Pregnancy Center planned in Sparta

A group of local residents is working toward opening a non-profit Alleghany Pregnancy Care Center in the Sparta area, a move that may be completed by early 2006.

A brochure states that the center’s mission statement is “to provide a lifeline for unborn children by educating their mothers to make responsible life-giving choices and nurture successful futures.”

Marie Carlson, who leads a group of local residents heading up the effort, said the vision of the group is to try and take the crisis out of unplanned pregnancies. “We want young women to know that there is help available to them if they want to keep their child,” Carlson said. “Our goal is to create a resource to help support mothers in Alleghany County.”

The center will offer numerous free and confidential services to pregnant women, including pregnancy tests, bilingual prenatal and parenting education, education in abortion alternatives and adoption, spiritual counseling (upon request) and referrals for other services. Other support for women will include maternity and baby clothes, emergency diapers and formula, an abstinence program for teens, resource library and a post-abortion healing program.

The center will be open three days per week, but the days have yet to be determined. Hours will extend into the evening hours on at least one day to give those who work first shift or go to school the opportunity to utilize the services.

Carlson said that the group hopes to have the service in place by the first of 2006. “We need at least $10,000 to open the doors and we have just under $5,000,” Carlson said Monday. Bare-bones expenses for the center are expected to be $32,320 per year, with about $20,000 of that amount going toward payroll. “Given these figures, we need to have about $3,000 per month in funding to make it,” Carlson noted. The center applied earlier this month for its 501-c.3 tax-exempt status. “We are awaiting a reply on our application,” Carlson said.

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