Community Support

Grant County Journal
Community support
February 7, 2011
Written by Janet Warren
February is the month of love so it is only fitting that I tell you some love stories. They probably aren’t the kind of love stories you are used to, but love stories they are.
I met Loretta Swager when I substituted at the Middle School. She volunteers at a pregnancy support center, and through her I met Marge Ashenbrenner and Carol Millard. Many of the people I write about in this column are friends of a friend. Ephrata is full of exceptional people.
What is now known as Pregnancy Support Service of Ephrata has been in existence in Ephrata since May 1984. Marge Ashenbrenner has been the director since late 1985 and has seen it go through many transitions. In 2004, she said, “We felt a need in Ephrata to be under a more vibrant umbrella as far as research, so we went with Heartbeat, an international Pro Life group.” They have been housed in three different offices, but for the last two years have been located at 153 4th Avenue NW. The office is cozy and intimate, but Marge stressed that all of the work done on it has been strictly through volunteers. The organization is run on donations, but those donations go to buy literature, pregnancy tests, pay the rent and the phone bill. Churches and individuals donate on a regular basis and Knights of Columbus split the profits of their annual golf tournament between Ephrata and Moses Lake. A small group of volunteers man the office. Besides Marge and Carol, there are four other volunteers: Barbara Cherf, Loretta Swager, Sandra Zeigler and Mona Kaiser. Marge told me, “I have never enjoyed a group of ladies as much as the ones I’ve met here. They’re very committed and giving—not only materially, but of their time. They are here because they really care.”
Pregnancy Support Service of Ephrata is mostly about information. A girl can come in to get a pregnancy test and, regardless of the outcome of the test, they spend a few minutes talking with one of the volunteers. The girl leaves with as much information as she wants. They have brochures on relationships, abortion, abstinence, contraceptives, adoption, STDs, and fetal development. Even though the organization is strictly Pro Life and does not promote abortion, they don’t sugarcoat the other alternatives either. Whether the girl decides to put the baby up for adoption, raise it as a single mother, or abort it, there are emotional and physical consequences. Even marrying the father at such a young age has its own hardships and the volunteers spell it out for their clients.
Both Marge and Carol agree that one of the biggest heartaches of the job is that they only have 20 minutes and the girl is out the door. They’d like to be able to hang on to them, but there are no obligations for the girl. She is told that if she brings in the baby after birth, they will give her a layette. I got a peek in their layette room and there are some beautiful items. Two of the churches in the area give baby showers once a year for them and donate items they have made or collected throughout the year.
Most girls tend to raise their children as single mothers. As Carol told me, “When I first started here 13 years ago, girls would come in afraid of what to tell their parents. Now it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal.” There is no longer a social stigma of being an unwed mother. I asked what kept the volunteers there, since it does seem depressing to see children bringing other children into the world. “If you can plant a seed, maybe someone else down the line can add to it,” said Marge. “We just try to get them to think.” Carol added that once in a great while someone will come back and say thank you. A bright spot occurred when a married woman who had been having trouble getting pregnant came in for a pregnancy test, and they all celebrated a positive result. All of the volunteers have one thing in common—a love and passion for children, both the expectant girl and the unborn baby.
I was hoping to find out that many of these girls give their babies up for adoption, but apparently “adoption” is a dirty word. I wish I could talk to these young girls before they get pregnant. If I could tell them one thing it would be to wait. Wait until you find the love of your life and you are both mature enough to start a family. My friend’s husband once told her, “I love your stretch marks because each one tells a love story.” I would tell them they deserve a husband like that.