Volunteers Lent Time and Talent to Beautify Fall River Office of South Coastal Counties Legal Services

by Kathy Marx, South Coastal Counties Legal Services

A larger-than-life depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. now welcomes clients and visitors to the South Coastal Counties Legal Services’ (SCCLS) Bedford St. office in Fall River.

The image is just a piece of the mural designed and painted by volunteers organized through the University of Massachusetts Office of Civic Engagement. The project was funded through a Martin Luther King Day grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and culminated a week of service activities involving hundreds of volunteers on the South Coast.

Sarah Coyne, a Massachusetts Campus Compact AmeriCorps member, secured the funding and coordinated the details that made this project possible. Mural artist Lynne Laberge, of New Bedford’s Communities and Schools for Success Educational Initiative

 (CS²), and Matthew Sears, an AmeriCorps advocate at SCCLS, brainstormed ideas for the mural with students in the LEADS after-school program. The painting was completed with the help of LEADS students, residents from the Veterans Transition House and AmeriCorps members serving with the Massachusetts Legal Assistance for Self-Sufficiency Program.

"From start to finish, the mural project was truly a collective effort that brought together

volunteers from different generations and cultures,” said Sears. “From the middle schoolers to the veterans, all were united in their dedication to service. The collaboration culminated in a day of goodwill shared by all and a beautiful and moving representation of justice gracing our lobby that we here at SCCLS enjoy each and every morning.”