“I really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my classmates outside of the classroom and bond over our shared environmental interests,” 1L Grace Perkins said, reflecting on her Day of Service experience.
On Friday September 20th Maine Law’s first years gathered for the Second Annual Day of Service, an opportunity for new students to better acquaint themselves with each other and the greater Portland community through volunteer work.
This year, students volunteered with a variety of local non-profits that included Maine Needs, Presumpscot Regional Land Trust (PRLT), Portland Trails, Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, EqualityMaine, Maine State Archives, and the Ronald McDonald House.
Jim McBride, a PRLT board member and volunteer, said it was helpful to have so many hands available for labor at one time.
“It’s a huge help to have a large group of young people help cutting lumber and moving boards to the new trail,” he said. “In a few hours, we accomplished more than our small volunteer teams could finish in a full week of work.”
The students volunteering with PRLT worked on a brand new trail in Westbrook, cutting lumber to build walkways over muddy patches along the river.
Judicial Archivist Sarah Breaux echoed this sentiment as she oversaw a group transcribing court cases from 18th Century York County.
“Volunteer transcription hours are really important for historical documents before the 1900s,” she explained. “Digitizing them makes them more accessible to the public. Law students are really good volunteers for these projects because they already recognize some of the language used and the ways in which information is presented.”
In addition to walkway building and transcription, students also shored up other trail networks, made phone calls to solicit volunteers, painted walls, and packaged goods for those in need.
“As a newcomer to Maine it was great to learn more about things going on here and feel more connected,” said 1L Stephanie Forbes. “All of us really enjoyed being able to help out, and many of us plan to return and volunteer again as a great way to take a break from reading.”
