Members of CARE Southcoast Center for Animal Rescue and Education will hold a Gala Auction and Party called “Art for Animals” to help raise money for the center. The event will be held on Friday, June 29, at 6:30pm at The Wamsutta Club on 427 County St., New Bedford.

CARE, located at 596 Hathaway Rd., New Bedford, is “an all-volunteer organization dedicated to ending the needless suffering and abandonment of animals in the Massachusetts Southcoast region,” according to their flyer.

Helen Lesly, who is a volunteer at the shelter, said that they have already collected donations from a variety of artists, and all of the art will be auctioned off with all of the proceeds going to the shelter.  “We really want people to come and check it out,” she said.  “I have a lot of friends who are artists, and I reached out and they really came through.”

She said that there are a variety of items for bid, including artwork, jewelry, ceramics, hand painted silk scarves from Hawaii, and more.  Items will range anywhere from $15 to about $1,000.  Everyone who enters to be a bidder will receive a free cocktail, and it is free to bid.

CARE offers a variety of services to animals in need.  They work to provide assistance to families who can’t afford to spay or neuter their pets, as well as providing sheltering and re-homing assistance to homeless animals and animals formerly in high-kill shelters around the country.  CARE is a no-kill shelter, meaning that no animals that stay there are put down.

CARE also aims to educate people on the many factors that contribute to animal overpopulation, abuse, and neglect.  Currently, they have over 60 dogs and over 100 cats at the shelter, and they are always looking for homes or foster homes for the animals. There are also 35 kittens in foster care right now, and four new litters that they don’t have a plan for, as of now.

They also take in animals for people who are become homeless or who are temporarily displaced from their homes.  “We try to be a resource to the community,” said Lesly.  She also added that they have a Veterinarian who comes in once a week, and they also work with a variety of Veterinarians in the area.

Because they are non-profit, they are constantly in search of donations and volunteers.  “We’re growing as a shelter, and it creates a lot more work, which is why we need help,” said Lesly.  Hopefully for them, they raise a lot of money at this event.

For more information on the event, including donation information, contact cricket13@comcast.net, or call 508-728-0351.  Information on the shelter can be found at www.caresouthcoast.com, and they can be reached at info@caresouthcoast.com or 508-994-0220.

Every spring (with a few exceptions), I travel from Massachusetts to Colorado to visit friends and to hit the slopes in the magnificent Rocky Mountains.  About five years ago on a trip to Breckenridge, I noticed a trend that I really hadn’t seen much of since the 80’s when my father was in his heyday—the moustache. (He had a sweet ‘stache until the mid-nineties or so.)  Men everywhere (and some unfortunate women) were sporting mustaches, and it didn’t seem like such a big deal to them, but it was to me.  I had to find out the reason for this newfound facial treason.

After talking with some of the locals, I found out that this wasn’t just a random occurrence or a strange series of coincidences, but rather a yearly tradition.  Every March, men (mostly in their 20’s and 30’s) grew their upper lip hair into carefully cultivated mustaches, merely for personal enjoyment. They called it “Mustache March.” Some sported the pencil thin look, some used a moderately groomed mustache, while others a more traditional, fuller look. Some were more daring and attempted the Handlebar (see Rollie Fingers), the Fu Manchu (see Hulk Hogan) and even the Horseshoe (often confused with the Handlebar).  And it wasn’t just in Colorado.  I heard it was big in parts of California.  Other ski areas around the country were reporting stashes of ‘staches amongst the population.  To my surprise, it was even big within The United States Air Force.

I was taken with what I had witnessed, and suddenly I knew what my face was missing all those years.  I was never a beard guy (too itchy), and sideburns weren’t my thing, but a moustache?  I could handle that!   Plus my dad had one for all those years, so neither he nor the real boss, my mother, could do anything about it (though they tried).

So it was on that ski trip that I began growing out the hair above my lips that would eventually become the very first mustache of my life.  By April, I had one, and a solid one at that, and the pictures are on Facebook to prove it.

That infamous spring came and went, and for one reason or another, I decided to shave the thing off, but the damage had already been done. It was then that I realized that to have a proper mustache was to really know what it felt like to be a man.  Besides, it made my nose hair seem less out of place, and it was a nice, furry little change of pace.  Plus, it was never intended to be a permanent thing, so at the very least, it was a fun experience.

