Southside Sales & Service has been selling and servicing a wide range of equipment and recreational vehicles for more than 60 years.
FLORIDA, Mass. — Abbott Memorial Elementary School kindergarteners and first-graders in Lisa Puppolo's class were excited to participate in our newest series: Junior Marketers Create an Ad.
We put a call out to Berkshire County teachers asking their students help in creating an ad for our sponsors and the community delivered. For the next 12 months, we will showcase ads made by our creative next generation.
Kicking off the series is the family-owned small business Southside Sales & Service, located at 546 Curran Highway in North Adams.
For more than six decades, Southside has become known for selling and servicing a wide range of equipment, including tractors, lawnmowers, snowmobiles, all-terrain and utility task vehicles, and more.
It stocks a range of brands, including Bobcat, Mahindra Tractors, Polaris, Diamond Mowers and more.
"My father started a business in 1969, and we have been doing it ever since, with lawn equipment and now bumped where we sell a lot of much bigger equipment than just lawn mowers like my father did," owner Bruce Gaspardi said.
Gaspardi took over the business in 1984, and since then, it has grown. Shortly after taking over, Southside Sales & Service was moved to its current location and more recently expanded into the entire building.
"I learned a lot from [my father] back then that I still use today, with servicing product and taking care of people," he said.
"I have a lot of really good employees that take care of a lot of people, and the mission is to help people and get people what they what when they come in."
Puppolo's class brought one of Gaspardi's products to life in their drawings. Students were provided a few tractor pictures and asked to draw an ad of the vehicle doing its job.
They had tractors with loaders, trailers, and other attachments. Some drew the vehicle digging a hole, driving, turning soil, transporting potatoes and more.
Gaspardi said first-grader Adelin St. Jacques' photo was selected as one of the best because of her attention to detail.
Her black tractor had a bucket on the back and was digging dirt under a purple sky.
"Drawing trackers is not something I do all the time, but when I did it, it helped me learn how to draw tractors well and work on my detail a lot," she said.
Jhelana Therrien drew her tractor at night at a campground where it was being filled with gas. Kylie Spooner's tractor was picking up apples in an orchard.
The students were so excited when Puppolo told them about this assignment.
"They wanted to start right away without any directions," said Puppolo. "It's a great way to include them in the community, to let them be creative, [and] to just open their eyes to what's around them.
This opportunity allowed them to create something for a business that they have been to or are driven by. One of the students' parents works there, Puppolo said.
"It was just an amazing experience. They were excited. They were happy," she said.
Puppolo said when she presented the assignment to her students, they exclaimed, "we get to be adults."
Tasks like this that are out of their regular routine gets everybody excited, especially kids, Gaspardi said.
"A task like that gets them excited, just as they were when they were standing here. You can tell they're just kind of excited about what they did," he said.
"I think they were made to become very important. They felt like they were adults. I think that they will pay more attention to small businesses around the county," Puppolo said.
"They're so isolated up here, I think, that they probably said to their parents, 'can we drive by there.' I just think they were excited. That's the best word that I can use."
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