Gazette beat reporter ready to cover Hilltowns
Bera Dunau
My journalism career began in the Hilltowns.
In 2011, I was interviewed for a reporter’s position at The Berkshire Beacon, a small Lenox-based paper. Because I was visiting friends in the Pioneer Valley at the time, the publisher and I met at the Old Creamery in Cummington. I got the job, less than a year after graduating from Hampshire College, and the course of my life was forever altered.
A lot has happened since that successful interview in the Hilltowns.
My career has taken me from the Berkshires, to Cooperstown, New York, to Foxboro and finally to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where I’ve worked for more than three years. I’ve covered U.S. Rep. Richard Neal’s 2012 primary challenge, talked with people in line for marijuana on the first day of legal recreational sales in Northampton, reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert at Gillette Stadium, chronicled a community coming to terms with the crimes of a monster, a
Hilltown Community Development has partnered with local retailers and farm stands to set up Hilltown Food Bucks, a local effort to help Hilltown residents stretch their food dollars while supporting critical local food businesses in a difficult time of social and economic stress.
Eligible participants can receive between $100 to $125 in food coupons per month for a limited time to be used at participating local stores and farms on non-taxable food items.
To be eligible, participants must live in one of the following towns: Ashfield, Blandford, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery, Plainfield, Williamsburg, and Worthington.
Residents who are age 62 years or older, have a child enrolled in Free and Reduced School Meals, are a resident of low income housing, or are eligible for LIHEAP are encouraged to apply.