B.O.L.D. staff Mike Aguiar and Nic Charest recently attended a S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions) conference in New Orleans with the peer leaders and staff from “Project YELL” in Taunton. On the first day of the trip, the group was given the opportunity to tour the 9th Ward of New Orleans with local Louisiana Weekly photojournalist Gus Bennett, Jr. During this tour the peer leaders from Project Yell were each given a photo assignment to work on. The results of that assignment were presented by Bennett and students from YELL on August 31, 2007, at a fund-raising luncheon sponsored by SSTAR. Click here to see the BOLD newsletter with a complete description of the New Orleans trip. Click here for the Herald News article about the presentation. For more information about BOLD, contact Program Director Karen Fischer  at Stanley Street Treatment & Resources at 508-235-7032.
 

(Top row, left) Gus Bennett, Jr., a photographer for Louisiana Weekly, describes the events that followed Hurricane Katrina's arrival in the 9th Ward of New Orleans where Bennett lived while Bristol Community College president John Sbrega and Carol Annarino of Project YELL listen. (Top row, center) Tyshrah Sheely-BeBarros, 15, describes some of the photographs that she took of the ruins of the Desire Club, a night club in the 9th ward were jazz greats once played. (Top row, right) Gus holds up two of the portable hard drives that held his life's work of photographs that he carried in a backpack through waist-deep water as he escaped his flooded home in the 9th ward. (Middle row, left and right) Photos from the project include one of  Terrel Walker, Jimmy Vibert, and Alfonzo Williams, with friend Chuck as well as a photo of a family the group encountered preparing for a funeral. (Bottom row, center) Carol Annarino, April Cabreia of Project YELL in Taunton, Terrel Walker, Jimmy Vibert, Alfonzo Williams, Gus Bennett, and Nic Charest in the back row, and Raquel Melo and Tyshrah Sheely-DeBarros in the front row, pose for a group photos at SSTAR. (Bottom row, right) Youth Services Director Mike Aguiar shakes Tysharah's hand following her presentation.