Seasons changed, and once again I found myself counting down the days until the next February where I could start to cultivate my mustache for March.  And so the tradition goes…I now grow a mustache every March, and a few years ago, I noticed that the trend had made its way back east.  I saw that a lot of young men in New England were partaking, and that every recurring March brought some of my friends to become lip-deep in facial hair.  Though I can’t take complete credit (some of the Colorado transplants probably brought it back with them as well), I would like to say that I had some influence on a few of them at least. (I can already hear them vehemently denying this as I write.)

While it did catch on within my inner circle and amongst some others who had caught wind of the tradition some other way, most people didn’t and still don’t understand it. “You have a mustache!” scream female friends when they see me out around town.  Older ladies in my office smile at me when I walk by.  Guys say things like, “nice ‘stache” when they see me, but I know they’re laughing at me on the inside, along with most of the ladies.  There even seems to be an anti-mustache campaign going on, as I often read about people bashing “hipsters” for having “ironic” mustaches.  But for every five haters, there is at least one person who becomes completely infatuated with its existence.  I’ve literally had woman beg me to bring it back.  “Where’s the mustache?” they say. “I want it back.”  They demand me to grow it again.  Same with some men, especially some of the guys at work.  Most of them can’t stop talking about it.  Love it or hate it, I understand.  Generally, it’s not something you see much of anymore, but I feel that you have to have had one to really understand how it feels, inside and out.

From beginning to end, the human responses alone make the process of growing one worthwhile.  A mustache in its early stages isn’t ever a very good look, which is why I got my girlfriend a $90 Edible Arrangement on Valentine’s Day so I could start growing in February without complaints.  And depending on whom you speak with (again, my girlfriend), some might say it’s never a very handsome thing to try, but overall, I consider all my experiments with the mustache to have been successful because of the way it makes ME feel.

I’ve come to find that a mustache can make a man of average handsomeness turn into the top stud on his block, because a man who rocks a mustache is a confident man, and confidence is one of the keys to success in life, whether on the street, in the business world, in the bedroom, or in our everyday lives.

The tradition of Mustache March is believed to have been started by Air Force Brigadier General Robin Olds, a decorated Veteran of Vietnam and World War II.  As the legend goes, the Air Force has always had a strict policy against facial hair, but Olds decided to push the boundaries.  He was a triple-ace, meaning that he had at least fifteen head-to-head air victories against other planes in battle. (He had sixteen wins, to be exact.)  Anyways, Olds decided that he would grow a mustache in defiance of the anti-facial hair policy, basically because he was such a badass that he knew he could get away with it.

Eventually, Olds was forced to shave his mustache when he moved up in the Air Force after retiring from his famously successful fighter pilot position.  Apparently, he never got higher than Brigadier General because of his general brashness, insubordination, and drinking habits, though he was viewed as the top winged commander of the Vietnam War.  Nonetheless, he had made his mark in the air and also the upper lip of the men of the Air Force.  Many of his comrades had begun to imitate him, and a tradition was started that lasts to this day. Olds paved the way for “Mustache March,” the yearly tradition within the Air Force where men grow mustaches in friendly protest of the rules.

Nowadays, it seems that the Air Force’s tradition has spread into civilian culture.  Mustache March has taken off, and though it is not insanely popular, it is showing up all over the place.

There are commercials on national television for the chain Buffalo Wild Wings that campaign for “more March,” where the main character is a man in his twenty’s with a mustache that seems way out of place on him.  There are parties all over the country aimed strictly at celebrating the sacred ‘stache. The website www.mustachemarch.com is devoted to raising money for charity in the name of the mustache (their slogan is “just grow it,” and the movement has even inspired a the copycat “Movember,” where men grow their beards for charity).  Yahoo.com even recently reported that The American Mustache Institute (AMI) is planning a “Million Mustache March” on the nation’s capital, part of an ongoing campaign to convince lawmakers to create government incentives to grow facial hair.  Who knew there was such a thing as the American Mustache Institute, never mind people who want to be reimbursed for growing one?  And at what cost!

