors 65+ and Youth 11-18, free for Children 10 and under.

9th Annual West Stockbridge Zucchini Festival
On Saturday, August 11th (rain or shine) the West Stockbridge Cultural Council will host the 9th Annual Zucchini Festival in the town center, Rts. 41/102, ¼ mile west of Exit 1 of the Mass Pike. The Festival is for families in the community and visitors alike to gather together to have fun! Attendance is free, with small fees for tickets at game booths. All are welcome!  

Festivities beginning at 10:00am and continuing throughout the day will start with the popular Pet Show and Parade. There will be a cash prize for the best costumed pet. This year our logo is Zucchini Island, a summer paradise of Zucchini Palms. 

HUDSON – Yes, ClaverackLanding presents artists who play Schuman.  And Debussy was on world-class flutist Paula Robison’s program. And, of course, the organization has presented the music of Beethoven and Mendelssohn.  Featured artists have included the world-renowned violinist Elmar Olivera, pianist Joshua Rifkin, and string players who've spent their formative years under the tutelage of Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein and Iszhak Perlman.

Spencertown, New York – Spencertown Academy Art Center’s Hidden Gardens Tour, an annual gateway to summer in Columbia County, is scheduled for Saturday, June 16, and includes an array of events designed to inform, inspire, and intrigue garden enthusiasts. Highlights include a new Garden Market on the Green, Hidden Gardens Tour to six private homes, the Twilight in the Garden Cocktail Party, a lecture by Dan Benarcik, and a garden-themed art exhibition. Academy Board members Lydia Kukoff and Madaline Sparks, contributing garden editor at Real Simple magazine, are co-chairs of Hidden Gardens this year; proceeds benefit the Academy and its arts-in-education programs in local schools.