Women of Distinction 2018

Women of Distinction Berkshire County trailblazers, past and present

A special publication of The Berkshire Eagle Sunday, October 14, 2018

Women of Distinction The Berkshire Eagle | BerkshireEagle.com

Sunday, October 14, 2018 |

Dr. Lauren Ballinger, Board Certified Pediatric Dentist and Partner at Yarmosky Pediatric Dentistry – The Berkshire Center of Children’s Dental Wellness and Airway Orthodontics is continually seeking the most progressive training as well as leading the way to bring awareness of the latest medical and dental research to offer the best in care for your child. Pediatric dentists play an extremely important role in the overall health in our developing children.

There are over 20 predictive signs for the development of Obstructive Sleep Apnea that can be identified above the neck.

Early screening and treatment of compromised craniofacial growth, airway development and poor oral habits that can lead to insufficient sleep, less than optimal health and even ADHDlike symptoms can be prevented.

Working together we will change the direction of your child’s life for the better.

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Dr. Lauren Ballinger, DDS* Board Certified Pediatric Dentist *Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry

“Any time, any time while I was a slave, if one minute’s freedom had been offered to me, and I had been told I must die at the end of that minute, I would have taken it — just to stand one minute on God’s earth a free woman — I would.”

-ELIZABETH FREEMAN, in Catharine Sedgwick’s “Slavery in New England,” 1853 Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman eeman was born a slave and

Brava!

Executive Director, Beryl Jolly Your Mahaiwe Team Salutes You Photo credit : Paul Sebastian Melendez.

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heard by the County Court of Common Pleas in Great Barfellow abolition-minded lawyer Taprington. Sedgwick and fell ping Reeve argued that tthe constitution, by declaring all equal, rendered slavery incompatible men born free and equa law. The jury ruled in Freeman’s with Massachusetts la Brom were each awarded thirty shilfavor, and she and Bro lings as compensation for their labor.

Her court victory made Freeman the first slave to legally under the new state constituwin her freedom lega later cited as precedent in Quock tion. The case was la freedom, and formed the legal founWalker’s suit for free dation for abolishing g slavery altogether in Massachusetts.

Following the ruling, John Ashley offered Freeman a paid job in her former master’s home. She declined.

Freeman instea instead chose to work in the home of Sedgwick, her lawyer, as a servant and governSed ess for Sedgwick’s children. She became a beloved member of the family. The children gave her the nickname “Mum Bett,” and daughter Catharine, a Bet successful author, went on to write su a glowing account of her life in “Slavery in New England.” When “ she was no longer able to work around the Sedgwick house, Freeman retired to a home of her own, purchased with her savings.

After her death in 1829, Freeman was laid to rest in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge, the only non-Sedgwick to be granted the honor.

died a free woman, thanks, more re than anything, to her own courage and inexhaustible will. While no written record of Freeman’s birth and early rly life exists, general consensus says she was born in 1744 744 on a farm owned

by Pieter Hogeboom in Claverack, k, N.Y. As a child, Freeman was sent to Sheffield, Mass. in the service of Hogeboom’s daughter, Hannah, ah, after her marriage to John Ashley.

Freeman frequently clashed with the shorttempered Mrs. Ashley. In one incident, cident, Ashley attempted to strike Freeman’s sisterr with a hot shovel. Freeman came between them, sustaining a deep wound on her arm in the process.. She intentionally left the wound uncovered as it healed, aled, a dramatic example of Ashley’s cruelty.

Freeman’s resilience took on a new purpose in 1780, when she heard the new Massachusetts chusetts Constitution read aloud at a public gathering in Sheffield. One phrase in particular ar struck her: “All men are born free and d equal, and have certain natural, essential al and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying g and defending their lives and liberties.” s.”