It seems that the mustache has made its resurgence.  I’d like to think so, at least.  Never did I think that I’d write a four-plus page story on mustaches, but now that I did, I’m happy with myself.   I’m happy that I learned about the origins of Mustache March, and who Robin Olds was because I googled those keywords.  I’m happy that I learned that this isn’t just going on in Colorado or amongst my friends, but rather that it’s a nationwide event of sorts.  And I’m happy that I took a shot on writing about something that no one probably really cares about, except me and the AMI’s hopeful million or so that plan on “marching” to D.C.  And even though that’s highly unlikely, and even though the people like to snicker and smile, I’ve had a great time the last five or so Marches, and I plan on bringing it back again next year, barring any growing issues.  Hopefully I can be an inspiration to a whole new generation of growers and showers, as well as to be a leader in the fight against the anti-mustache movements that seem to be taking place.

“To each his own mustache.” – Myself

The crew I hang with doesn’t usually need an excuse to go out and drink, but this Saturday offers an opportunity to truly pour out your drinking heart and soul to honor the passing of St. Patrick (March 17^th is believed to be the day he died).

The last time St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Saturday was in 2007, and minus those poor suckers who will be running in the New Bedford Half Marathon the next day, many of New Bedford’s finest will be looking get their fix of some Irish fare.  Here’s list of seven places you should check out if you don’t want to be called green by your fellow Irish-for-a-day friends.

One place you do NOT want to go on St. Patrick’s Day is jail, and it’s never smart to get behind the wheel of a car after you’ve been drinking Guinness all day long.  Writing down the phone number for Bluebird Cab (508-999-1124) is a solid starting point.  It would be a good idea to have the number on hand because you may not be capable of looking it up on your phone when it’s time to go home.

The Garden (133 Union St.) is always a fine choice to either start, spend, or end your night, and even though they don’t necessarily offer anything exciting in particular, legions of devoted drinkers have always made their way down to the Garden on St. Patrick’s Day.  Heck, even Joni Mitchell wrote about getting back to the place in her song “Woodstock.” (Just kidding about that last part.)

Named after the capital city of Ireland, Dublin’s (1686 Acushnet Ave.) will be celebrating their first of what they hope to be many St. Patrick’s Days on the Avenue. It will surely be populated with patrons ready to throw down a few Irish Car Bombs (relax, it’s only a drink). They’ll be open at 9am for an Irish Brunch (which goes until 12) and there will be performances by The Shenanigans from 1-5pm and by Mark Dignan from 6pm-12am.  There will also be a special Irish menu, drink specials, and promotions all day long.  Tickets are $5 in advance and $10 at the door.

Danny’s Seafood (574 North Front St.) is typically known for what it is named for—seafood.  But on St. Patty’s Day, they bring the beef with a hearty boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage.  Just a few achars down the road from Dublin’s, it’s a good place to stop to get a good belly full before (or after) you decide to hit the hooch somewhere else.

If you’re looking for something a little different than your traditional Irish celebration, head on down to The Black Watch Pub (266 Dartmouth Street) where they will present “Erin Go Bragh-less,” a record release appearance for New Bedford rock act Everything Burns. Other New Bedford rock trio Weld Square will perform, along with Maine’s No Sane Man (their guitarist, Chris Souza, is from New Bedford) and Boston’s Letterday.  Doors open at 8pm, and admission is $5. Get there shortly thereafter if you plan on going inside.

Most locals probably don’t know that Hibernia (109 William St.) translates to “Ireland” in Latin.  It’s fairly obvious that any Irish establishment is probably a safe bet on St. Patty’s Day, but Hibernia is owned and operated by Barry Flynn, a native of Ireland, so this won’t be your average American impersonation of the Irish.  They’ll be traditional Irish music, and they’ll have corned beef and cabbage all day as well, as well as “the usual madness,” according to one of their bartenders the last time I stopped in.  He was Irish too I think, and I base that merely off his strong Irish accent.

Anyone who has EVER claimed to have been out on St. Patty’s day in New Bedford has graced the temporary outdoor tent at Kirby’s Irish Pub (818 Kempton St.) that is set up every year to accommodate the masses that pass through their doors.  Though they don’t have anything else really special planned, they’ll be music, some food, the tent, and a lot of people drinking.  It usually promises to be a lot of fun—unless you don’t usually drink or enjoy fun.  In that case I would advise you to stay home, like you always do. The place used to be called The Irish Immigrant.  What else could you need?

Tonight, Downtown New Bedford will celebrate AHA!, the “Hear Me Roar” edition in honor of National Women’s History Month for March. Here’s a list of the top five woman-themed events that you should check out tonight if you’re in the city.

