A Blessed Beginning - A Local Crisis Pregnancy Center Update

By Sherry Bushnell

    During Prolife week this last January, Blessed Beginning was one of several crisis pregnancy centers interviewed on our Christian radio station. They did an on-site airing. Tom Bushnell’s Focus On the Family ads were running at the same time all week. It was a great boost for local community awareness, letting folks know we are around.

    It was a cold, snowy/rainy evening. We were blessed with supporters stopping by anyway. We had gourmet coffee, lots of goodies and smiling faces cheering us on. Several of our supporters were asked to share for a few minutes on the air. One woman gave a moving testimony of Christ’s forgiveness about her abortion many years ago.

Visiting churches in the area

    We have been visiting different churches (about 1 a month). This gives us 5 minutes to introduce ourselves and share about A Blessed Beginning. This helps keep local families updated, in addition to the newsletter that gets sent out.

Baby Bottle Boomerang

    This Mother’s Day, we decided to do the popular Baby Bottle Boomerang fundraising for crisis pregnancy centers. We handed out cute baby bottles to be filled with spare change and checks. The original idea was that they were supposed to be handed back in to A Blessed Beginning on Father’s Day, but already some people have sent them in filled up! This will be an ongoing fund raiser each spring, as the bottles are totally reusable for next year.

Baby and Maternity Clothes

    Thank You! What a blessing these items have been. Thank you to the NATHHAN / CHASK families who have sent maternity clothing, baby clothes and other items. The women in our community are really amazed that you would care enough to send them “NICE stuff like that!” Recently, our local Department of Social and Health Services closed its office. We are hoping to encourage our community by finding needs and sharing them with families that can give food and physical help for our pregnant low-income moms.

Earn Items for Baby While You Learn

    Our new program, Earn While You Learn, that helps new moms learn mothering skills, is really taking off. Young moms are very excited about coming in and earning the items on display. There are many ways they can earn Baby Bucks. This is actually a point system that moms can hand in toward an item they are eyeing. Even church attendance earns a buck or two! We have DVDs, worksheets, even just coming to the birth center gets them points.

    We have also purchased gift certificates from several popular places in town, that the women are interested in getting items from. These, along with the donations and items we already have, are making a nice incentive for young girls who are pregnant to continue coming in and earning while they are learning valuable skills.

    We appreciate your ongoing support for birth moms in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

Preemie size and maternity clothes, still needed.

Please send items to:

CHASK / A Blessed Beginning

672 Meadow Creek Rd.

Bonners Ferry, ID 83805

(208) 267-6246