Railroad Street Youth Project from WGBY on Vimeo.

Don’t miss out on RSYP’s AMAZING Winter Raffle this year! With prizes like these – you will be sorry!

$10 per ticket/ 3 for $25  -  Call RSYP now at 413-528-2475 to order your tickets! Choose the one that suits you, that’s the key OR buy multiple tickets and enter all 3!

Raffle #1 Out on the Town

Gift certificates to: John Andrews, Cafe Adam, Fiore & Bizen, Barington Coffee Roasters

Tickets to: The Colonial Theater, Berkshire Theater Festival, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center and Tanglewood

Raffle # 2  The Winter Snuggly

Lila’s Mountain Wool Blanket, Gigham Rabbit soft women’s robe, Iredale Mineral Cosmetics gift basket, Evergreen Crafts Gift Certificate, dinner for 4 cooked in your home by Chef Zee of Berkshire Braized and a bottle of champagne!

Raffle #3 Relax & Rejuvinate

Gift certificates to: Body & Soul, Michele’s Salon & Day Sp and Studio Day Spa. A 3-day pass to Yoga Great Barrington, a 3-month membership to Berkshire South and an overnight stay at Kripalu!

The drawings will be held LIVE on WSBS by State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli on December 16th. Don’t miss out!

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DINE & WINE WITH US BEFORE YOUR WINTER HIBERNATION BEGINS!

Join us on Monday, December 5th for an evening of culinary delights and celebration at The Red Lion Inn for our WINTER CULINARY DINNER. The evening will begin at 5:30 in the lobby with wine and hors d’oeuvres, followed by a bountiful dinner in the Hitchcock Room. Dinner will be prepared by RSYP’s Culinary Arts  students under the guidance of Brian Alberg of The Red Lion Inn and Dan Smith or John Andrews Restaurant. Proceeds will go towards supporting our Culinary Arts Program that preovides an opportunity for youth to learn culinary art skills from the best in the Berkshires.

Dinner tickets (including wine): $100 Patron Dinner Ticket, $150 Snow Angel Dinner Tickets (extra contributions will help fund youth trips to local cultural attractions). Make your reservations NOW by calling RSYP at 413-528-2475!

RSYP Culinary Arts Winter Dinner Menu (YUM!!!)

1st Course: Roasted Farm Girl Squash Bisque, Toasted Pepeitas

2ns Course: Zehn Farm Mushroom Bolognese, Orchetta Pasta & Shaved Bovinaburg Cheese

3rd Course: Winter Green Salad & Comte Grilled Cheese, Bosc Pears & Candied Walnuts

Entree: Roasted Punsit Valley Chicken, Mashed Equinox Potatoes & Farm Girl Collards

Dessert: Blueberry Bread Pudding, Salted Caramel & High Lawn Cream

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Hello Hello Dance Party Seekers!

Here’s the skinny from the staff at RSYP:

-6 to 10 wonderful local adult youth development leaders will be supervising the shindig and participating in a few break dance showdowns themselves
-Parents and guardians are more than welcome to join us throughout the evening for a snack, or to bust a move
-Good old fashioned Dancin’ from 7pm to 11pm (see “Footloose” for more information)
-In our space at RSYP we will celebrate dance that is respectful, responsible, consensual, positive, expressive, creative, fun, fun, and even sweatier fun. If you don’t two-step in this fashion, you are not welcome in this space, partner. That’s how we roll.
-RSYP is an inclusive, safe, and substance free space. Come sober. Stay sober. Get high on the magic of dance. For realsies. That’s how we roll.
-There will be a police officer mozying about the space throughout the evening. Feel free to High-5 them, engage them in short meaningful conversations, and ask them what their favorite dance move is
-90 person maximum at the Drop-In Center so…
-We got a bouncer, a big one. Wicked big.
-We’re keeping the limit at 90 as that is our firecode maximum
-Get there early if you want to get in and dance dance dance, after 90 heads we’ll only let you in after someone leaves, club style
-There will be snacks. Be polite. Don’t stuff your face. Save some for the next young dance star. And thank you to Bizen, Big Y, Taft Farms, Windy Hill, the Co-Op, and Subway for the snacky snacks!

And of course, if there’s anyone out there with questions or concerns with regards to this big night of funk, PLEASE reach out to me here at the Drop-In Center on 60 Bridge Street, in beautiful (seriously, peep the leaves around this place!) GB. We hope to see you Friday night!

Take care- Paul that is tall
–
Paul M. McNeil, Drop-In Center Program Director
Railroad Street Youth Project
P.O. Box 698
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(413) 528-2475 ext. 903
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www.rsyp.org

Painting beauty under the railroad tracks

Reported by Torie Wells

Tuesday August 23, 2011

At the top of Castle Street, in the heart of Great Barrington, you can find beauty underneath the railroad tracks.

“It’s been this contagious art project,” said Paul McNeil, from the Railroad Street Youth Project.

“I like doing things that the public can see,” said Dan Slater, a graffiti artist.

“It’s for everyone,” said Laurel Zukowski, a mural artist.

For weeks now, Zukowski has been breathing life into a mural underneath the railroad tracks in Great Barrington.

Zukowskis work is intertwined with the work of local teens. It is a project through the Railroad Street Youth Project. The organization was started back in 1999 by a 19-year-old named Amanda Root.

“There were a bunch of youth that used to hang out in the railroad street area years ago and it was a hotbed of drug sales,” said McNeil. “So many people close to her were getting affected in horrible ways.”

Amanda wanted to give youth another option, empowering them to take part in the community.

“This is the heartbeat of the Railroad Street Youth Project it’s young people coming together talking about what they want to do that will mean something positive,” said McNeil.

