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Bears of Provincetown - BearsPtown.org
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Find us at	BearsPtown.org	or	BearWeekPtown.org

The Bears of Provincetown
and the future of Bear Week

Top | News | About | Mission | Board | History | Future | Shop | Bear Week | Registration | Events | Contact

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the loss of our Founder and President, John Burrows. John was first and foremost, our friend and bear brother. We all shared the philosophy of the Provincetown Bears and Bear Week as John envisioned it.

Team Bear had been working tirelessly over the past 2 decades to help make John's vision of Bear Week a reality and to ensure the bear community had a place to call their own.

John's vision of what Bear Week could be, became a reality and for that, there is not anything that can be said to express how much Team Bear will miss our brother John!

The Bears of Provincetown, and its board have discussed the future of the club and Bear Week and are unanimous in announcing that we will carry on the legacy and wishes of our founder, John! John strived to be inclusive of everyone in the bear community, and welcomed all who came to Provincetown for Bear Week. If you have ever attended a Bear Week in the past, you know how friendly and welcoming the event was. That was John's vision and that is what the Bears of Provincetown and Team Bear will strive to continue.

The Bears of Provincetown and Team Bear will continue to make Provincetown home to the bear community and we look forward to seeing you all again.

Welcome to the Bears of Provincetown
Please note our new website is http://BearsPtown.org

Top | News | About | Mission | Board | History | Future | Shop | Bear Week | Registration | Events | Contact

About Provincetown

Provincetown is one of North America's most famous gay resorts, dating back over a century as a summer gathering place for artists, actors and writers, along with sailors of the Atlantic Fleet in the early 20th century. For centuries the Provincelands were an 'end-of-the-world' location, attracting adventurers, pirates, recluses and extraverts. The local community embraces the annual influx of eccentric and flamboyant visitors each summer, and they especially love the bear community.

Bear Week in Ptown is a unique vacation experience attracting thousands of bears from across the globe. Whether staying for a few days or a few weeks, you will always have something fun to do. During the day you will find the streets filled with friendly furry men, and at night there are several club and bar options that offer a wide variety of entertainment from dancing to shows. We look forward to seeing you soon in our favorite oceanside community known as Ptown! See what we have in store for you at BearsPtown.org.

We look forward to seeing you soon in our favorite beachside resort on Cape Cod, Ptown!

Top | News | About | Mission | Board | History | Future | Shop | Bear Week | Registration | Events | Contact

Our mission is to promote a brotherhood, an all-inclusive event for bears and chasers, chubs to cubs and everyone else in the LGBTQ community. The Bears of Provincetown have been working since 2001 to plan, coordinate and execute events for the annual summer gathering known as Bear Week, and will continue to bring you Bear Week in Ptown, an event that will remain inclusive and welcoming to all.

There is no criteria for attending Bear Week in Ptown. No matter what your bear status, fur factor, weight, age or gender identity is, we host a diverse schedule of themed parties, social events, nightclubs and beach/pool parties set in a small oceanside resort town. The unspoiled beaches, dunes and forest trails offers a variety of recreational options to visitors as well as numerous dining and shopping options.

Bears of Provincetown Board of Directors

Board Officers

Frank Mahoney
President

Frank attended his first Bear Week in 2002 and has been at every Bear Week since. He is also one of the longest serving Team Bear members currently on the board. You would most likely see him at the registration table checking the bears in, or around town working at several of the events put on by the Bears of Ptown during Bear Week.

Elected President of the Bears of Provincetown, Frank will bring new ideas and events to Bear Week in Ptown! Frank is experienced in event coordination, fundraising events and outreach within the LGBTQ community.

Frank was also a member of the New England Bears and is currently a member of the Tampa Bay Bears organization. He currently coordinates events, dine outs and pool parties for the Tampa Bay Bears. He is also heavily involved with fund raising for the club. Frank is also part of the Tampa Bay Bear Outreach Program that gives back to the local LGBTQ communities.

Frank is a federal agent for the Dept. of Homeland Security and is involved with protecting the United States from threats, both foreign and domestic. He was a first responder to the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando, FL. He has been with Homeland Security since it was formed in November 2002, and has served on the Counter-Terrorism Task Force for almost a decade.

Frank resides in Tampa Bay with his husband of 29 years Roger, and their dog, Baxter.

Tom Quinn
Vice President

Tom attended one of the first meetings of the Ptown Bears in the middle of winter, by the Atlantic House Little Bar fireplace to discuss with John Burrows, Nelson Villafane, Dave Thompson, Tom (Dave's partner), and a few others what John's vision was for a week in the summer for Bears to visit Provincetown.

Tom has attended every Bear Week since the beginning in 2001.

In 2007 Bear Week, John Burrows asked a few people to help form a working board. Before this John had a few great guys on Team Bear helping to run the Bear Week. Tom accepted the role as Events Coordinator for the next 7 years, partly because of his local status and being a lifetime Cape Cod resident, and he was able to connect with businesses in town. Tom also designed several of the Bear Week t-shirts in the past.

