Update offered on care center (12/08/2008)

To the editor:

In 1993, after hearing a Right to Life speaker at the Nazarene Church in Portland, several community leaders realized the need for an organization that would assist pregnant women in Jay County. The founding Board of Directors, Steve Fennig, David Welling, and Karen Link established the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Jay County for the purpose to minister in the name of Jesus Christ to women in crisis pregnancies by providing necessary support services to enable them to carry their babies to term. Such support services shall include but not be limited to free pregnancy testing, maternity and baby clothes, referrals for low cost legal and medical help, temporary shelter and ongoing friendship and encouragement. I wonder if the founding board of directors imagined where the center would be in 15 years. Although our name changed over the years to the Pregnancy Care Center of Jay County, we are a Christ Centered organization whose purpose is to demonstrate God's love by providing free counseling and support to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs associated with crisis pregnancy and family care. Founded in 1993 as an organization in response to abortion, we have grown over the years to offer our clients additional services such as Pre and Post Natal Education, Relationship/ Family Counseling, Abortion Alternative Counseling Adoption Counseling, Parenting Classes, Abstinence Education, Bible Studies, Baby Furniture, Baby Food, Formula, and Diapers. Under the direction of Executive Director Patty Johnston, the center is staffed by a group of wonderful volunteers who have been trained in offering peer counseling to everyone who enters the door of the center.

The center started out in an office at Vormohr's Medical building then moved to the corner of W. Walnut and Commerce streets in 2000.

In September 2004 we moved to our current location on 111 W. Main St. and we have rapidly outgrown this location. We have provided service to new clients each month, while continuing to provide assistance to our established clients and their families.

The center is open 20 hours per week and our client visits average 153 per month and they are increasing.

In fact the center has seen a trend in which each year our clients' visits exceed the previous year. If this trend continues, our total client visits for 2008 will exceed 1500. These are women, children, and families who rely on the Center for many things we take for granted such as food, clothing, diapers, personal care items, and baby food. We have also helped purchase eye glasses for clients, provided them with gas money to go to doctor visits, and rented a motel room to help them leave an abusive situation.

What an exciting year it has been for the Pregnancy Care Center of Jay County. Almost four years ago we were blessed to have several donors see that while we had just moved into a new location, we would one day out grow the space. The donors provided the funds for the Pregnancy Care Center of Jay County to purchase a building. We looked at buildings during the past three years, seeking God's direction for the center. In June, we purchased a building located at 216 S. Meridian St., Portland.

Through the generosity of the community through volunteering their gifts, talents, and labor we have begun remodeling the interior of the building to fit the needs of the Center.

The funds for this project are separate and not a part of the financial assistance needed for the daily operation of the center.

The Board of Directors of the Pregnancy Care Center of Jay County would like to thank the community's effort and commitment to supporting the center.

The center is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and all donations to the center are deductable in accordance with the IRS regulations. We are blessed to be assisted with any extra ordinary needs by the area businesses, civic organizations, and The Portland Foundation. We rely solely on the financial support of individuals and churches for our daily operation of the center.

I ask that you, your family, and your congregation help us with the increasing needs of the center. The center depends on your support of your financial gifts, your donations of clothes, diapers, food, etc, your willingness to volunteer at the center, and as always your prayers for the center, the staff, the directors, and our clients.

I ask that you be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ and help the center show His love to our clients with your support.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.

Lori McIntosh,

president, board of

directors, Pregnancy

Care Center

of Jay County

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