The next day, Freeman approached ched Theodore Sedgwick, a lawyer and known abolitionist, about taking her fight for freedom to the courts. If every man had a right to freedom, m, she reasoned, then by law she was as owed emancipation. Another Ashhley slave, Brom, joined her in herr suit, and in August 1781 the case e of Brom and Bett v. Ashley was

Women of Distinction | Sunday, October 14, 2018

Elizabeth Freeman

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Women of Distinction Sunday, October 14, 2018 |

Toole Insurance celebrates extraordinary women in our organization, recognizing their service and dedication to making the Berkshires a better place.

Kim Baker Hope Bussiere Karen Clairmont Christine Collins Noella Daury Lisa Donfried Sharon Hynes

Laurie Kohlenberger Elizabeth Kroboth Stacey LaRock Dawn Marie Mott Helen Stawniak Joan Tyer Dee Ann Zimmer

If it matters to you, it matters to us.

Catharine Maria Sedgwick “Marriage is not essential to the contentment, the dignity, or the happiness of woman.”

-CATHARINE MARIA SEDGWICK, “Hope Leslie: or, Early Time in the Massachusetts”

195 Main Street, Lee, MA 413-243-0089 tooleinsurance.com

Congratulations

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on Changing lives after 55

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Carolyn Valli Executive Director, Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity; Pittsfield Public School Vocational advisory board; Berkshire Bridges Working Cities; MassHires Board member; Headstart; Community Development Board; Berkshire Professional Woman.

Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity has been the highlight of my career - my passion, joy and calling. 11 years ago, I joined the all-volunteer organization that was doing great work but wanted to do more. It has been my pleasure as their first employee to grow our organization into an effective blend of professional staff and volunteers focused on building homes, hope and communities. Executive Vice President of Accessible Mortgage, 17 years.

Designated underwriter for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, certified financial social worker and credit counselor.

Catharine Maria Sedgwick, a significant but long-overlooked figure in early American literature, was born December 28, 1789, in Stockbridge. Her father, lawyer and politician Theodore Sedgwick, represented former slave Elizabeth Freeman in her legal fight for freedom. Freeman subsequently took a job with the Sedgwick family, and cared for Catharine for much of her childhood.

As a young woman, Sedgwick converted from Calvinism to Unitarianism. The change inspired her to write her first published work, a pamphlet on the evils of religious intolerance. Encouraged by the experience, she moved on to writing fiction, and in 1822 published her first novel, “A New-England Tale.” Her career came into full bloom with the publication of her second novel, “Redwood,” in 1984. The book immediately drew comparisons to her wildly popular contemporary, James Fenimore Cooper, to the point that the ensuing French translation listed Cooper as the author.

Sedgwick’s most famous novel, “Hope Leslie,” appeared in 1827.

The book stood out for its status quo-challenging title heroine and

sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans. Sedgwick continued to push social boundaries throughout her writing career, addressing class divide, the treatment of domestic workers, slavery, religion and women’s education. Her last novel, 1857’s “Married or Single,” was built on the then-radical idea that women shouldn’t be compelled to marry at the expense of their own independence and selfrespect.

Despite amassing a significant number of marriage proposals over her lifetime, Sedgwick herself never married. Instead, she devoted her life to her work, ultimately producing six novels, two biographies, eight children’s books, a handful of novellas and over 100 essays, letters, short stories and other prose works. She died in 1867 and is buried in the Sedgwick family plot in Stockbridge.

While her work faded into obscurity during the late nineteenth century, Sedgwick’s writing was rediscovered by feminist scholars in the 1970s, and she has since taken her place beside the likes of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper as a founder of the American literary tradition.

Women of Distinction | Sunday, October 14, 2018

Supporting people. Enriching lives.

Are you looking for a change? Do you long for new opportunities and stimulation to enhance your skills? Are you passionate about helping others? We need you! We are looking for strong leaders to join the Berkshire County Arc team!

Opening our first group home in 1971, we were one of the leaders in Massachusetts that started the road to closing the state institutions. Today, Berkshire County Arc has grown to a multi-service organization serving over 1,000 individuals with developmental disabilities and brain injuries, offering a variety of services to enhance their lives.

