2024 Highlights

and Community Events

LitNet staff, board, donors, volunteers, and learners gathered together for a “Celebration of Friends” on the patio at Amici Restaurant in West Stockbridge (which is co-owned by LitNet Keator Scholarship Recipient Octavio Nallin). The evening’s honoree was LitNet Board Member John Toole, who has served the community for over 40 years through Toole Insurance. Close to 160 people attended, helping LitNet to raise over $61,000 at a live paddle-raise. Two learner-tutor pairs took center stage to talk about the impact of LitNet on their lives.

Throughout 2024, LitNet began considering ways it can offer programming to help its learners and the Berkshire immigrant community become more successful in the workplace. Career growth is often cited as a specific goal of learners who come to LitNet to improve their English. This led to our first collaboration with several other local nonprofits to deliver our first Career Expo for the Immigrant Community on November 2 at the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield.

During this one-day, conference-style event, representatives from Berkshire Community College, Latinas413, EforAll, Roots & Dreams and Mustard Seeds, and others came together to offer presentations and host discussions for attendees. The goal of the day was to inform our community of opportunities, to think creatively about career goal potential, and to take the first steps in realizing their professional goals. LitNet plans to host another Career Expo in 2025, with more to follow in future years.

Five LitNet learners and one LitNet tutor took the stage at the New Marlborough Meeting House to perform their personal stories on the theme of Challenge. Participants worked for several weeks with local storytelling coach Sheela Clary, as well as their LitNet tutors, to hone and rehearse their stories. This was the first time most of these learners ever spoke publicly in English, and they did  it in front of a completely packed house!

The stories ranged from reminiscences of childhood in Central America, to the struggle of being a parent without a diploma, to the ways mispronunciations in a new language can have hilarious results. We’re so proud of this brave group for their willingness, vulnerability, and their very moving words. We hope to make the sharing of stories a regular LitNet program!

LitNet learners and their children joined us at the Norman Rockwell Museum for a morning of kids’ books, songs, and stories in English and Spanish! Intended to promote early literacy, this event was sponsored by the Ruth Krauss Foundation, which provided free children’s books. KidNet 2025 is in the works!