5) Strong Arm Challenge: The Hear Me Roar Edition at The Rose Alley Ale House (94 Front St.): Women especially are encouraged to come down and flex their muscles in an arm wrestling contest, though both sexes are allowed. Everyone present is automatically entered into a Strong Arm themed raffle. The event is hosted by MC Chris Swanson and starts at 8pm.

4) Anything by Kim Barry: Her custom pots spent some time with the Obama’s on their trip to the Vineyard last summer, and we’ll get a double dose of her talents for AHA! as she will be featured at both Gallery 65 and the Pour Farm Tavern. Her artwork will grace the walls at the Pour Farm, and she will also be showing, “a display of her large decorative plant containers, resplendent with orchids, and she will give an orchid potting demonstration and impart information about orchid species and care, and a variety of orchids and orchid pots will be on sale during the evening,” according to the AHA! website.

3) Belly dancing at Boutique Fitness: (516 Pleasant St. #104) Boutique Fitness is new to AHA!, having just opened their doors in late February, but that doesn’t mean they’re not ready to move. It is their goal, “to inspire you to live optimally” by providing you with guidance needed to achieve an effective but atypical workout, and they will have a belly dancing performance by Andrea Corrieri at 7pm to prove it.

2) Commons (778 Purchase St.) will have a trio of women worth celebrating, as they welcome special guest chef Jan Baptist, hip-hop artist The Empress and photographer Amanda Cain into their establishment. Jan will do the cooking, The Empress will provide the entertainment, and a collection of Cain’s work will be featured. Also, from 6-8pm catch Chris Haskell live. Facebook event here.

1) The unfriendly females of Mass Attack Roller Derby will be skating down Purchase Street at 6pm, courtesy of the Pour Farm Tavern. According to their website, “Mass Attack Roller Derby (MARD) is a female flat track roller derby league founded in November 2010. Silver City Sports Complex is the home rink for MARD in Taunton, Massachusetts.” They are currently looking for newcomers, so tonight would be a great night to check them out and see how you stack up—if you think you’ve got what it takes.

A list of dozens of AHA! events and happenings can be found on their website here.

On Friday night, Febuary 24, Harvard educated and award-winning singer-songwriter Mieka Pauley will join local singer-songwriter Rebecca Correia to perform at the UGLY Gallery on Union Street in Downtown New Bedford.

Originally from Boston, Pauley comes to New Bedford with an impressive resume. In 2005, she won the Starbucks Emerging Artist competition, and in 2008, she won both Cosmopolitan’s StarLaunch and the New York Songwriters Circle Songwriting Competition.

She has also appeared on Daytrotter, a website that features live recordings of up-and-coming artists such as The National, Bon Iver, and Death Cab for Cutie (before they were up-and-comers), as well as on BBC London and PRI Mountain Stage.

According to Pauley, she currently resides in her car, but she plans to return to Willamsburg in Brooklyn, New York, in April. Williamsburg is widely known as the unofficial capital of the indie-hipster music and art scene in New York.

Pauley returns to the area after performing at several of Rebecca Correia’s “The Dream” concerts at her parent’s house in Rochester. “I love the area,” she told me when I interviewed her via the Internet.

Pauley was born in Boston, but moved away as a young child. As a young adult, she returned to Boston to attend Harvard, where she entered the Cambridge music scene. When I asked her about her experience in Boston, she told me that she was too young to remember it as a child because her family left when she was so young, but she has fond memories of the area as an adult.

“My memories are school, street performing, moving apartments every year, harsh winters, and an amazing music scene. Harvard has a great art and music scene—I still keep in touch with and work with a lot of the artists I met there. For example, I regularly cover a song by my buddy Noam Weinstein (“When I Get My Shit Together”); another friend Jessica Kaye made a short film based on a song of mine (“Devil’s Got My Secret”); I just played a school where my former choir-mate Daniel Roihl is musical director. The school itself (Harvard), and the degree I received allowed me to take chances that I don’t think I would have taken if I didn’t have such a solid safety net.

Rebecca Correia, a Rochester native and part time resident of Nashville, Tennessee, came to know Pauley through her cousin Amy Correia, who is also a touring musician.

