A thousand pro-life supporters attended the Right to Life of North Central Indiana fall banquet Monday night to show support for “the sanctity of life.” The banquet was held at the Manahan Orthopaedic Capital Center in Winona Lake.
Pat Miller, WOWO radio host, served as master of ceremonies, and Our Father’s House catered the dinner.
Marcia Anderson, Right To Life board president, presented the Mary Louise Lowe Life awards. The awards are given to those who have in some way impacted the pro-life cause in north central Indiana. The award is named after Lowe, who was one of the co-founding members of Kosciusko Country Right To Life in 1973.
Brian Catron, Right To Life advisory board member, was one of the award recipients. Catron is former president of Right To Life of North Central Indiana. He led Right To Life through its expansion to a regional organization and the initial development of the Mobile Pregnancy Unit. The unit is a collaboration between Right To Life and Heartline Pregnancy Center that provides free ultrasounds and pregnancy testing.
Rebecca Bazzoni also received the award for her service to children who have special needs and by starting Jacob’s Ladder, now known as Joe’s Kids.
Christs’s Covenant Church was another award recipient and received recognition for its fundraising efforts for the Mobile Pregnancy Center unit.
Dave Koontz, Right To Life executive director, said Planned Parenthood is no longer in Kosciusko, Whitley, Fulton, Wabash and Grant counties.
The Right to Life of North Central Indiana will be located in the building on South Buffalo Street where Planned Parenthood was located.
Koontz said abortions from those in Kosciusko County has dropped by 58 percent since 2000.
Angela Minter was the featured speaker. She is the founder and executive director of Sisters For Life, a non-profit organization advocate for pre-born babies and mothers and fathers who are faced with unplanned pregnancies.
Minter and her husband, Parnell, lost two pre-born babies to abortion while they were in their teens. They now have three children.
She encouraged the partnership between Heartline and Right To Life to continue.
Angie Wood, Heartline Pregnancy Center executive director, gave an update on the Mobile Pregnancy Unit that kicked off in July. She said 30 women have benefited from the unit’s services.
The unit spends one day a week each in Whitley and Fulton counties and two days a week in Kosciusko County.
There is a three-person team including a nurse, client advocate and a volunteer who assist with greetings and intake.
