February 10, 2012
By Mickey Friedman
With all the horrendous things adults do to children, from forcing them to fight and kill in Sierra Leone, making them make soccer balls for pennies in Pakistan, abusing them physically and emotionally, there are still many adults who love and care for, teach and nurture their own kids and the kids of others.
The Housatonic Mills - Photo: Berkshire Property Agents
In our town, I’ve heard from several parents about the great work Bettina Montano does at Berkshire Pulse in Housatonic.
In the old Barbieri Mill in Housatonic, Massachusetts, Bettina has been teaching hundreds of kids about music and dance and movement.
That’s the same Housatonic, Massachusetts you’ve been reading about in the local newspapers.
For a while now, the papers have been filled with articles about the man from Miami. Stephen Muss, we were told, was willing, no anxious, to spend hundreds of thousands on a master plan to reconfigure the old and ailing mills, the mills he didn’t own, to bring renewed hope to Housatonic. No ulterior motive, just a rare, pure and heartfelt gift from a man who had a galvanizing vision of new jobs, happy artists, and new tenants. A revitalization, a renovation, and a renewal. And, to prove his purity and silence the skeptics, Mr. Muss assured us he wasn’t interested in buying property in Housatonic.