Join our growing organization today at www.bcarc.org/careers

Other Berkshire County Women of Distinction Neighbor, muse and close companion of Herman Melville, and a poet in her own right Mary Cutler Fairchild (Dalton) A pioneer in the field of library sciences Phoebe Jordan (New Ashford) The first woman in the United States to cast a ballot under the Nineteenth Amendment

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Sarah Morewood (Pittsfield)

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Women of Distinction Sunday, October 14, 2018 | The Berkshire Eagle | BerkshireEagle.com 6

Florence Bascom “I have always claimed there was no merit in being the only one of a kind…I have considerable pride in the fact that some of the best work done in geology today by women, ranking with that done by men, has been done —Florence Bascom, 1932 by my students.”

Sawyer, LLC is a small public accounting firm located in MASS MoCA. We are proud to be a locally-operated, women-owned business. Our services include audit, bookkeeping and tax. We have also assisted our clients with other needs as they arise, which makes us believe our friendly demeanor makes our clients feel comfortable to ask.

• We are a full service accounting firm for both individuals and businesses.

• Our office is known for its affordable financial and tax service rates.

• Sawyer, LLC is a proud member of AICPA, MSCPA, GAQC and NYSSCPA. 1310 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA • (413) 664-6777 • sawyer-llc.com

Florence Bascom, born July 14, 1862 in Williamstown, is considered by many in the geologist community to be America’s first female geologist. Encouraged by her suffragette mother and professor father, Bascom had earned two bachelor’s degrees — in arts and letters and in science — by the age of 22. In 1887 she was granted a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, despite having limited access to educational facilities because of restrictions on women’s use of resources like classrooms and the library.

The adversity continued through her Ph.D. studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she was required to sit behind a screen during classes for fear she would distract the male students. Even so, in 1893 she became the second woman in the United States to receive a doctorate in geology, and the first to earn a doctorate from Johns Hopkins.

Outside the classroom, Bascom made her mark on American geology with a new naming system for rock created by acidic volcanoes, and by disproving previous con-

clusions regarding the geological history of Pennsylvania. In 1901 she became the first woman to present a paper to the Geological Survey of Washington, and in 1924 was the first woman elected to the Council of the Geological Society of America.

Perhaps her biggest contribution was to women’s education.

As a professor of geology at Bryn Mawr College, Bascom developed the field’s most prestigious training program for women. Thanks to a rigorous curriculum focused on building lab and field experience, many of Bascom’s students went on to become notable geologists in their own right. In 1937, there were 11 female Fellows of the Geological Society of America; eight were graduates of Bascom’s program.

Bascom remained active in the geologist community even after her retirement from teaching in 1928, working at the United States Geological Survey until 1936. She died in 1945 at the age of 82, and is buried in the Williams College cemetery in Williamstown.

Women of Distinction | Sunday, October 14, 2018

To the women who work at New England Newspapers, Inc. that help keep this place successful.

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Women of Distinction Sunday, October 14, 2018 |

Would Like To Congratulate

Barbara Schmick Business Honoree for

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CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Travelled the world for 20 years planning events for top Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies. Established successful professional photography career. After 9/11, re-invented myself in the Berkshires.

ULTIMATE GOAL:

Achieved my goal to help run a company that gives back to the community and establishes an entirely new way to conduct business for the good of its employees and the community.

INDIVIDUAL THAT INFLUENCED YOU MOST: My father, Arnold Hansen. He always believed I could do more and pushed me to be my best and take chances.

HIDDEN/UNIQUE TALENTS: I can ride a unicycle and do a headstand for a long time.

MOST PROUD MOMENT: Berkshire Business & Professional Women (BBPW) member of the year award 2012-2013. “For efforts to enhance the visibility of BBPW in the local community and her enthusiastic, professional dedication as official photographer for BPW events.