Telling our story: our “awesome” mural project

MARICELLA, MARY ELLEN, AND THE AWESOME FOUNDATION

Everyone has a story. Our immigrant students, our citizenship applicants, our job candidates. After 25 years of welcoming and serving immigrants, Center for New Americans also has stories to tell.

Thanks to a donation from The Awesome Foundation, Northampton Affiliate, our Greenfield alumna, Maricella Obando-Moya sketched, then painted a mural that tells the story of how immigrants learn English, prepare for jobs, and take their oath of citizenship with Center for New American You can read about The Northampton Chapter of the Awesome Foundation here.

Enter Mary Ellen Kelly, a long-time Center for New Americans supporter. Mary Ellen has written and raised for 30 Poems in November! and now volunteers as a classroom assistant in our Amherst program site. She is also an amateur photographer. She photographed Maricella, telling the story of Maricella telling our story.

All of this was made possible by the Mayor of Northampton and the City’s willingness to welcome this mural into the city-owned building which houses our Northampton program.

Here are some of Mary Ellen’s photos of the Mural: