November 23, 2004

Contact: Chip Elitzer, Chairman, Berkshire Hills Technology Fund at 413-528-4693

Berkshire Hills Technology Fund Announces Grant Winners

Great Barrington , MA —The Berkshire Hills Technology Fund announced today the winners of its Fifth Annual Grants Competition. Nine teachers, representing four team projects (two at Monument Mountain and two at Stockbridge Plain School), will receive equipment, software, and training to assist them in completing their projects during the current school year. The grants program was launched four years ago to encourage educational enrichment in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District , serving Great Barrington, Stockbridge, West Stockbridge, and Housatonic .

According to Chip Elitzer, chairman of the Fund, “Today’s announcement starts the fifth round of projects. The creativity and enthusiasm of the prior four years’ grantees ensured that we would make this competitive grants program an annual endeavor. To date, we have supported 50 projects involving 84 teachers.”

The grant winners this year are elementary school teachers Patricia Melville, Susan Coles, and Fran Locke of the Stockbridge Plain School, and high school teachers Bill Mooney, Jim Carroll, Deirdre Sullivan, Rob Kelly, Hans Teutsch, and Paul Kakley of Monument Mountain.

The Berkshire Hills Technology Fund was formed as a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation in early 2000 by a group of parents, business leaders, and school administrators. Its first project was to ensure that all students and teachers in the District have Internet-enabled computers at home. Through a guarantee arrangement with Berkshire Bank, the Fund maintains an ongoing commitment to assist District families in obtaining affordable financing for a computer purchase or, depending on need, even in borrowing a computer at no charge.

For more information about BHTF, go to www.bhrsd.org and click on the “District Link” for “Berkshire Hills Technology Fund.”