Our Officers:
Frank attended his first Bear Week in 2002 and has been at every Bear Week Provincetown⢠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/Provincetown Bears, 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.
He 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 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.
Kristen has been involved in the co-ordination of Bear Week Provincetown⢠since 2003. He was also an officer of the Northeast Ursamen, helping to run SpookyBear and Out of Hibernation. Kristen thinks Provincetown is a magical place, and Bear Week is a magical time and is honored to help carry out John Burrowsâ legacy.
Most people know him as the guy who runs the Bear Booth during Bear Week or the DJ who plays the Locker Room Bears: The Singlet Party or the 70s & 80s parties at the A-House. Lennie is partner to Shawn Simmons who is also a board member-at-large.
He has been a part of Bear Week Provincetown⢠since the first year of the official event in 2001. His former club, Club Purgatory (1999 – 2006), was the first event venue for the event Bear Week Provincetown. In just a few years the event had outgrow Club Purgatory and other clubs approached John Burrows to hold events at their clubs.
While he was the general manager of Provincetown General Store (2000 – 2006), they supplied box lunches for any hikes or bike rides that were part of the weekâs schedule. They also offered free chocolate chips cookies to all tag holders. Eventually they just offered them to anyone who asked during Bear Week Provincetownâ˘.
After moving back to NJ in 2006 he still made the annual pilgrimage to Ptown each year to DJ parties for the event. A few years later he was approached to takeover the management and marketing of the Bear Booth, and provide site management for Bear Market which he has done up to the present.
His background in event management & design through his own company (Tribal Rites Productions), decades of retail management experience, holding multiple officer positions in a MC organization, he now takes on the office of treasurer. “I have high hopes for the continuation and expansion of Bear Week Provincetown⢠in the coming years to bring it back to its’ pre-pandemic success.”
Our Board Members-at-large:
(In alphabetical order by last name)
John-Michael is a career educator with a passion for shaping young minds and empowering the next generation. With 40 years of experience, Chiaravalloti has dedicated his life to the field of education, leaving an indelible mark on various educational institutions and programs. It was in 1997 that he found himself a ‘wash ashore’ in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he became an active member of the Bear community, forging connections and embracing diversity. As a member of the Provincetown Bears, Chiaravalloti served as a member of Team Bear from 2009 to present spending a majority of the week in the Bear Booth on Commercial Street greeting, assisting and serving as an Ambassador to the Bear Community. He also served in various capacities during the day at the various venues and events. John-Michael’s passion for supporting LGBTQ youth and young men and women in their post-secondary education has been a guiding force in his life. From mentoring to advocacy, he has made a lasting impact on countless lives, championing inclusivity and equality.
A resident of Brooklyn New York, Chiaravalloti finds solace and inspiration in North Truro, Massachusetts. There, he indulges in his love for the beach, hiking, camping and the art of journaling and writing science fiction stories.
Shanemichael is the youngest of three boys and an identical twin from the Philadelphia area. After participating in Drum and Bugle Corps (1988), he became a high school color guard instructor and a founding instructor of The Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps. Following a twenty-two year retail management career, he obtained his Cosmetology and Educator Licenses (2007).
As a member of The Liberty Bears of Philadelphia, he became involved in community service. Shortly thereafter he became acquainted with the Provincetown Bears and was compelled to volunteer (2005-present). He 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 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, all around creator and loves to bring his visions to life on stage when he isnât 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!”
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 Englandâ˘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.
