PLC Walk for Life coming in August

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The Pregnancy Life Center announces its annual Walk for Life is coming up this Saturday, August 4, at Fountain Park in downtown Van Wert.

Once again there will be live music provided by the group Fortress and free refreshments donated by Van Wert Manor, as well as Redeemer Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, and Emmanuel Lutheran churches. The event features a two-mile walk through and around Fountain Park. The walk begins at 9 a.m., with registration beginning at 8:30 that morning. The event will take less than two hours of a person’s time but will make a life change for many teens, women, and children in the Van Wert area.

The goal this year is to raise $26,000 through sponsored walkers.  This means walkers will need as many people as possible supporting them at the walk. Remember, those who cannot participate in the walk can still raise money and walk on their own another time.

The Pregnancy Life Center has been servicing Van Wert and surrounding counties since December 1999. During that time, the center has expanded its program by offering longer office hours, more classes, and more staff to better service clients. One of the biggest changes came two years ago when the center was able to take its services to teen clients through the Teen Support Program. This program allows the PLC to take classes to pregnant teens at their home school when they are not able to get to the center.  In addition, a middle school-aged abstinence group called PINK (Purity, Integrity, New Ideas, Knowledge). This group operated in all three county middle schools (Crestview, Lincolnview, and Van Wert) this past year, as well as at The Resource Center, LifeLinks, and the S.F. Goedde Building.

“This program has been a vision of the PLC’s for several years, and it has been amazing to see it finally come to fruition,” said PLC Director Trina Langdon.  “Above all, we were delighted to see the success of it and the desire for young girls to be involved.”

When all schools and classes were actively involved in PINK, the program provided services to approximately 100 girls a week.  Adding this programming to the PLC cost the center an additional $18,000 per year.

“So far we have been blessed to have the financing available for this program; however, we know that could change at any time,” Langdon said. “We would hate to see a successful program only last for a couple of years due to funding. This is a program that is needed and valuable to many in this area.”

Aside from service to pregnant teens and the abstinence program, the PLC also offers free pregnancy tests, material support, spiritual guidance, and educational classes, such as pre-natal care, baby care, and parenting.

By attending classes at the center, a mother can earn a baby store pass and “baby bucks” to use at the PLC’s baby store. The store is stocked by donations from individuals and churches in the community, and has such items as diapers, wipes, new and used clothes and blankets, baby hygiene items including wash, shampoo, and rash ointment, and baby furniture.  The PLC does not have any income guidelines.    Anyone is welcome to use the center, and clients’ involvement is up to them.  The Pregnancy Life Center will service approximately 300 women and their children in a given year, which includes doing about 140 pregnancy tests and intakes.

The PLC has proven to be a necessity to many in the area, which is why continued funding of this local ministry is important. The PLC does not accept any government funding, but operates entirely on local giving and fundraising.

“Nearly two-thirds of our budget runs off of how our Walk for Life does,” Langdon said. “Everything we do, or don’t do, will be dependent upon what happens with this year’s Walk.”

So far the Walk has brought in $14,450 in corporate and church sponsorship. That portion of the fundraising was highly successful and a full listing of those sponsors is on the PLC website: www.pregnancylifecenter.org.

Meanwhile, the PLC is still looking to raise another $26,000 through sponsored walkers. There is also a goal to have more than 300 walkers in attendance on August 4.

“Any time you have more people in attendance it adds a level of excitement,” says Langdon. “Plus it is always nice to see everyone together, on one day, who value and appreciate what this ministry is doing on a daily basis.”

For those who would like to be involved in this year’s Walk for Life, walk sponsorship forms are available at most Van Wert County and surrounding area churches, or at the Pregnancy Life Center, 215 N. Market St. in Van Wert.

“The theme for this year’s Walk is ‘Come, Follow’,” Langdon said. “Such a simple message given to us by Christ, yet so many of us make it difficult. Being a disciple does mean giving up yourself but what you gain in return is worth it.”