Correia had a lot of good things to say about Pauley. “Meeting Mieka has absolutely been positive for my career. She’s a super intelligent woman with a great business sense and a very hard worker. She is a nonstop living, breathing artist! When you watch someone’s career unfold as I have watched Mieka’s, it’s inspiring. She has quite a music resume to her name, and she achieved it by being talented, working hard, and never giving up. She’s a captivating artist and everyone will get to see that on Feb 24th!”

The UGLY Gallery (U Gotta Love Yourself) is owned and operated by Dave Guadalupe and Jeremiah Hernandez. Generally, UGLY’s main focus is on tangible artwork, (they usually have a new exhibit for most AHA! events) but they also host shows that they hope will help spread word about a budding local music scene, amongst an eclectic variety of other endeavors.

Past performers include the New Bedford based band The Tree, hip-hop act Blest Energy, and classical guitarist Peter Arteaga. The go-to DJ for a lot of their events is DJ Farenheit, who incorporates projected video into his show, and DJ a Tom Called Cooney has also spun there, as well as a few other local acts. They also host a freestyle cipher every AHA!.

The guys at UGLY are very excited about the upcoming event. “Mieka is an amazing talent and I can’t wait for her to grace the gallery. Rebecca is a blessing to the Southcoast and deserves every thing she has earned over her career,” said Hernandez, a good friend of Correia’s. “We’ve (UGLY and Correia) been trying to work together since the day we opened, and this opportunity to have Mieka Pauley play as well sealed it for me.

Tickets for this Friday’s show are available at UGLY or thru Rebecca Correia. There is a Facebook event created here.

Mieka Pauley – All The Same Mistakes – Music Video

Two of the oldest buildings in New Bedford—The Seaman’s Bethel and The Mariner’s Home—are currently undergoing repairs. The leadership at The New Bedford Port Society expect the repairs to be completed sometime in the near future.

On Monday morning, workers from A. Walecka and Son Inc. delivered 13 cenotaphs out of their storage facility in West Wareham and back to the Seaman’s Bethel.  Another Walecka crew had carefully removed the cenotaphs in May of 2011 for renovations and repairs performed on the south side of the building.

Cenotaphs are large, historic stone tablets that honor fishermen and whalers lost at sea.  The wall that the cenotaphs hung from had to be repaired due damage from water and insects.

A crew from R.P. Valois & Co. will remount the cenotaphs back into their original places.  Their methods for mounting the hundred-plus pound tablets will surely surpass the methods used originally—some of the tablets were hung merely with screws (sometimes only three of them) and the screws were coming loose in some cases.

As for the Mariner’s Home, it is currently in its second week of emergency repairs.  Bricks on the south wall of the building began to crumble outward, so some of the bricks were replaced.

According to Fred Toomey, property manager at the Seaman’s Bethel and the Mariners Home, J.M. Booth Associates of William St. in New Bedford are currently in the process of doing a structural report to see exactly what needs to be done and how much it should cost.

The New Bedford Port Society, whom Toomey works for, has applied for grants to fund the remaining work needed at the Mariner’s home.

According to Peter Haley, The Director of the New Bedford Port Society, eight feet (out of forty) on the south wall had to be replaced, and they’re waiting on the grant money to fix the rest of it.

Rex Monumental Works of New Bedford also delivered a new tablet on Monday morning to be resurrected in the near future.

Tablets are different from the cenotaphs, because they generally recognize people who have lost their lives at sea but whose bodies have been recovered.  Paul Swain of the Port Society told me that they expect to have the dedication of the new tablet sometime within a month from now.

You can get a FREE tour of the Seamen’s Bethel each Monday from 1-2pm. Details here.

Members of The City of New Bedford Parks, Recreation, and Beaches have teamed up with members of the New Bedford Public School System and local chefs to create an initiative to promote healthy living and eating by creating awareness amongst families in the community.

With the help of a $40,000 grant from the Wal-mart Foundation and the National Recreation and Parks Association, they have been able to host three Family Food Nights (one at The New Bedford Boys and Girls Club, one at Roosevelt Middle, and the most recent one at Gomes School) to help families learn how to live healthier by eating better and exercising on a regular basis.

Last Thursday, January 26th, students and parents met at the Gomes School, where they rotated amongst three exercise stations- a dance station, a yoga station, and a aerobics station- and then were treated to food demos from local chef JT Ghim of Commons (formerly Ginger Grill) as well as a demo from student chefs at Johnson and Wales and Kim Ferreira, who works with the NBPRB and is a registered dietician.

