 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise Vs and generous donations from viewers like you Hello, and welcome to the Amherst weekly report from Amherst media. I'm Claire Healy and today we'll be going over the news out of Amherst, Massachusetts This past Saturday three local high school students organized a protest in Northampton in solidarity with Jacob Blake a black man shot Seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin The protest was broadcasted on social media with the caption quote march for him because he can't march for himself According to WWLP channel 22 news. There were hundreds of protesters in attendance all wearing masks We spoke with Angela Rivera one of the organizers of the event and here's what she told us after what happened to Jacob Blake I just felt really outraged and I was really passionate about you know protesting and activism And I didn't notice any Jacob specifically Jacob Blake protests in like Western mass So I decided to organize one myself. We had a good turnout and I think that we got our message across I think that a lot of information was you know spread like talking about like lawmakers and you know How we can help change and make change and I think what really really well Amherst has received a hundred twenty five thousand nine hundred ninety eight Dollars and green communities funding from the Massachusetts Department of Energy resources green communities division The funding will cover LED lighting retrofits at the Munson library police station and town hall In addition the town has received twenty five thousand five hundred dollars for vehicle idle reduction technology We spoke with Stephanie Chickarello Sustainability coordinator for Amherst Massachusetts about Amherst's green community status and the allocation of funds from the grant So the town of Amherst has been a green community since roughly 2012 2013 around that time frame And that means that becoming a green community makes us eligible to apply for competitive funding That happens pretty much on an annual basis through the state through the Department of Energy resources and their green communities program So all of these again like I said are all Projects that are increasing the town's efficiency, which ultimately translate to reducing carbon dioxide emissions So even though we talk about energy efficiency ultimately all of these things are part of an effort to reduce the time in greenhouse gas emissions a Joint meeting of the Amherst Pellum and Amherst regional school committees was held on Tuesday September 8th One of the items on the agenda was a vote on keeping athletics open for the fall which passed seven to one with one abstention They discussed potential challenges with each sport and additional costs that may be needed to mitigate those issues Some challenges were transportation whether or not the sport could be played outside and resources such as PPE One concern raised by Superintendent Morris was around equity between extracurriculars and whether or not they would be supporting other extracurricular activities in the same way It's interesting I would prefer to see all the games outdoors, but knowing that that the students when they travel to to away games will be indoors You know Will be trusting the fact that these other schools and districts will be following and adhering to the MA a guidelines and presumably There will be some sort of enforcement mechanism to make sure that that is happening The UMass Amherst basketball team released a video standing in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protesting racism and police brutality The video was directed by sophomore Colton Mitchell and showed the team standing together sharing emotions and fears over police brutality Here's a clip from the video which is available on the UMass basketball Twitter page and YouTube I have nightmares Now one day a new supporter Could be reading my name on their teleprompter Now I don't know about you But every time I get pulled over I pray that it's not my turn And that I get to go home and see my family again That's all the news for this week. Thank you for watching the Amherst weekly report from Amherst media I'm Claire Healy and we hope to see you again at the same time next week