BRISTOL PRESS
T H E T AT T O O MAKIN G A PERMANENT IMPRESSION SINCE 1994 VOLUME 8 No. 12
Restoring an old house for a new teen shelter
By SAM YOSAFI, JEN PLONSKI and DANIELLE intensive counseling, teens who
LETOURNEAU live at the home will have their
The Tattoo own bedroom, and a van for trans-
portation outside of school,
An old house on Chippens Hill is being reno- Hansen said.
vated into a homeless shelter for teens. Teens will be allowed to have
A coalition of church officials and social friends at the shelter on a limited
workers are working to create the Good basis, Hansen said.
Shepherd House on a former summertime estate “We don’t want this to seem like
on Hill Street. a prison,” Hansen said.
Tom O’Keefe, president of Bristol Housing For
Hansen said teens who have a
Children at Risk, said there are typically 15 to 35
teens in Bristol that are either homeless or at the history of drug or alcohol use or
risk of being homeless. violence won’t be allowed in the
O’Keefe’s task force is trying to decrease that program, but he said kids who
number by providing up to six homeless teens drop out of school will not neces-
Jen Plonski / The Tattoo
with a safe, temporary place to stay. sarily be excluded.
Because of the emotional trau-
The Good Shepherd House at 733 Hill St.
The shelter will serve teens “who through no
fault of their own have found themselves home- ma of homelessness and the prob- problems brought on by homelessness allow the
less,” said the Rev. Mark Hansen, a leader of the Jen Plonski / The Tattoo
lems it brings, kids in the program shelter to classify the teens as emotionally dis-
coalition. “Providing a safe home for teens is the The Rev. Mark Hansen stands in the living room of the will need counseling, said Hansen.
abled and gives the project protection under
mission of the church.” Good Shepherd House. The house has six fireplaces. Hansen said the psychological state law.
The shelter site — the late Katharine First, said
Shepard’s charming 12-room colonial house at Hansen, counselors
733 Hill St. — needs about $200,000 of renova-
tions before it can open as a shelter, according
Hansen.
Shepard donated the 23-acre property, includ-
ing two houses and two barns, to the Episcopal
will try to reconcile
the teen’s relation-
ship with their par-
ents if possible. As
an alternative, they
Teens do home work
Diocese of Connecticut when she died in 1989. may find a home By MIKE NGUYEN and KATE HAIRE need, Ayala said, he would go there.
The Good Shepherd House will have six boys with relatives or in a The Tattoo Katherine Feltt, a student at Bristol Central
and girls ages 14 to 18 living together at any one group home. High School cleaned out underbrush near one of
time, with staff members from the Wheeler The counseling Volunteers broke out their rakes and paint- two barns on the property. She said she decided
Clinic who will provide constant supervision and starts “from day one brushes Saturday as part of an effort to fix up a to help out because it seemed fun.
intensive counseling, according to Hansen. when the person house for homeless youth. “It was so close to my neighborhood,” said
The teens in need of the house will be found moves in here,” said Some renovations included clearing over- Feltt. “I always wanted to do it.”
through schools or word of mouth, said Hansen. Hansen. grown grass, painting porch rails, raking out However, some neighbors in the area aren’t as
If they want to stay at the Good Shepherd House, “We try to take areas, and disposing of yard waste. keen about the homeless shelter, which is across
the youths will be interviewed by Wheeler Clinic things one step at a Over half a dozen church groups were present the street from Chippanee Golf Club.
staff members to see if they are eligible. time,” said Hansen. Jen Plonski / The Tattoo at the house to clean up its exterior and back- “They’re not too happy with it,” said Paul
Teens can stay 45 days, but Hansen said some According to Below, Pam Young, an yard. It’s one small step towards restoring the Contrastano, 46, of Bristol. “But if the place is
may be allowed more time. He said the home will Hansen, everyone eighth grader at St. house, which will be used as a shelter for home- maintained and supervised, they won’t have a
be flexible and no one will ever be put out on the that lives there will Joseph School, rakes less teens. problem.”
street. “really get a lot of outside the Good “I think it’s good. I’m having fun,” said The 1805 house has a dozen rooms and three
At the house, counselors will help teens get attention.” Shepherd House Amanda Souza, a 15-year-old that attends Bristol bathrooms.
their lives in perspective. In addition to Saturday. Eastern High School. Tattoo staff writers T.J. O’Connor and
“I take pride in my community,” said John Danielle Letourneau contributed to this story.
Fortunato, the project coordina-
tor. He was impressed with the
number of teens that showed up.
“You guys are the future. It’s
about giving back.”
“Being a senior citizen, we
need future taxpayers,” he joked.
Two sisters, Jessica and
Katelin Cummings, who attend
East Hartford High School, were
also present at the house, help-
ing with various jobs like pulling
weeds. They think the shelter is
a great way to get homeless
teens off the streets.
They thought that the house
being located away from the cen-
ter of town was a good idea,
because it’s away from all the
trouble.
Alex Ayala, 14, a student at
Bristol Eastern High School,
said he learned about the Good
Shepherd House through his Jen Plonski / The Tattoo
church. Bristol Central High School students Caitlin O’Meara,
Ayala said the project will Katherine Feltt, and Julie Wargo, work to clean the grounds at
help a lot of people. If he was in the Good Shepherd House Saturday.
Joe Keo / The Tattoo
...At the movies with The Tattoo....More reviews online...www.ReadTheTattoo.com...At the movies with The Tattoo...More reviews online...
