Joyce Coronel/CATHOLIC SUN

1st Way Pregnancy Center raises $42,000 for pro-life cause

By Joyce Coronel | Nov. 21, 2011 | The Catholic Sun

SCOTTSDALE — Laura Gallego told the more than 300 attendees at this year’s fundraiser banquet for 1st Way Pregnancy Center how their financial support was life changing.

“I feel very blessed to know the all staff at 1st Way personally,” Gallego said, “to know that these women have shown me so much support... It’s like my sanctuary.”

The mom of five had been through some tough times: she lost her mother, her husband lost his job and needed two back surgeries, and their apartment burned down. The family was homeless for a few months.

Gallego turned to 1st Way for help. “It was my only way of getting diapers for my kids that I already had at home,” she said. That’s when she found out she was pregnant. “I wanted nothing to do with having another kid …there’s nothing we could offer this baby,” she told the audience.

The support and information she received at 1st Way encouraged Gallego to go through with her pregnancy and she is due to deliver in the next couple weeks.

The clinic located at the corner of 3rd Street and McDowell has been in existence for 39 years, having been founded just a few months before the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. The pro-life outreach to raised more that $42,000 in donations during the fundraiser.

Offering free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, education, counseling and support, 1st Way helps about 200 women a month. Funding from the Diocese of Phoenix’s Charity and Development Appeal helps pay some of the operational costs of the clinic, but the monthly pledges and ongoing financial contributions of supporters are crucial.

Those who attended the banquet saw a video presentation detailing the work of 1st Way and its lifesaving impact. The video opens with a scene of women waiting to enter the clinic. A voiceover tells viewers that clients often mention to staff members that they feel a peace once inside the building.

Liz Hernandez, a 1st Way client, held her baby and tearfully told what a difference the clinic made in her life. “They changed my life a lot,” she said.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted attended the annual banquet and lauded its work to help pregnant women and their babies and build up what John Paul II called the Gospel of Life. 

“Tonight we are in a particular way lifting up an organization that serves the Gospel of Life,” the bishop said. The clinic, he said, often serves women who “come in abortion-minded, not because they have a conviction, but because they don’t know about the alternatives.”

Peter and Cynthia Lemieux, the emcees for the banquet, encouraged those in attendance to financially support the work of 1st Way. The clinic, Peter said, spends about $1,200 per client for pregnancy tests, ultrasound exams, counseling, clothing, baby items and education.

“How many babies do you want to help tonight?” Peter challenged the crowd.

He added that 95 percent of the women who see their unborn baby during an ultrasound exam at 1st Way choose life. “Three hundred and twenty babies are alive today because of the love and care of 1st Way,” Peter said.