CLOTHING SALE AND MORE IN NORTH ADAMS

Some of what we have to offer. More photos below this post.

    In this post: Clothing Sale Saturday; Youth Suicide Prevention presentation on Oct. 18.

It’s finally here: The Second annual Clothing Sale to benefit the Friendship Center Food Pantry. This sale will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at All Saints Episcopal Church on Summer Street in North Adams (please use lower-level entrance facing big parking lot).

Offered will be a great selection of gently used clothing at reasonable prices. All proceeds will support the food pantry — a service of the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative (NBIAI) — which has more than 1,400 member families in North Adams, Clarksburg and Florida.

The pantry, located at 43 Eagle St. in North Adams, has been open since February 2011. Currently it is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. every Wednesday.

The food pantry is busier than ever, with 3,000 lbs. of food delivered by truck every Tuesday. We set a one-day record on Wednesday, Sept. 25, with 204 families served. 

We conduct sign-ins for the pantry during its first session at the First Baptist Church of North Adams, not far south of the pantry on Eagle Street. This additional space has allowed us, through partnering with other agencies, to offer staff from other agencies the chance to connect with our visiting pantry members. The cooperating programs, so far, are: The Family Place, Mass in Motion, Project Reconnect, and, most recently, a nurse from North Adams Regional Hospital. We look forward to increasing such collaborations in the future.

The NBIAI is a group of local people of various faiths who, along with others of goodwill, are working together to serve our community. We meet monthly on the third Friday of the month at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. All are welcome.

Oct. Interfaith meeting topic: Youth Suicide Prevention

The Friday, Oct. 18, Interfaith meeting will feature Bear McHugh, of Berkshire AHEC, giving a presentation on Youth Suicide Prevention. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. All are welcome to hear and discuss our presentation on this important topic.

A total of 15 people attended the September NBIAI meeting. This, our first-ever spiritual retreat, was led by the Rev. Jennifer Gregg of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Pittsfield and Sue Walker, pantry volunteer, NBIAI Steering Committee member and retired psychotherapist. 

Through various means, pantry volunteers and others connected with the theme “Time Apart: An Invitation to Rest after Feeding 5,000,” letting the Spirit guide their individual thoughts and our resulting group reflections in new directions.

- Mark

Here are some more photos of items we had put out as of Friday, Oct. 4 — more than a week before the sale, with many more to come.