“It feels good, we did a lot. Originally it just looked like a lot of graffiti. After we primed it with the white paint and got the color on it, it’s looking a lot better,” said Sergio Winston, a 14-year-old who volunteers for the project.

He says that if it weren’t for the project he’d likely be home for the summer. Instead he will go back to school, feeling accomplished.

“It’s something definitely to look back on, it’s a memory of the summer 2011,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Dan Slater is thinking about going to school for graphic arts. But his first passion is graffiti, an art form that is growing. This project is giving him a canvas of his own and a platform to speak to his community.

“I want people to take away that graffiti isn’t just vandalism its also an art form,” said Slater.

Each moment you spend with the mural, you see something new. The ways it is affecting the community are layered too. On the surface, it is a gift to Great Barrington but, if you look closer, you can see it is a gift to each other and themselves.

“Everyone feels like the contributed so it’s theirs,” said Zukowski.

“Twenty years from now you can look back and say I remember this,” said Slater.

Railroad Street Youth Project to Get Upgrade

By Trevor Jones, Berkshire Eagle Staff, Posted: 08/26/2011 12:05:26 AM EDT

GREAT BARRINGTON — The Railroad Street Youth Project is getting help to upgrade its downtown facility from an unlikely source — a Denver-based kidney treatment company.

DaVita, which services 128,000 patients nationwide, is providing $50,000 to the youth empowerment group for upgrades to its facility on Bridge Street. The project is part of Tour DaVita, a 262-mile, three-day cycling and outreach program intended to raise funds for kidney disease awareness and prevention programs.

More than 120 DaVita employees, physician partners and patients will arrive in Great Barrington on Sept. 17. The group will begin the cycling the following day, helping out with volunteer efforts here and in New York before leaving for Connecticut on Sept. 19. for the remainder of their ride.

Vince Hancock, a DaVita spokesman, said Great Barrington was selected because it’s a small town.

“A lot of times we go into smaller communities because we want to make a lasting impact on the community,” said Hancock.

The Great Barrington visit will coincide with the unveiling of the revamped Railroad Street space.

Paul McNeil, program director for Railroad Street, said it will be a “complete facelift” that will include more computers, an Internet café, televisions and a conference room.

Hancock said the company picked this route for its access to dialysis facilities, its scenic and cycling-friendly nature, and because of health rates in the two states, according to Hancock.

Obese individuals are three times as likely to develop kidney failure, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut, more than 22 percent of the population is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And while a youth organization might not be the first group that comes to mind when thinking of kidney disease, Hancock said it’s important to explain the risk factors to them so they can avoid kidney problems later in life.

Funds will be donated to The Kidney TRUST, a nonprofit organization seeking to educate and raise awareness about kidney disease. For more information, go to TourDaVita.org

To reach Trevor Jones:
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or (413) 528-3660.

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Update from Amanda Johnston: Railroad Street funded part of my trip to Peru through YOB (youth operational board)!

Here I am with the group of four year olds that I taught english to while in the city of Chiclayo, Peru. They were a wonderful group, very well behaved! I taught them the words for vegetables, colors, and numbers through song and fun art projects. Thanks to railroad street for making this wonderful experience possible :]

While in Peru I went to a festival in the rural mountains in a town called Huambos. It was a festival for their patron saint, San Juan Bautista. There was lots of dancing, food, music, and culture galore! I saw everything from really old people who had lived in the town their whole lives, to little girls dancing like professionals. Lots of things I will remember forever!

Youth create coat of arts in Castle Street tunnel

Click photo to enlarge

Laurel Zukowski, left, Eric Danforth, center, and Nawontah… (Ben Garver / Berkshire Eagle Staff)

Wednesday July 20, 2011

GREAT BARRINGTON — A crew of teenagers and several 20-somethings gathered together in the Castle Street tunnel on Tuesday.

They were neither loiterers nor vandals.

They had come to work.

Armed with paint scrapers, a ladder, paper towels and a bottle of Windex, the crew of young people were busy refreshing the tunnel with a new mural painting project.

The effort was voted on and is supported by the Youth Operational Board of the Railroad Street Youth Project (RSYP), and is a shared and serendipitous vision between 24-year-old South County native Laurel Zukowski and Great Barrington Town Manager Kevin O’Donnell.

“It’s for everybody,” Zukowski said. “Murals are a medium for people to work on, for the people.”

When finished, the work will combine African-American art and heritage, Berkshire County history, landmarks, and people, and words by activist Marcus Garvey, Sufi Poet Hafiz and Cummington native and poet William Cullen Bryant.

“I’ve learned that you have to not be scared of trying things and that you can do what you want to do if the good intention is there,” Zukowski said.

Two years ago, O’Donnell approached former RSYP Executive Director Lannie Moore about town youths getting involved in cleaning up and painting the tunnel. The project began, but was never finished.

“People tagged it and it looked bedraggled,” said Isabel Currie, 13, who worked on cleaning the tunnel glass on with friend

Hannah Handel, who is also 13.

Seven months ago, Zukowski, who studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, returned to Great Barrington and approached the Youth Operational Board about making a mural.

“It was perfect. She has the creativity and vision for it,” said Brenda Barlow, who officially became RSYP’s new executive director this month.

“This is a partnership we wanted to see, and if the kids can take care of it themselves, it’s perfect.” said O’Donnell.

The work officially began Tuesday with a small crew of about eight young people and a couple of parents stopping by the tunnel throughout the day.

“I didn’t realize how many people from all age groups and all classes go through here,” said mural volunteer Nawontah Waters, 18. “I hope people see how we are committed enough to make things more beautiful here,” he said.

There will be another community “mural painting party” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 26. For more information, call (413) 528-2475.

To reach Jenn Smith:
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(413) 496-6239