Annual banquet fundraiser brings in a record $190,000 for pregnant mothers experiencing homelessness
During Room At The Inn’s annual banquet Oct. 20, State Sen. Joyce Krawiec (center) presents $1.3 million to the Carolina Maternity Home Association. Of those funds, Room At The Inn received $475,000. GREENSBORO – Cheers erupted at each mention of the overturning of Roe v. Wade at Room At The Inn’s ‘Life Wins’ banquet fundraiser Oct. 20. The energy in the room was palpable. Yet the packed hall with more than 700 attendees remained focused on the mission at hand – supporting single, pregnant mothers who have no home and nowhere else to turn – by raising a record $190,000 for the organization.
Because of the comprehensive support Room At The Inn (RATI) offers – shelter, material assistance, meals, case management, transportation, job training, child care and many other life-affirming services – 16 babies were born since the 2021 banquet, including one the morning of this year’s event.
“These were children given a chance because of the support of RATI. The mothers have no job, no phone, no money, no education, no family support. Providing a mother long-term support gives her child a chance to thrive as well,” said Marianne Donadio, RATI’s vice president and chief development officer.
Donadio noted that the mothers in the program work hard toward their independence, but they also know that RATI will be there to support them if needed. The organization offers mothers the opportunity to stay connected and to receive help such as diapers, clothes, short-term financial assistance, child care subsidies as well as housing and child care while in the college program.
Keynote speaker Melissa Ohden, the founder and director of the Abortion Survivors Network – a healing and advocacy group for survivors of abortion – gave a powerful testimony about the difference having that support can make. Ohden told her own harrowing story of surviving a saline abortion at seven months gestation, her discovery of this fact, and the role her grandparents played in coercing her 19-year-old mother to have an abortion. She also told of the years of healing, love and forgiveness that followed.
“We live in a culture that wants to say that people like me don’t exist, that failed abortions don’t happen,” said Ohden. “So tonight, we talk about the needs right here in your community and how this ministry is stepping up to serve women just like my biological mother whose greatest regret was that she didn’t run away from her family to save my life. If she would have had a place to go, her life and my life would have been so different.”
After Ohden’s presentation, Father Noah Carter – chair of RATI’s board of trustees and pastor of Holy Cross Church in Kernersville – presented two awards. The first was the Father Conrad Lewis Kimbrough Pro-life Leadership Award given to North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson for his steadfast support of the pro-life, pro-family cause. Along with RATI’s president Albert Hodges, Father Kimbrough was one of the founders of RATI. Due to his travel schedule, Robinson accepted the award earlier in the week.
Next was the Elizabeth Hedgecock Volunteer Award given to Paul Hoeing, an ardent RATI supporter and former board chair. The award honors individuals who give of their time, talent and treasure to support RATI’s programs. Married for more than 50 years, Hoeing and his wife Beth are members of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem and have been very active there and at RATI and Catholic Charities.
Also at the event, North Carolina State Senator Joyce Krawiec presented the Carolina Maternity Home Association with $1.3 million for the association’s member maternity homes, which includes Room At The Inn. The Maternity Home Association then presented RATI with $475,000 for an “After Roe Project” called Clifford Hall, a permanent ministry center in Kernersville to include offices, a thrift store, volunteer center, and a small, licensed day care.
“With the Dobbs decision, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the cause of life won at the national level,” Donadio said. “I hope you’re proud that you’ve been providing support for the mothers and children for many years, and I hope that you’ll continue to for as long as necessary.”
She added, “It’s my personal opinion that it will always be necessary because I think God permits need in this world so that we’re given the opportunity, which is very beautiful, to show His love to one another, and we need you to be a part of that work for another year, so that next year there will be another list of baby names up there because you gave them the opportunity to live … so, that way, life wins at the local level, too.”
— Annie Ferguson. Photos by Beth Nixon
Monsignor Thomas CasertaCHARLOTTE — Bishop Peter Jugis and priests of the Diocese of Charlotte will attend their annual Priests’ Retreat Oct. 2-7 at the diocese’s Living Waters Reflection Center in Maggie Valley.
All the conferences from this year’s retreat will be recorded to share with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, missionary priests in Nicaragua. The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has long persecuted the Catholic Church, recently arresting more than 100 people, including some priests who are being held in Managua’s notorious El Chipote prison. Bishop Rolando Álvarez is among those imprisoned, after an Aug. 19 raid on his offices.
“We want the missionaries of Nicaragua to benefit from our conferences for their canonical retreat,” says Father Cahill, pastor of St. Eugene Church in Asheville and retreat coordinator. “Because the Church there is being persecuted, we want to partner with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal to help bring about spiritual renewal and hope.”
Conferences will be centered around the topic “The Priest in a Time of Eucharistic Revival: Blessed, Broken and Given.”
This year’s retreat master is Monsignor Thomas Caserta from the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. Monsignor Caserta has served as an associate pastor, youth retreat director and, for 22 years, as director of spiritual formation at his diocese’s seminary college.
Monsignor Caserta also served for 10 years as director of Priestly Life and Ministry for the Brooklyn diocese and is the coordinator of the Courage International apostolate, a Catholic ministry that offers support for those who experience same-sex attraction, as well as their families.
Besides daily Mass, talks by Monsignor Caserta and time for reflection, the priests will take time on their retreat “to praise God for this blessed golden anniversary of the diocese and honor the anniversary as a prayer intention when we pray a rosary together,” Father Cahill said.
— SueAnn Howell
Make a retreat
Living Waters Catholic Retreat Center is tucked away in the picturesque Smoky Mountains and offers private, group and diocesan youth-sponsored retreats, as well as preached, directed and nature retreats. There are also many opportunities for hiking and meditative walks. To learn more about this retreat center, sponsored by the Diocesan Support Appeal, go to www.catholicretreat.org.