PITTSFIELD — For Kathryn Hamilton, volunteering at the Berkshire Carousel brings her closer to her father Dan Hermanski. On Saturday, almost one year after his death, Hamilton signed up in honor of him, with her 2-year-old son Jake in tow.

"I just want to make sure this place is always here and open for everybody," she said.

Dan Hermanski was a carver for the Berkshire Carousel. He became paraplegic in 1992 and died in 2025.

Hermanski spent the last 33 years of his life in a wheelchair due to a rare condition caused by a stroke in his spinal cord. That didn't stop him from being active — he participated in adaptive sports, led disability groups and started carving horses for the carousel around 2012.

"He would tell me stories about each of the horses and their names, what they were going to look like," Hamilton recalled. The carousel has 40 horses carved and painted by volunteers, as well as Berkshire scenery on its panels. "I think deep down he knew it was something that for years to come his grandchildren and their children would get to enjoy even after he was gone."

Hermanski died at sunrise on Palm Sunday in 2025 at Berkshire Medical Center after a fight with pneumonia complicated by Parkinson's disease.

But he didn't leave without saying goodbye.

According to his obituary, after more than 72 hours on a ventilator, he spent his final days with his family, which were "filled with music and love." He sang along to Frank Sinatra, did air guitar to "Eight Days A Week" — and asked for updates on the Berkshire Carousel, which was being revived by a new group of volunteers led by coordinator Janet Crawford.

Berkshire Carousel coordinator Janet Crawford, left, and volunteer Heather Malle, 9, were busy cleaning up the carousel on Saturday.

Crawford said Saturday that the first season back was a success, drawing more than 10,000 riders last year, which put the project "in the black," though she did not disclose specific financial details. Its opening day this year is May 9.

A token from the Berkshire Carousel's original run (2016-2018) Kathryn Hamilton has kept from her father.

Hamilton said her father was paralyzed when she was an infant and was her best friend and "the inspiration for my everything." She became a nurse so she could learn how to take care of him.

"He had the hardest life of anyone I’ve ever met but somehow still had the most positive outlook."

Dan Hermanski carves a horse for the Berkshire Carousel in this undated photo.

After becoming paraplegic in 1992, Hermanski worked for the state Department of Transportation until his retirement in 2020 and was a founding member of the Berkshire County Wheelchair Support Group and a board member for Ad-Lib Inc., a local disability group. Guided by a deep Catholic faith, he was also a Eucharist minister for the All Souls Church in Pittsfield and "faced countless challenges and aching sorrows with quiet dignity and without complaint," his obituary reads.

He also loved watching the Red Sox, spaghetti and sausage dinners from the Highland Restaurant, chasing trains, rooting for the home team at Wahconah Park from the first base-line and rocking out to tunes on his Amazon Alexa "REALLY LOUD."

Dan Hermanski and his wife Linda's names are carved on this tree on a bench at the Berkshire Carousel.

Hamilton said some of Hermanski's wood-carving friends introduced him to the carousel project, and he devoted himself to it after her mother's passing in 2014. Hermanski and Linda MacTavish met on a blind date and wed in 1983, raising three children together. A wood carving of a tree on one of the carousel's benches has both their names etched into it — "Linda + Dan" — surrounded by a heart.

Dan Hermanski and his wife Linda's names are carved on this tree on a bench at the Berkshire Carousel.

"It feels like my parents are still here with me," Hamilton said of the carousel. "Everything they loved about Pittsfield, you see right here."

Hermanski was involved in the carving and sanding on the majority of the carousel's horses and rocking chariot.

"Dan was a dedicated frequent weekend warrior in all of our workshops," reads a post from the Berkshire Carousel a day after he died. "He loved seeing the horses come out of the blueprints, transfer to the wooden blocks, help carve them, and watch them get finished in the paint shop."

"He was so happy to see them finished and spinning on the carousel."

Hermanski's friend David Chapman said the carousel project gave Hermanski "an appreciation for life," which motivated Chapman to begin volunteering there a year ago through Pittsfield's Retired Senior Volunteer Program.

"I was inspired to come in because of his dedication," Chapman said. "This is probably my favorite place to volunteer."

Launched in 2016 to an inaugural season of over 27,000 riders, the carousel shuttered in 2018 after its longtime manager was sidelined by health issues before her death in 2020. The project remained dormant through the pandemic before reopening last year with Crawford at the helm.

"When the carousel closed, he was shocked," Hamilton said of her father. But he held onto hope that it would reopen.

About four months before he died, Dan Hermanski, center in wheelchair, got to see the Berkshire Carousel one last time on Dec. 28, 2024.

Unfortunately, Hermanski didn't get to see it happen; he died two months before its opening weekend.

But he did get to visit the carousel one last time.

On Dec. 28, 2024, Hamilton and her brother, Dan Hermanski Jr., pulled some strings and brought him inside, surrounded by family for a photo.

"It meant the world to my dad to see all of his grandchildren there together on those horses smiling," Hamilton said. "It's something I will cherish."

Hamilton said the carousel’s return restored her faith in the community.

"Working on the horses always brought him peace and joy.

"When I ride this carousel, I can still feel my father’s love.”