Tom has been a member of a couple of New England Bear groups like the New England Bears and the Rhode Island Grizzlies. He has been involved with the South Coast LGBTQIA groups attending events, and supporting the area with submitting art for the annual Gallery X LGBTQIA shows for several years. He and his husband are both artists at Gallery X in New Bedford Massachusetts.

Tom has been on a non-profit Housing Board on Cape Cod, and has worked most of his adult life in non-profit organizations helping people with disabilities live fulfilling lives. He also served three years as the Assistant to the Executive Director for Outer Cape Health Services.

Kristen King
Secretary

Kristen has been involved in the co-ordination of Provincetown Bear Week with Team Bear since 2003. He was also an officer of the Northeast Ursamen, helping to run SpookyBear on Halloween Weekend and Out of Hibernation in February. He thinks Provincetown is a magical place, and Bear Week is a magical time, and is honored to help carry out John Burrows' legacy.

Leonard Calabrese III
AKA DJ Lennie
Treasurer

Most people know me as the guy who runs the Bear Booth during Bear Week, or the DJ who plays the Locker Room Bears party or the 70s & 80s parties at the A-House. I have been part of Bear Week Provincetown since the first year of the official event in 2001. My club, Club Purgatory, was the first event venue for the event which it finally outgrew just a few years later when other clubs approached John Burrows to hold events at their clubs. While I was GM of Provincetown General Store we supplied box lunches for any hikes or bike rides that were part of the week's schedule. We also offered free chocolate chip cookies to all tag holders. Eventually we just offered them to anyone who asked during Bear Week. After moving back to NJ in 2006 I still came up to DJ parties for the event. A few years later he was approached to takeover the management and marketing of the Bear Booth, and site manager for Bear Market which I have done up to the present. My background in event management through own company, decades of retail management experience, holding multiple officer positions in a MC organization I now take on the office of treasurer for the Bears of Provincetown. I have high hopes for the continuation and expansion of Bear Week in the coming years to bring it back to its pre-pandemic success.

Board Members At Large

John-Michael Chiaravalloti

John-Michael Chiaravalloti: A dedicated career educator with a remarkable 40-year journey. From being a high school English and History teacher to serving as Principal of a K-12 school and private 9-12 High School, and eventually assuming the role of Executive Director at Lincoln Hall, a Residential Facility for Court Adjudicated Adolescent males aged 12-18 from 1997 to 2003.

"After serving at Lincoln Hall," Chiaravalloti embarked on a transformative chapter as a recipient of the prestigious KIPP Fisher Fellows Program in Educational Leadership. This opportunity led him to study at UC-Berkeley and undertake a year of nationwide travel and research, exploring various elementary school and middle school models.

In 2005, Chiaravalloti joined the NYC Department of Education, eagerly returning to the classroom to focus on the teaching of Literature and Composition. His passion for education extended to the energetic communities of Brooklyn and the Lower East Side, where he imparted knowledge and inspired students.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Chiaravalloti discovered a profound connection in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he "washed ashore" in the summer of 1997. Embracing the Bear community in the early 2000s and becoming an integral part of the Provincetown Bears since 2009, he found a welcoming and supportive environment. Since 2005, Chiaravalloti has dedicated his time to working with and mentoring LGBTQ youth and young men and women in their post-secondary education, leaving a lasting impact.

Residing in the vibrant city of Brooklyn, New York, Chiaravalloti also finds solace in North Truro, Massachusetts, where he spends part of his year indulging in the pleasures of the beach, hiking, camping, and expressing his creativity through journaling and crafting short science fiction stories. His academic accomplishments include an MA in History, MA in English, and CAS in Educational Leadership, reflecting his commitment to continuous personal and professional growth.

Derick Martins

Shanemichael Duncan

Is the youngest of three boys and an identical twin from the Philadelphia area. After participating in Drum and Bugle Corps in 1988, he became a high school colorguard instructor and a founding instructor of The Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps. Following a twenty-two year retail management career. Shanemichael obtained his cosmetology and Educator licenses in 2007.

As a member of The Liberty Bears of Philadelphia Shanemichael became involved in community service. Shortly thereafter he became acquainted with the Provincetown Bears, and was compelled to volunteer from 2005 to the present.

Shanemichael is currently a member of the Collingswood Pride Committee, and the Founder/CEO of Bear Essential Hair beard care company with the platform of inclusion, and anti bullying.

Shawn Simmons

Shawn Simmons is the youngest of Team Bear and has been a part of the family for almost a decade! Shawn is a New Jersey ACT Perry Award Winner for Scenic Design & Artistry and can be seen both on and off the stage in Central NJ.

Shawn is an avid painter and all around creator and loves to bring his visions to life on stage when he isn't singing on it. Shawn has been a part of productions that range from plays to professional operas. He is also an ordained minister and proud founder of Kelsey Forward and K.R.E.W. which is a peer leadership program and safe space for anyone to utilize at his local community theatre. Shawn is the partner of Team Bear Member Leonard Calabrese III (DJLennie3).

