While October was Domestic Violence Awareness month, as the calendar flips to November and the holiday months, the message is that people should always be aware of dysfunction in relationships.
So Help Now of Osceola County, a nonprofit that provides services to domestic violence victims, and the Nicole Montalvo Foundation, partnered with artist Jules Ross to create a new pu rple butterfly mural on the rear wall of the Broadway Pizza Bar that faces its Sproule Street parking lot in downtown Kissimmee.
The location is significant because Nicole Montalvo, a tragic victim of domestic violence in October 2019, was an employee at the restaurant.
“There’s a lot of meaning for this, and I get to see it every day,” said Christina Montalvo, Nicole’s sister and a Prevention Specialist for Help Now, located around the corner in downtown Kissimmee. “It took about a week to complete, some rain slowed things down, but it was healing to watch the artistry come together.”
While it was completed and dedicated in a low-key ceremony Saturday, there’s only one piece still missing from the mural — a QR code that visitors can scan to quickly find the resources that Help Now provides.
Among the prominent features are a DV awareness hashtag (#istandtobefreefromdomesticviolence), smaller butterflies that were painted by younger Montalvo family members, and lyrics from the hit Rachel Platt single “Fight Song,” which Montalvo said Nicole “listened to almost every day.”
“This is important for survivors to maintain their strength and encouragement,” Christina Montalvo said. “I hope they see this and keep fighting through.”
As the Montalvo family took pictures Saturday morning — and only when the family lined up — did a single beam of sunshine cascade down on the family.
“That was her with us,” Christina said. “I was like, ‘Yep, I see you Nicci.’”
The timing of the unveiling is good, as the end-of-year holidays are coming up — a time of year when acts of domestic violence are known to occur within families.
“Many don’t think about the holidays as a time for that,” said Help Now Community Engagement Coordinator Andie Hinman said. “But those family gatherings can cause unique and added stresses.”
