LIFE is continuing to be protected and celebrated in Portales, NM!
As you may know, Right to Life of Roosevelt and Curry Counties presented an ordinance to the city council that would legalize placing a Safe Haven Baby Box at our local fire department on South Avenue C. Then on March 15th, our council members unanimously voted to approve and support it! But, of course, they did! That’s because Roosevelt has long been a county that supports all LIFE.
Now is the next step: fundraising for it. We need to raise $15,000 that will provide for the baby box, the advertising/billboard campaign, and other opportunities we can take advantage of through Safe Haven Baby Box (SHBB). The advertising campaign will include a billboard that will display the hotline number that SHBB mans 24 hours, 7 days a week. The hotline lets women know all of their options: parenting, adopting, surrendering the baby to a fire department or hospital under the Safe Haven Law, and finally, the Safe Haven Baby Box. The hotline will try to direct them to seek help from a nearby pregnancy resource center as well! Praise God we have one in Portales! Safe Haven Baby Box will also provide training for first responders, and they have a program that can be presented to local schools that is intended to educate and inform young people about the Safe Haven Law and the baby boxes. Portales will likely be connected to SHBB for many years to come.
However, we would love to exceed our goal so that Roosevelt can sow the extra funds raised to get the next county started in New Mexico. By counties sowing their extra funds into the next county, it is our hope to eventually have the entire state covered with at least one baby box per county and without having to accept one dime from the government.
So how can you and your church family help? First, we want to invite all the members of your church to our fundraiser kickoff which will be Saturday, April 30th at 4:00 pm at our fire department located on S. Avenue C. We are very excited that we will be able to hold this event at the very place that will become the home of Portales’ very own Safe Haven Baby Box!
The second way you and your church family can help is to prayerfully consider taking up a special offering for the Baby Box. Every penny will go directly to the SHBB organization. If you choose to participate with a special offering, you may either bring it to the fire department on April 30th or contact me to come and collect it. However, we do hope you, Pastor, or someone from your church family can bring it and join us on April 30th!
If you would like to learn more about the Safe Haven Baby Box and the organization behind it, please go to: shbb.org
We will also be posting more information about it over the next couple of weeks on the Right to Life of Roosevelt and Curry Counties Facebook page.
Providing a Safe Haven Baby Box is meant to be the last resort for a mom who isn’t sure she can or wants to raise her child. We are inviting our community and our church families to join Right to Life in giving vulnerable women a safe option for their unborn children.
Ideally, we want moms to choose to raise their own children; but if she doesn’t believe that is an option, by providing her with the hotline and the Safe Haven Baby Box, we can help moms to think of the baby box as a last resort, not abortion.
