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Baby bottle drive benefits 1st Way Pregnancy Center
By Joyce Coronel, news@catholicsun.org
November 6, 2008
MESA — Members of the Knights of Columbus and 1st Way Pregnancy Center volunteers stood around a table dumping baby bottles full of coins, bills and checks into black canvas bags Oct. 26 at St. Timothy Parish.
Parishioner Richard Thompson, the pro-life chairman of Knights of Columbus Council #11536, had seen a similar fundraiser in California and approached his pastor, Fr. Jack Spaulding, with the idea of doing it at the Mesa parish.
Kay Allen, director of 1st Way Pregnancy Center, a central Phoenix clinic that assists women in crisis pregnancies, said funds raised with the bottles, which will be reused in future drives at other parishes, will assist the launching of a local mobile pregnancy clinic.
Knights were able to distribute 1,900 empty pink and blue plastic baby bottles after Masses the weekend of Oct. 4-5 to highlight the sanctity of life month of October and benefit 1st Way. St. Timothy parishioners were asked to drop their spare change into the bottles during the month and return them to the parish the last weekend in October.
The response to the bottle drive was generous and the unloading of the bottles was a noisy affair, with about a dozen volunteers pouring coins into bags. Among the contents were a significant number of dollar bills as well as sizable checks.
About half of the baby bottles have been returned so far, with the collection bringing in about $14,000. Allen says St. Timothy’s will continue to collect outstanding bottles over the next few weeks and she expects the final count to be higher.
“Kay, look at this,” one volunteer exclaimed excitedly as she held up a check for $300. Another notable offering came in the form of 570 Indian Rupees.
“Please accept this offering,” the accompanying note read. “I picked them up on a business trip to India, but I’m not sure what they’re worth.” Answer: about $12 — not bad for spare change.
What about counting all those coins? “The banks were going to charge us between 7 and 12 percent,” said Allen, who admitted she was a bit concerned about cost containment.
Two days after praying about the issue, she received a call from Jim Clark, a local Catholic businessman and owner of Republic Monetary Exchange. Clark offered to process all the coins for free.
The mobile pregnancy clinic funded by the bottle drive will feature an ultrasound machine and be staffed by medical personnel. For years, sidewalk counselors who stand outside abortion clinics, attempting to persuade women to carry their babies to term, have longed for a way to show these women the unborn babies they harbor.
Allen said that 90 percent of the women who come to 1st Way and are considering an abortion change their minds when they see the tiny child growing within them. The van will be parked near a Planned Parenthood clinic in Phoenix during the morning hours in which abortions are performed.
Women who may be considering an abortion will be able to walk around the corner, step into the van and receive counseling as well as see their baby’s ultrasound image. A liaison will be in communication with sidewalk counselors all over the Valley and the van will be able to relocate as necessary to other abortion clinics within half an hour, as needed.
St. Timothy Catholic School gave each of its 183 students a baby bottle to collect spare change during October as well.
“They raised close to $2,000,” said Margie Healey, the school secretary. “The really nice thing was that it was all change, not checks from parents, so the children were raising the money themselves.”
Money from the schoolchildren will benefit Maggie’s Place.
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