St. Joseph Helpers, a crisis pregnancy center in Little Rock, unveiled its new fundraising and ministry goals during a banquet Oct. 28 at the Embassy Suites.
The Catholic-run organization took an atypical approach to filling the banquet hall. About 20 “table hosts” were recruited to fill tables with 10 people who they felt would be interested in the center’s mission to serve as an alternative to abortion. No tickets were sold. The 215 people, including founder Father Joseph Neilson, OCD, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor and several priests and sisters, were personally invited to the banquet for free. Several donors picked up the tab for the sit-down dinner. The banquet was not publicized through the parishes or media.
At the end of the banquet, the main speaker encouraged attendees to look at this ministry and consider its important mission in the community. St. Joseph Helpers’ office is located across the street from Little Rock’s only abortion clinic. While a contemporary Christian song was performed, attendees were asked to review the pledge card and fill it out if they wanted.
This fundraising approach is followed by several successful crisis pregnancy centers around the country, banquet coordinator Carol Godsey said.
Instead of paying $50 or $100 for a ticket, she said attendees were asked to “look within yourself and pray about it and see how much God wants me to give.”
“It’s such a personal issue, they want people to come and really pray about want they are being asked to do,” said Godsey, a member of Christ the King Church in Little Rock.
She said for the first-ever banquet, the committee set a goal of $50,000. After counting one-time donations and pledges, the banquet raised $65,000 for St. Joseph Helpers. Godsey said the entire amount will go directly toward keeping the doors open and helping women who are pregnant or have recently had babies and need support. The organization has no paid staff members.
“God definitely put the right people there,” she said.
Godsey said the banquet also brought forth about 12 to 15 people who said they would be interested in volunteering.
“That is just as important as someone giving $100,” she said.
Currently St. Joseph Helpers, known in the community as the Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center, operates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment only on Saturday with only 13 volunteers, including president Maria Maldonado.
“We hope we can expand (the hours) so we can be open all day on Saturday,” Godsey said.
Maldonado, who works full-time as a second-grade teacher at Christ the King School and started volunteering with the organization 15 years ago, said St. Joseph Helpers has several goals if the organization’s budget could be doubled from $30,000 to $60,000 a year.
The goals include hiring a full-time, paid director to expand the hours of operation, increase awareness of St. Joseph Helpers and number of volunteers, especially those who speak Spanish, and reach more “abortion-minded women and men.” The center would also like to buy an ultrasound machine so they can provide tangible information to women who come to them for assistance.
In 2007, the center had 267 client visits, provided 119 free pregnancy tests and answered 618 phone calls.
Following dinner and a ministry update from Maldonado, a young mother named Rachel shared her story of how she turned to St. Joseph Helpers to help her through her pregnancy. Her son was born last September and they now live out of state with her parents.
“A baby is never a bad thing,” she told the audience.
Shawn Carney, executive producer and host of “being Human” on EWTN and a national board member for the 40 Days for Life campaign, captured the attention of the attendees with his powerful message of the importance of people in central Arkansas stopping abortion in their own region.
The 26-year-old Catholic from College Station, Texas, said he was one of the founders of the national campaign to focus on 40 days of fasting and prayer in 25 cities in the fall 2007. This fall the event spread to 177 cities, including Little Rock, Jonesboro and Fayetteville, in 47 states and two Canadian provinces.
“The reason 40 Days for Life is successful is the same reason St. Joseph Helpers is so successful. When people in their town realize one thing … this issue that is so hijacked as a political issue … but this is a moral crisis … That is why it has a moral solution, which is truth and love … This is a local problem and it has a local solution. Little Rock, you are that solution. Abortions do not happen on the bench of the Supreme Court and they do not happen in the halls of Congress. They happen about 1/2 mile down the road, where across the street there is a wonderful group to offer love and alternatives called St. Joseph Helpers.”
For more information, visit www.pregnancylittlerock.com.
