NEW ORLEANS– The Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club paraded through the streets of the 7th ward for the 22nd year to celebrate the community’s mother’s.

Filled with a second line, food, floats, and more music it’s a tradition that many families won’t miss.

The Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club was founded in 1996 in the Saint Bernard Housing Projects located in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana to help the community. Some of the more recent post- Katrina efforts include drawing people back to city and rebuilding homes and businesses.

“Pleasure Club” is the tag line that has been given to the Big 7, but the idea of pleasure clubs originated with church benevolent societies. The purpose of these societies was to help church members buy clothes and food, pay rent and assist in other areas in which they may need help. Later, the methodologies of benevolence expanded beyond the confines of the church to include other kinds of community based work. The intermingling of the sacred and secular caused a divide between the church and the benevolent society and facilitated a move away from church-based operation to community-based operation.