Crawl quickly into Spider-Man’s web
By KAISHI LEE ries about original Spider-Man). be warned though that Spider- streets of New York on sky- Take heart as two more
The Tattoo peer pres- When Uncle Ben is mur- Man has toned-down action scrapers with ease and deft- sequels are in the works and
sure, girls dered, Parker plunges into mis- sequences with a few car chas- ness. the cast will begin filming next
If you are disillusioned with and money. ery and decides to use his pow- es, some explosions and of As wholesome and squeaky- year. Spider-Man II is set for a
summer movies, go for the ulti- Add in girl ers (hurrah!) to protect the course, the showdown between clean Mary-Jane, Dunst shines. 2004 release.
mate spin with Spider-Man. problems innocent and fight evil. Spidey and the villain, Green Taking a break from her rebel-
Till then, go get your Spider-
But before you go up the and Parker, living with his A new-generation superhero, Goblin a.k.a. Norman Osborne lious bad girl roles in The
wall being tormented over Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) Spidey is also prone to self- (the stellar Willem Dafoe). Virgin Suicides and crazy/beau- Man action figure and don’t
whether Spider-Man the movie and Aunt May (Rosemary doubt and just as vulnerable to However, the characters tiful, she delivers a job well bug Spidey ... he’s busy saving
lives up to Stan Lee’s comic, Harris), has an unrequited stress and strain as the average come to the rescue with heart done. the world.
don’t. crush on his Titian-haired angst-filled teen. and plenty of warmth.
This long-awaited film adap- neighbor, Mary-Jane Watson Most tellingly, Spidey is Maguire is primed
tation of Spider-Man is a hit
because it sticks to the basics
and the spirit of the original
comic.
(Kirsten Dunst).
Ingeniously directed by Sam
Raini (Evil Dead, A Simple
Plan), Parker turns into a wall-
billed as “the hero that could be
you.”
If you can, ignore the cheesy
computer-generated animations
for stardom and adula-
tion of fans with his
earnest and sensitive
portrayal of Spider-
Wicked tunes
make ‘X’ rock
To clue in any Martians: scaling, crime-fighting super- of Spidey in the first half of the Man.
Peter Parker or the Amazing hero after he gets bitten by a movie as there is still much to He delivers a pitch-
Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) is genetically-engineered spider (a marvel about Spider-Man. perfect performance
a nerdy science geek who wor- radioactive arachnid in the Summer blockbuster fans, swinging through the
By JEN PLONSKI
‘Ultimate X’ delivers thrills The Tattoo
When ESPN’s “Ultimate X” movie started, the soundtrack boomed out
hard rock that vibrated everyone so they felt like they were sitting on a
couple of sticks of dynamite.
By DANIELLE LETOURNEAU right there and it is happening in front Games got better because they began to Throughout the whole movie loud
The Tattoo of you. understand more about good competi- and electrifying music poured out of the
With IMAX, you get a whole different tion and all. speakers.
You’ve probably heard of Tony Hawk, perspective at the movies. You aren’t ‘Ultimate X’ also teaches viewers The IMAX movie included extreme
Stephan Murray, Bob Burnquist and so just seeing the people skate, bike or about the pros themselves. sports like street luge, skateboarding,
on – the world’s best skaters, BMX rid- ride, it’s like you are the athlete, or Tony Hawk, a world famous skate- biking, motocross, and a little bit of in-line skating.
ers and dirt-bike dudes. someone in his path. boarder, turned professional at 14 years In one part, the gigantic screen made you feel like you were twisting
But you haven’t seen them close-up Beyond these hot skaters, you learn old. and turning and out of control with other street lugers.
and in action on the IMAX screen. a little about ESPN’s X Games and the Carey Hart, a pro-dirt-biker, was the It felt like you were ripping down the pavement, nearly crashing into
‘Ultimate X,’ the IMAX movie of the pros themselves. first person to attempt the back flip — the bales of hay on the hairpin turns instead of sitting safely back in your
X Games comes screeching into the- The X Games began in the mid-1990s and succeeded. seat at the theater.
aters on Friday, May 10. and some people said they were “terri- In the movie, he said that he had Another section in the movie showed a whole bunch of extreme wipe-
If you wanna see these hot, ass-kick- ble.” attempted this many times and wiped outs. The last one was kind of funny because the biker went over the top
ing skaters, BMX and dirt-bikers in On particularly strange sport called out, when he finally succeeded, the of the ramp backwards and let out a Tarzan-like squeal just before he
action, then you have to see this movie. “shovel racing” had competitors basical- crowd roared with pleasure. crashed.
With one glance at the screen, you ly just racing downhill on shovels. But overall, all those wipe outs and Some of the athletes in the film talked about what they did before they
are in a totally different place. Another odd sport featured bungee hot dudes all come together into this turned pro and their perspective on their sport. A lot of them proudly
Awesome wipe-outs are really close jumping. awesome, close-up, lifelike IMAX flick listed for the camera their many injuries from their extreme sport. They
up – and the large screen and terrific Not very exciting, huh? that you’ll love even if you don’t like seemed as though they thought the more times they’ve gotten nearly
speakers make it sound like you are But as the years went on, the X extreme sports. killed, the better.
WWW.READTHETATTOO.COM
The best teen journalism in America. For questions, comments or to join, contact advisors Steve Collins and Jackie Majerus at 523-9632.