"My favorite part of bear week is walking up and down commercial street (usually wearing a kilt) and meeting so many wonderful people. Feel free to say hi!

Chris Ricciotti

Chris began working with Provincetown Bears shortly after his introduction to the group by John Burrows in 2005. After his first get together with the group, Chris realized an organized registration process was needed so he set that up for the group in 2006 and was the group registrar and John's assistant through 2012.

After Rich Frenette took over as registrar, Chris continued on supporting the group with leading activities, cooking, and helping out with organizational work. I was also the former husband to the group's founder, John Burrows.

What Chris appreciated about John's vision was that Bear Week Provincetown is an open, inclusive and welcoming group to the wide diversity of people that make up the bear community, regardless of age, size, weight, and even gender. It was this philosophy that initially drew Chris to the bear community and thereafter ( in there, after, ) motivated him to help out and be a part of this Team Bear.

John and Chris were together from 2004 through 2018, and were married in 2008.

Chris now lives in the rural community of South Montville Village, Maine, and in his spare time, enjoys working on his farmhouse up there. Chris loves gardening, photography, camping, canoeing, hiking, weaving, cooking, travel, teaching, and calling contra square dancing, well as all different kinds of folk dancing to the LGBTQIA community around the USA. Chris gets the most enjoyment out of building community through the people he meets in the activities that he enjoys sharing with others.

Gary Turner

Gary has spent the better part of over thirty years working in the Information Technology field providing technical support on both hardware and software, in a variety of industries including medical universities, medical research, hardware manufacturing, and retail musical instrument stores.

When Gary was not working, he was involved with many LGBTQ groups and organizations over the decades, including being on a volunteer fire department. Creating events and opportunities for others to see they are not alone and can get out and have fun being themselves.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s Gary was involved with GLCCCM the Gay and Lesbian Community Coalition of Central Massachusetts. In 1998 Gary became co-chair on the Worcester LGBT Pride Committee for the next 7 years. Over the decades since the late 1980s he has been involved with many other LGBTQ organizations in central and eastern MA, RI and CT to help with raising funds along with planning and promoting and events.

Beginning in 1997, Gary created and organized an event called Out In The Park at Six Flags New England the Biggest Gay Day at New England’s Biggest Amusement Park. As the lead for Out In The Park the event grew from just 500 people the first year to over 10,000 in the course of 12 years. Out In The Park was the last publicly held gay day at a Six Flags property across the USA in 2007. The real history of this open to the public event began as a warm-up event to National Coming Out Day.

Gary has found creating opportunities through various events to be very rewarding, along with meeting new friends. Events where LGBTQ folks come together continues to inspire him and more folks by show us all we are not alone. So many folks visiting Ptown for the first time, find themselves and make new friends at Bear Week in Provincetown. John always loved to chat with folks and build our community.

Beginning in 1997 Gary was a member of most all of the different bear clubs throughout New England. Gary was also on a few of the boards for these Bear clubs to help plan various bear events from Maine to Massachusetts, and Vermont to Connecticut. Gary was also a member of the Imperial Court of Massachusetts, and the Gay and Lesbian Student Association of the University of Massachusetts in Worcester.

In 2000, Gary had a casual conversation with John Burrows along with Dave Thompson, Tom Goecke and Nelson Villafane about creating an event for the bears in Provincetown. They all said there were never many bears in Ptown. John would go on to create what became Summer Bear Week and now Bear Week Provincetown, and Gary was always encouraging John to ‘Just pick a date and tell everyone to show up!’ Well, John did create Bear Week Provincetown. And the bears and admirers have come to Ptown for the past 23 years! Thank you so very much John. We all miss you so very much.

John Burrows poolside at the Crown and Anchor in July 2001 -
the first Bear Week in Provincetown!
Photo: Nelson Villafane

First poster and ad of Summer Bear Week in 2001 was created by Tom Goecke, who created most of the artwork for the Provincetown Bears when the group first formed in 2000-2001.

John Burrows on the rooftop deck of the Tower House with Pilgrim Monument in the background.
Photo: Linda May Ellis

John Burrows portrait taken during Bear Week Provincetown 2022 by Dan McKeon.

Please view the memorial about John Burrows on our Event Calendar section HERE

Bears Bear Week Provincetown Event Calendar

Bears of Provincetown Board of Directors

Board Officers

Board Members At Large

The Bear Week Provincetown 2023 Events Calendar is HERE

Order John Burrows Memorial Bear BBQ Sunday tickets HERE

The Bear Week Provincetown 2023 Events Calendar is HERE

The Bear Week Provincetown
2023 Events Calendar is HERE

Order
John Burrows Memorial Bear BBQ Sunday
tickets HERE

The Bear Week Provincetown
2023 Events Calendar is HERE