Legal Assistance Office, Seoul, Korea Contact: Troy Stabenow, Captain Legal Assistance Office PSC 303, Box 34 APO, AP 96204 E-mail: Troy.stabenow@jagc.army.mil (a winner of the 1998 Law Day Activity Awards) Project Description: A small but enthusiastic group of soldier and attorney volunteers in Seoul, Korea, provided Law Week services and events for 17,000+ American service-members and their families. Volunteers took free tax, will, and notary services to isolated community residents. Programs in every grade helped students understand their freedoms. Ten days, twenty activities, hundreds of participants, all on $400 donated by the local spouses' club. Sponsoring Entity: U.S. Forces Korea JAG Office, Seoul American schools, local arts center, among others Reaching All Students: For grades 1-4, a poster contest (winning poster adorned hundreds of t-shirts); for grades 5-6, an essay contest; elementary students participated in mock trials and class discussions. For older students, there were career day discussions, exposure to law enforcement techniques and criminal defense rights, and appellate advocacy in which 16 teams argued a case that was actually pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. Involving Schools: Capture the interest of the students, and at least one teacher. Once the students and a teacher get excited about learning legal and constitutional ideas, all barriers go down.  By spreading events over a week, we not only got better results but also ensured minimal interference with regular schedules." Best Things about This Project: "Our students left our events excited. The students were all worked up about how they now understood so much more of the TV news and programs they had seen on the law." "It was a wonderful change to hear community members talking positively about the presence and contribution of their local lawyers." "Seeing the local televised community commander's channel repeatedly feature how local lawyers and community members were working and learning together was a real treat, and resulted in numerous phone calls with ideas for next year." Secret of Success: "First of all, getting the community to view Law Day as 'their' program. Once teachers and volunteers viewed it as a program of their own, they jumped up to provide ideas, spearhead events, and find funding. Just as important, breaking the program into component pieces enabled individual volunteers to run them on their own with only minor program supervision before event days." How-to Advice: "Get members of the community involved in the planning and execution. Once others get involved, workloads become manageable, much more gets accomplished, and participants really enjoy the program!" What We Learned: "Put the word out early! Particularly with our outreach programs, the best way to reach people is via word of mouth, and that requires time and community involvement." Cost: $400 Sample Programs Home | By Audience | By Location | By Sponsoring Organization