Faces of New Bedford

Meet Marcio Silva, 45-year-old Owner and Head Instructor at Xcel Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. His father was a professional soccer player when he was young, so his family traveled alot but settled in New Bedford when he was 6. Throughout his childhood, he practiced Judo which led to him becoming high …

Meet Chris Andrade, 32-year-old Program Supervisor at the Key Program, Inc. As a lifelong native of New Bedford, he recalls facing adversity as a youth being raised in public housing and coming from an immigrant family. Despite these challenges, Chris was thankful to have a strong supportive family who invested …

Meet Sorrell Macaroco, 27-year-old instructor and owner at Stagelights Studio. Sorrell has been dancing since she was 5, which started as a way to correct her inward facing toes, as ballet is known to help that condition. Dance soon became a huge part of her life, as she was a …

Meet Debra Kelsey, 51-year-old Community Health Worker and Recovery coach at Fishing Partnership Services. Deb, who was born and raised in New Bedford, has always been involved in the fishing community. After spending 20 years in the printing industry, she started looking for a position that she felt she would …

Meet Megan Abdullahi, 35-year-old center manager at CleanSlate. Megan grew up on Cape Cod and after schooling immediately went into work in human services, as it has always been in her nature to help. She started working at group homes and after some time, she started managing them. Megan moved …

Meet Maciel Pais, 37-year-old teacher at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. Growing up and attending GNBVT High School, he never knew that he would end up back there teaching. During his junior year at the school, he was offered a position teaching potential incoming students during the …

Meet Kevin Rose Jr, 35-year-old owner of Kaisan Trucking and Unplugged Float Essentials. Kevin grew up playing saxophone for the entirety of his childhood and teenage years. After graduating from New Bedford High School, he attended the Berklee School of Music for a few years before leaving college early, to …

Meet Sandra Orr, 27-year-old Licensed Massage Therapist and E-RYT Yoga teacher. Growing up, Sandra had always been involved in dancing, even competing all throughout her childhood. As she got older, she started practicing yoga to help with the injuries sustained from her years dancing. Eventually, Sandra went on to school …

Meet Amanda Desrosiers, the 29-year-old founder, and owner of People’s Pressed. When Amanda was in high school she considered herself overweight and when she moved out of the house to go to college in Boston, she began focusing on how she ate and getting active. This journey not only led …

Meet Gary Moujabber, 29-year-old general manager of The Lebanese Kitchen. When Gary was born, his parents had already established their family restaurant, The Lebanese Kitchen, in the city’s west end. His parent’s migrated here from Lebanon in the late 70s/early 80s and as far as he could remember he had …