1.13.2026 - A Fall River Icon Recognition - Mary Jo Martin

She came to the United States when she was 18 with a strong work ethic and a good heart. And she built a life for herself in the United States and she continues to be a shining light today.

She's the kind of woman that would give you the shirt off her back.

And she's always been a voice for those who want to be heard.

One day, not too long ago, a family came into the restaurant with an autistic child and it the child was being a child and um some people started muttering about what they should do in the restaurant and what they shouldn't do and the family wanted to leave and they did leave and Mary Joe went out to the parking lot and said, "No, no, come back in. You're welcome here. We want you in

our restaurant." And she reached out to make sure they felt comfortable and knew they could come to is whenever they want. That's why we're here today to honor her because that's the kind of special person she is and it's a great restaurant. We'll give it a plug for business. We'd love to see you come out.

And with Blue Leoo's help at Lovely Access Bats, we go around acknowledging citizens that do great things. And so this bat is for Mary Joe Martin, a voice for the voiceless.

I don't know what to say, but thank you, Mary. which is I don't know I guess the right thing to do.

It was the right thing to do and we really uh appreciate you. Representative Alan Sylvia from the south end may want to say a few words.

I just want to uh thank Mary for their contributions to our community. Uh it's people like this that make a difference.

And also want to thank Lulu Leoo.

He always wants to stay in the background but Lulu Leoo is really uh the brainchild of of this program. Of course, it's his bat. And uh we're happy to be here today to have and and um we want to make sure Mary Joe knows she's not going to use this bat on customers she's not happy with.

This is not for that. It's for baseball.

So when you go play out field, you can come on in.

Also joining us today is Carly from Representative Fiola's office.

Sorry, I'll I'll scoot in here. I'm not not much for the camera. I'm here on behalf of State Representative Carol Fiola, who unfortunately couldn't be here. She was called away to meetings in Boston, but presenting a citation from the Massachusetts House of Representatives for Mary Joe. It reads, "Be it hereby known to all that the Massachusetts House of Representatives offers its sincerest congratulations to

Mary Joe Martin in recognition of receiving the Fall River Icon Award for your selfless act of standing up for others with kindness and compassion. The entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for future good fortune and continued success in all endeavors given this day 13th of January 2026 and signed by the speaker of the house Ronald Mariano and offered

by state representative Carol Fiola. So, congratulations.

And I want to say something.

I'm too nervous. This award is not just for me, but also for the girls that work for me because they all good people every single goes for all of us. Okay. Thank you.

That's the family right there.

Thank you.

Now, this is very special. is a very special place up here on Wilson Road.

Come on up, try the breakfast, try the lunch. They'd love to see you and you'll be in the company of good people that do a lot of good things for the community.

So again, thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Congratulations. Very nice to meet you.

Thank you guys. Thank you again.

And we have one other person we want to acknowledge today.

um through a tragedy. Um my good friend, State Representative Allan Sylvia lost his grandson and Louie also wanted to commemorate that so that Allan and the family would have um a memorial fitting for someone that was a Marine, devoted his life to the country and regretfully passed away. So for Adam Ahmed Khan, we're going to ask Representative Sylvia to accept this bat as a token of Louis acknowledgement.

I I had no [cheering] idea that this was happening, but uh it's an honor. Of course, terrible tragedy to the family over the holidays and uh we're still recovering, but uh um I know his parents will uh look forward to seeing this.

Thank you all very much.