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Young Catholic girls
bike for pro-life clinic
By Joyce Coronel, news@catholicsun.org
June 18, 2008
They’re only in grade school, but three local girls decided they wanted to do something big on behalf of unborn babies.
The friends, who all live in Phoenix’s historic Encanto-Palmcroft area and attend Catholic schools, enjoy riding their bikes through the tree-lined streets of the picturesque neighborhood.
“We were bike-riding around the neighborhood the other day and we decided instead of just riding for fun, we could donate it to an organization,” said Ellery Dyer, 12.
The three girls chose Life Choices Women’s Clinic to be the recipient of pledges they collected for what they dubbed the “Save the Babies” bike-a-thon on June 7.
Ellery just finished fifth grade at Ss. Simon and Jude School and has accompanied her grandmother, Lynn Dyer, during her pro-life work for years. The elder Dyer said she often stands outside of abortion clinics to pray and try to persuade women not to go through with the procedure.
“Me and my Nana and my best friend’s family are very pro-life and we wanted to help the babies,” said Ellery. The three students collected pledges from friends, neighbors and fellow parishioners in order to raise money for Life Choices.
Lynn Dyer said the loop around their neighborhood is about half a mile long. Sporting homemade “Save the Babies” T-shirts, the girls began pedaling at 7 a.m. on Saturday and by 11 a.m. they had completed 80 laps. She figures the girls raised over $600 with their efforts and said the fundraiser was entirely the youngsters’ idea.
The girls themselves said they want to help the unborn. Mary Katherine Kem, 11, and her younger sister Olivia, 9, summed it up simply: It’s all about helping the babies, because when women have abortions, the babies don’t have a chance to live. They said that if they could help save lives, it was worth it to go through a little bit of pain by biking. Sheila Riley, director of the Life Choices clinic, didn’t know about the girls’ effort until after it was over. She said her organization is opening a second clinic at 35th Avenue and McDowell later this summer and will put the funds to good use.
Riley was impressed by the girls’ efforts.
“These are children who are reaching out to help unborn babies,” she said. “They put all their energy into this cause because it’s such a deep conviction they hold. Even though they’re young, they understand the sanctity of life and that it’s worth working for.”
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