What goes on in these rooms may build bridges to reunite families.
Birth parents who are estranged from their children get short visits with their children in previously bland rooms at the north Everett office of the state Department of Social and Health Services.
Volunteers, relatives or foster families deliver the children. Parents arrive separately, to make potentially awkward stabs at keeping in touch. Thanks to a caring volunteer, the sterile rooms they used to meet in now feature cheery animals, summer scenes, children playing and even a kitty reading "The Cat in the Hat."
If conversation is strained, or hugs grow weak, walls can be topics of conversation.
Linda Martin, owner of Top Drawer Art, outlined the murals. Workers at DSHS filled in the lines according to Martin’s directions for "Family Time" rooms. Martin put faces and finishing touches on each design. Jeannine Fosca, community resource program manager, arranged the meeting.
"I met Linda through a Business Networking International meeting," Fosca said. "I network in the community to increase awareness about the needs of the children and families we serve and to gain support to meet those needs."
She approached Martin about doing artwork.
"Linda was immediately receptive," Fosca said. "She set up a time to come see the rooms for herself."
Martin incorporated a ribbon of paint around the room featuring berries, wolves, ravens, an eagle and a whale. Noticing other bland enclosures, Martin decided to brighten bare-walled Family Time rooms.
Martin, 60, began drawing as a child. After 22 years of directing and teaching at Morning Song Christian Preschool, she combined her love of art and eye for design to form her company. She learned marketing skills as a member of Business Network International, a professional referral networking organization.
Her commercial mural work can be seen at Claire’s Pantry and Curves for Women in Mill Creek. She does commercial and residential work, amongst a busy volunteer schedule. The Everett woman has been to Mexico to build homes for the needy with her place of worship, Hope Community Church in Lynnwood, and she adorned walls at a home for older foster youths near Mill Creek.
For the walls at the north Everett DSHS office, Martin said she thought a playground would be a good theme. Viewers will note her devotion to diversity. Children from all walks of life ride tricycles or climb trees. A girl reads a computer science book, and a young lad hangs upside down from a branch.
The child on the tricycle is wearing a safety helmet. One happy child is in a wheelchair. To see more of Martin’s designs, visit topdrawerartwork.com.
Martin still has three rooms to design at the Everett office, including a baby room that might have birdhouses or butterflies. Home support specialist Mary Decker said she works with clients who ask to be seated in the colorful rooms. She has seen babies perk up in the bright surroundings, Decker said. If conversation lags, parents can point out rabbits on the wall to their youngsters.
"Three- or 4-year olds will say that’s their room," Decker said. "This is such a neat idea."
Fosca said the children have been placed with either relatives or foster parents, yet are allowed through juvenile court to maintain contact with their birth parents through regular visitation or family time.
She said the designer’s talent has been an asset to the decor.
"We are very grateful to her," Fosca said. "As a state agency we have very limited funding and certainly no funding that could be used to beautify the rooms. She has been a blessing."
For estranged families who meet in office rooms, thoughtful blessings may ease the way.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or
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