Before 2013, women and girls living in Grundy County, Illinois, had no place to turn locally for help when they experienced an unplanned pregnancy. Tami Rush learned first-hand about that need for services when a 13-year-old girl asked if she knew where a friend could get a pregnancy test. Rush and others in the community stepped in by filling the gap, developing and opening the Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) of Grundy County, Ill, that year.
Nearly 10 years later, she and the center’s staff and volunteers continue to respond to needs in their community. A service they offer called Curbside Care offers diapers, wipes, formula, and other necessities each month. The initiative has helped to raise awareness for PRC’s pregnancy help ministry in a key area of particular vulnerability to abortion.
The program began during the COVID pandemic lockdown in Illinois in April 2020, Rush said. She and her team offered supplies every week. 
“When the shelter-in-place came through, the (store) shelves were empty of diapers and formula and within two weeks, there was nothing to be had,” recalled Rush, who serves as PRC’s executive director. “We were like ‘Okay, we have a storeroom that is full of diapers, wipes, formula, and other essentials.’ So, we decided that we were going to put on our gloves and our masks, and we were going to figure out a way to distribute those items.”
Curbside Care allowed people who called to schedule a pickup time to show up in the parking lot, open the trunk of their vehicle, receive their items, and drive away. As word spread, the community, including churches, came alongside PRC.
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“People just inundated us with Amazon gift packages, and churches replenished our stock so that we could continue serving,” Rush said. “We did Curbside Care all during shelter-in-place on a weekly basis. When things started to lighten up, we went to every two weeks.”
The program allowed Rush and her staff to not only help their community with baby products, but to also educate the community about the existence of the center.
“Our goal was for babies to have full bellies and clean bottoms, and also let these moms know about our maternity and parenting education programs,” Rush said. “We wanted them to know that not only could they be educated, but that they had a mentor, someone to talk to when the times were rough. So Curbside Care got that word out for us as well.”
Care continues
Now monthly, the program happens on every second Thursday. In addition to the baby items, a bakery provides a loaf of fresh bread, and sometimes recipients find additional items in their bags given by people in the community and center donors. A flyer about PRC’s services, such as pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and programs, also makes it into the hands of people receiving Curbside Care.
Recently, a woman who came for the baby items referred a pregnant friend considering abortion to the center for medical services and options education.
“Our nurses had the opportunity to talk to her. When they asked her how she found out about us, she said, ‘My friend came here for diapers,’” Rush said. “You just never know who we’re going to reach and how.”
The Pregnancy Center of Grundy County experienced a significant jump in the number of pregnancy tests given after the shelter-in-place order lifted.
“We had a 93 percent increase in our pregnancy tests from 2020 to 2021,” Rush said.
Between October 2020 and October 2021, the center’s banquet months, PRC served 526 unique individuals, she added.
She attributes some of those increases to Curbside Care.
“Of course, it's by the grace of God, but if Curbside Care is a way we can get out in our community, then we will continue to do it as long as our partners come alongside of us to provide the material for us to do so,” Rush said. “You know, we have not used one bit of budget money to continue to do this.”
Located in Coal City, about 60 miles south of Chicago, the center is near Interstate 55, between the abortion capital of Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, where women can also obtain abortions. Women who travel the interstate between the two cities can, and have, stopped at the Pregnancy Resource Center.
“We are right on the I-55 corridor and … we have had individuals call us from the highway and say, ‘I was on my way to Chicago to have an abortion but now I found out I need a pregnancy verification; can I come to you to do a pregnancy verification?’” Rush said. “So, we are strategically placed.”
Strength and service in numbers
The Pregnancy Resource Center, which is part of the Living Alternative group of 15 centers found in Illinois and Indiana, became a medical clinic in 2018, providing pregnancy tests and ultrasounds as well as offering options education, parenting and adoption classes, abstinence education, maternity clothing and baby supplies, and post-abortion support. The center also provides post-abortion retreats twice a year alongside the Deeper Still organization, Rush said.
Additionally, the Living Alternatives location in Champaign offers a six-to-twelve-month residential treatment program for women “seeking freedom from life-controlling issues,” she said.
“We thrive on the fact we are in smaller communities serving those smaller communities,” Rush said.
A Heartbeat International affiliate, the PRC welcomed Heartbeat’s President Jor-El Godsey as a banquet speaker last year, something Rush had desired for several years.
“I think Heartbeat is the most amazing organization to be affiliated with,” she said. “I did all my training through Heartbeat … and just love it, and then having Jor-El as one of our speakers! I can't speak enough for what Heartbeat does for pregnancy help centers, and we got to experience it first-hand. I do appreciate that.”
As Rush and her team continue meeting the needs of their community, through Curbside Care and all the services the center offers, she looks upon the years in Coal City with awe and gratitude – an endeavor that started with a question from a 13-year-old girl.
“It's just absolutely amazing what God has done, and I am just enthralled that I get to be a part of it,” she said.
