Forward- March!!

The past few months have been amazing! I've have seen the Lyme Alliance of the Berkshires sprout from a tiny little project hidden in the Northern Berkshires into a major force of awareness in the regional community. Our presence is becoming increasingly known and we continue everyday to expand our network of projects and possibilities.

May was very busy, with two Under Our Skin screenings, one at the Milne Library in Williamstown, MA and the other at the Lenox Library in Lenox, MA, both institutions run by incredibly compassionate and intelligent directors. To each of you I send my dearest thanks from the bottom of my heart! Your support is helping to make a difference in our local communities- you are saving lives! Each event had very good attendance rates.

Local libraries also greeted the Lyme Alliance with open arms as we presented them with Lyme Disease Awareness Month displays, some of which are actually still residing at local libraries, who have extended their exhibition due to patron interest.

Expansions in the realm of future projects also came to fruition. Our "Lymebrary for the Locals" campaign, driving towards making Berkshire libraries as Lyme-Literate as possible began slowly and remains a major priority. We received multiple donations of books from authors Stephen Buhner, Katina Makris and PJ Langhoff (for the second time), all of which were immediately donated. We also received two copies of Under Our Skin from Open Eye Pictures, that were donated also.

As a starting effort of our foray into forging an open discussion about prevention education with the local schools we also received a donation of 25 Tick Twisters (tick removal devices) from Contech Enterprises, Inc. that are set to be donated to local schools in the fall as part of a larger campaign to help make our communities a safer more educated place for our children in relation to the risks posed by tick-borne diseases like Lyme Disease.

June brought with it one of our most important events to date, our first speaker appearance! Robert Guiggere of the IGeneX, Inc. graciously offered to do his educational powerpoint presentation "Lyme Disease and Co-Infections: Signs, Symptoms and Testing Techniques". The Lyme Alliance accepted with much thanks to Mr. Guiggere and IGeneX and the event was hosted on the evening of June 26th, 2012 at the Lee Library in Lee, MA. Attendance was high, with at least thirty, possibly more, attendees. Thank you to the Lee Library, in particular Patricia Richard who was so very helpful to us in getting this event off the ground and who has always been supportive of the Lyme Alliance of the Berkshires.

Two major projects are currently in the works, which we will be announcing within the next month, so make sure to check back periodically so you always know what we're up to!