Some say it takes a village.
Sometimes it takes a network.
Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina earlier this fall. Pregnancy centers in the region were pelted with destruction. Prepared to serve as they had previously, pregnancy centers were praying for assistance.
The Pregnancy Network stepped up to offer aid.
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The pregnancy help medical clinic has locations at the opposite end of the state in Greensboro and and the recently added Winston-Salem. Communications Manager Kacey Minor explained that the Health and Clients Services Manager for the network has a son who is a pastor in the Asheville, N.C., region, and the pastor had shared that there were significant needs at the Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS). This particular center was serving as a hub for surrounding centers impacted by the storm. Items such as diapers and baby clothing were transported from donors to the Mountain Area Pregnancy Center and distributed to centers accordingly.
The Greensboro office for The Pregnancy Network is 170 miles from Asheville and MAPS.
“We know that 13 centers in the western North Carolina area sustained damage from Hurricane Helene,” Minor said. “MAPS served as a hub for PRCs to collect the supplies they needed.”
Tweet This: We know that 13 western North Carolina centers sustained damage from Hurricane Helene. MAPS was a hub for PRCs to collect needed supplies.
The Pregnancy Network employees took to social media to ask for those much-needed supplies to keep the pregnancy centers functioning and reaching their families in significant need.
“It wasn’t long until our office was overwhelmed,” Minor said.
The Pregnancy Network
Two weeks after the request for support, The Pregnancy Network had loaded a 26-foot trailer full of diapers and wipes.
“Our executive director had us donate all of the baby clothes in our resource room,” said Minor. “The next day, a volunteer came to our office donating 10 bags of baby clothing – enough clothing to refill what we gave away. She had no idea we had given away all that we had.”
Minor said it was clear that the Lord had been generous.
The Pregnancy Network also gave its mobile unit ultrasound to a center in western North Carolina.
“We had it for eight years,” Minor said. “Earlier this year we considered selling it to increase our brick-and-mortar ministry.”
The Burnsville, N.C., M.Y. Life Center was the recipient of the unit.
“They are really in an OB-GYN desert,” Minor said, noting the very rural territory of the pregnancy center. Since the hurricane, it has been even more difficult for expecting moms to get the care they need.
“Their goal is to meet women where they are,” Minor said, “We are excited that our unit will help.”
Minor said the same center was given enough materials inside the mobile unit to serve 100 clients.
The mobile unit is known as “Birtha.” Minor said it was a joyous occasion when The Pregnancy Network executive director Judy Roderick received a text that “Birtha has arrived in the mountains.”
“Our nurse met with their nurse. It was a great connection,” said Minor.
Minor shared a comment from Heath and Client Services Director Angela Jackson.
”It was awesome to meet with them and talk with them,” Jackson said. “They said over and over how thankful they were and what a blessing it would be. It’s amazing.”
“I thought about the passage in Ecclesiastes that says there is a time and a season for everything,” she said. “There was a season for The Pregnancy Network to have the mobile unit, and we used it, but that season came to an end. And now a new season has begun for them. I’m hoping what the mobile unit did for The Pregnancy Network, it does the same thing for them. We can see the blessing continue.”
As a thank you, the M.Y. Life Center team brought a gift to The Pregnancy Network offices. A volunteer, a founding member of the center now in her nineties, had made a needle point quilt with the center’s logo on it.
The Pregnancy Network held its annual gala shortly after the efforts to restore the western North Carolina centers began. Roderick asked donors to consider a pledge to support those centers. That night $10,000 was raised for their neighbors to the west.
“We are so fortunate to build a community with other centers,” Minor said, “It is just so neat to see PRCs coming together to share the same mission.”
Minor said it has always been important to The Pregnancy Network to connect with their fellow pregnancy centers. They have offered a program called Accelerator that provides training for staff of centers, updating them on the latest information and trends in the pregnancy help movement.
“This connection as the result of Hurricane Helene was just another opportunity to love our neighbors,” Minor said.