Ross Moran, a representative of the NBPRB, said they’re targeting populations that don’t typically have access to healthy foods. “We’ve had these (initiatives) at Roosevelt and The Boys Club, and we’re looking forward to the next one, which should be at Normandin in March.”

Ross, along with Renee Dufour, Pauline Hamel, and Ferreira, among others, helped recruit area chefs who focus on healthy dining, as well as some individuals involved in promoting physical activities in the city.

The goal is to promote easy ways to create cheap, healthy meals, as well as to stress the importance of exercise to create a complete, healthy lifestyle. Dufour told me that New Bedford was one of the first cities to get involved with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program, which was designed to address America’s obesity problems by focusing on the youth of America.

Last July, the state Public Health Council agreed to change lunch menus so that schools are required to provide students with a variety of healthier options. The USDA also has a series of new requirements that must be followed. This grant program is another part of what seems like a nationwide effort to promote health awareness amongst the youth.

Ferreira and Hamel collaborated to bring the healthy dining demos to the schools by recruiting the local chefs. Initially starting on a small scale in May, the program was fully launched in August. Kim said that the idea was, “to get healthy meals in a way that makes sense- by connecting restaurants to the community.”

So far, the program has been considered a success. Over 120 people signed up for and attended this particular session at the Gomes School. “We usually have a tough time getting parents to participate in the physical activities, but overall the night seems like a success,” said Dufour. The kids especially seemed to enjoy the physical portion of the program. “The kids liked it. They like to move, no matter what it is,” said dance instructor and teacher at the Gomes School Rachel Machado.

Starting this week, the restaurant formerly known as Ginger Grill reopened its doors with a new look, a new vision, and a new name: Commons.

A lot of people were disappointed when Ginger Grill closed its doors, and even more will be disappointed when they find out that the old menu no longer exists. What they will find at Commons, though, is a new, more eclectic menu, a more spacious layout, a stage that will feature a wide variety of performances, and most importantly, a new vision—to create change in the downtown community and the city of New Bedford as a whole.

Owners JT Ghim and his wife Augustina, alongside their new partner and downtown New Bedford resident and former New Bedford Public School Teacher Nicholas Baptist, are excited for the opportunity to reach a wider variety of people. They see Commons as a place where people gather to share ideas and turn those ideas into actions, as well as a place people can go to for a good meal and to be entertained. Picture it as a Community Center with food and entertainment to accompany it.

Baptist has been involved in the local community as the creator of the “Where Are You Headed” attendance initiative program for New Bedford Public Schools. He also has volunteered his time as a basketball coach at the High School, as well as in the Citizen Schools program within the cities Middle schools. JT took him on to help him with his vision. “Who better than someone who already has some valuable experience in the community?” said Ghim when I spoke with him recently. “I’m really excited about what he has to offer as an individual.”

Together, they feel that they can change the current landscape of Downtown New Bedford while running a venue/restaurant at the same time. Baptist sees it as a meeting place for young professionals, philanthropic groups, community service outreach programs, as well as people looking to get their foot in the door within the community. He mentioned his plans to have a Teen Night and a book club as a few of their initial goals, as well as booking local musicians and DJ’s to perform, among other forms of entertainment.

One thing is clear: Commons will no longer be the same Ginger Grill that so many have come to know and love. Many of Ginger Grill’s former customers are worried about these changes. Myself, for one, will miss the old menu, and I’m a little skeptical about the idea of axing the Korean food.

“Things just weren’t working out the way they wanted them to,” said Baptist. “The rising cost of food was hurting them, and because they always served such high quality, fresh foods, they weren’t making enough money to turn a reasonable profit.” So JT decided to shift his focus.

The menu, in its former state, was too difficult to pay for and keep up with. Under the new regime, the menu will be geared more towards the Bristol Community College crowd during the day, and more toward late-night crowds in the evening, rather than the traditional dinner crowd Ginger Grill catered to.

One thing that Commons will be is different. There aren’t many places in the city where you can get a good meal, see some quality live entertainment, as well as rub elbows with like-minded people, people who aspire to see New Bedford grow as a community. The people exist, and the ideas exist, but up until now, there hasn’t bee a comfortable atmosphere aimed combining all these elements. The Ghim’s and Nick Baptist see the potential for Commons as limitless.

To keep up with Commons news and information like their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/villagenb.