Liana Toscanini Honored As Southern Berkshire Chamber Person of the Year
The founder of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires received the chamber's 15th annual award.
Honoree Liana Toscanini with Ventfort Hall Executive Director Wendy Healey, striking a disco pose in keeping with the event's theme, disco (Liana's request).
It felt like thousands of FOLT (Friends of Liana Toscanini) showed up at the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce’s 15th annual Business Person of the Year celebration at Catamount Mountain Lodge in Egremont on September 11. We exaggerate the number, but only by a little. A beloved and highly respected person in the Berkshires, Toscanini is the founder and director of the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires (NCB), a support and infrastructure organization for the Berkshire County nonprofit sector. State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, in one of his last emcee duties while still serving in office, said “No one has done more for the Berkshires on the nonprofit side than Liana. She is the go-to resource for anything nonprofit related.” With 1200 registered nonprofits in Berkshire County, it takes someone with Liana’s energy, optimism and can-do attitude to advise and support a huge segment of the area’s economy — especially as she has never taken a salary since NPC’s founding in 2016. All the love and enthusiasm she’s put into the community (much of it well before she created the NPC) was reflected back at her that evening. She’s long been a friend to and advocate for Rural Intelligence, and we are pleased to have this opportunity to add our own thanks and congratulations.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
