Sometimes a story sticks with you long after you read it. Here are the stories of 2025 that resonated with our staff.

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Terrace 592 is poised to add 41 affordable units to the city’s rental market. With seven of those units closed referral, the 200 applicants are hoping to be selected for one of the remaining 34 apartments in a lottery later this month. Their chances? One in six.

When Terrace 592 announced an application window for affordable housing, 200 applications were submitted for a chance to live in one of the 34 apartments. That's only a one in six chance at getting housing, or an 83 percent rejection rate.

PHS students approached the microphone with a different perspective: They love and are proud of their school. And they don't want their school to be defined by what the grown-ups did or didn't do, or what others have to say about it.

In the final month of 2024, there were several allegations against the Pittsfield High School staff which came to light and dominated the news headlines for weeks. But in early January, during a public comments period during a school committee meeting, several students spoke up to remind the public about all the good things the school offers, too. They're proud of their school and they don't want the negative news to cancel out the hard work they've done.

After years of international exhibitions, Christopher Boswell finally has a gallery of his own and total freedom. His first show is a collection of photographs his father took in the Caribbean during the 1950s.

Christopher St. Clair Boswell was a “Seabee” (a member of the Navy’s Construction Battalion) in the 1950s, during the Korean War era. On a whim, he bought a camera and photographed his daily life during this time. After he returned home, he never got the photographs developed. Fast forward 70 years, his son, Christopher David Boswell brought the images to live with a slide projector. It was a trip down memory lane.

Artist Francesca Olsen’s quilt exhibition, 'Witness: Sharing Cancer Stories,' at Ventfort Hall in Lenox uses textile art to explore the realities of cancer, community and resilience, on view through March 31.

“Is this happening to anybody else?” it asks in large text.

Francesca Olsen, a North Adams-based quilter, writer and consultant, has seen that phrase more times than she can count in Facebook groups, Reddit threads and other online communities that she’s joined since she was first diagnosed, at age 35, with Stage 2 breast cancer in 2022. Currently in remission, Olsen was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2024. Those asking often need help, Olsen said — or at the very least, reassurance that someone else is going through the same thing.

As Lee readies to demolish the deteriorating garage to make room for a new public safety complex, an unearthed photograph provides a nostalgic window into the town’s past.

The town of Lee was preparing to demolish that the Department of Public Works garage to make room for a new building complex that will house the town’s fire and police departments. One employee found an old photograph from the 1950s, featuring the employees of the time posing in front of their trucks. In February this year, six highway personnel took their positions beside their trucks, mimicking the poses their colleagues had assumed decades before.

Every night from 10 p.m. until 5 a.m., homeless people are left without access to a single public restroom, where they can use the bathroom without needing to spend money. During the day, that access expands to about 13 public restrooms in and around downtown Pittsfield, but hours vary and not one of the restrooms provides showers.

It's something we all take for granted and don't think of it until we need it: a restroom. While many of us can use the facilities at our homes or restaurants, what about those in the community who don't have a place to call home or a car to access a public restroom easily.

At just 17 years old, Joseph Coy left Pittsfield High School to enlist in the Navy, serving on Utah Beach on D-Day and later working as a messenger across wartime Europe. ”I’m very happy that I had the experiences that I did."

Joseph Coy, a former Pittsfield fire chief and veteran who stormed the beaches of Normandy when he was 17, recently sat down with The Berkshire Eagle at Berkshire Place to reflect on his time in the service. He is one of fewer than two dozen surviving World War II veterans who live in Berkshire County, according to Jim Clark with Pittsfield Veterans' Services.

Five of the thirteen people picked up by ICE on March 19 are back in Berkshire county: four have been granted bond and one has been released.

Five of the 13 people picked up by ICE in March are back in Berkshire County as of May, according to community organizers. Of the remaining eight, Michael Hitchcock, the co-director of Roots and Dreams and Mustard Seeds said there were three “we couldn’t help, and we’ve still got a few more that may come home.” In the 48 hours after the ICE raids in March, Greylock Together rapidly helped raise “almost $15,000 that we've been able to use to connect 10 of those families with effective legal representation,” said Fernando Leon, an ACLU staff member and a member of Berkshire Interfaith Organizing.

A crowd of hundreds turned out to get the first glimpses of the W.E.B. Du Bois statue at Mason Public Library on Saturday, culminating efforts to place a sculpture of the monumental sociologist there for the past three years.

A crowd of hundreds gathered in downtown Great Barrington in July to see the bronze statue of W.E.B. Du Bois three years in the making by sculptor Richard Blake for the first time. Julie Michaels and Ari Zorn, chair and vice chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project respectively, led the event off with background on how the effort came to be, while also assuring the crowd that this was a homecoming for a native son. The statue is a memorial to “the intellectual father of the modern Civil Rights Movement” in his birthplace.

When 22,000 Berkshire County residents went without their November SNAP benefits, neighbors, businesses and volunteers provided thousands of free meals and raising more than $28,000 to help families put food on the table. Here are just a few ways neighbors helped others in the last month ...

When 22,000 Berkshire County residents went without their November SNAP benefits, neighbors, businesses and volunteers stepped up, providing thousands of free meals and raising more than $28,000 to help families put food on the table. Hinsdale Pizza House owner Jason Reed served about 120 pizzas and 160 pasta with meatball dinners for free. Berkshire Mountain Bakery donated $1,500 of its profits from Halloween to Berkshire Agricultural Ventures Match Fund, which helped 50 shoppers get $30 from the match fund. Bigg Daddy’s Philly Steak House in North Adams gave out 457 meals to anyone under 18 who asked for the Bigg Heart Meals on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, no questions asked.

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