Front from left: Annette Heilmann, Barbara Markun, Sue Latham and Carson Latham. Back: Exchange student Pit Piwon and Thomas Markun. (Photo provided by Terri Waters)GREENSBORO — More than 750 friends, supporters and clergy attended Room At The Inn's 20th annual fundraising banquet Oct. 17, where close to $160,000 was raised for the maternity home and its programs that aid women in need.
Room At The Inn houses homeless, single, pregnant women while providing programs that help them and their children strive towards a life of hope and independence. Room At The Inn is one of eight licensed maternity homes in North Carolina and the only one that allows clients to bring older children to live at the home also.
Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church, opened the program in prayer, reflecting on this year’s theme, “A Mother’s Heart.”
“You are always first in a mother’s heart, you’re always a gift in a mother’s heart… You’re always safe in a mother’s heart, you’re always welcome in a mother’s heart, you’re always liked, you’re always little and you’re always at home in a mother’s heart,” Monsignor Marcaccio said.
Marianne Donadio, Room At The Inn’s vice president of marketing and development, expressed gratitude for the support mothers receive during a time when they have very little.
“The father of the child is not supporting her, their friends and family are either unwilling or unable to support them,” Donadio explained. “So most women in that situation would find it quite easy to feel they were unable to choose life for their baby, which is a heart-breaking situation to be in.”
“We come to try to prevent that mother’s heart from being broken and to take action and actually do something concrete to help her,” she said.
By providing food, shelter, transportation and material needs, life-skills classes and one-on-one parenting classes, college programs and the thriving Pratt Proverbs 31 spiritual formation program, Room At The Inn provides a pathway to hope and healthy living for new moms and their children.
“Sometimes just knowing someone cares about you is enough to make you believe in yourself and to accomplish the things that you need to do,” Donadio said. “That really is the most important thing we offer our mothers at Room At The Inn.”
The event’s keynote speaker, Pam Tebow, shared her “God story” about her son, professional athlete and pro-life advocate Tim Tebow. Struggling with a life-threatening, high-risk pregnancy while living in the Philippines as a missionary and being advised to have an abortion, “we knew we needed to trust the Lord,” Tebow said.
Through prayer and God’s grace, the Tebows were able to fly to Manila later in her pregnancy where they found an American-trained doctor who was able to safely deliver their son – saving the lives of both mother and son. Her doctor said he’d never witnessed such a miracle: “Mr. Tebow, I’ve delivered 25,000 babies and I’ve never seen a miracle like this one… it’s the biggest miracle I’ve ever been a part of, just a little piece of the placenta was intact the whole time. I can’t explain it, God must have been involved,” he said.
“And God was involved,” Pam Tebow emphasized.
“You know, that the closer we get to our Master, the more we love people like He loves people,” she said. “That’s what Room At The Inn is all about. It’s about the unconditional love of God welcoming those precious women who are in a crisis into a loving home environment. They are welcomed with open arms into a safe place where they can be loved, valued and nurtured. And they can keep their babies,” she said.
St. Pius X and St. Leo the Great parishes were major sponsors for the event, plus 34 other sponsors and 77 guest-filled tables. First-time sponsors from the Diocese of Raleigh included Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Rocky Mount and Holy Infant Parish in Durham. Other first-time sponsors were St. Aloysius Parish in Hickory and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Charlotte.
Annie Ferguson, marketing specialist for Room At The Inn, was proud to celebrate several mother-son pairs from the Bishop McGuinness High School football team. Barbara Markun and her son hosted the table.
“We were very happy with the turnout at our banquet this year. A variety of pro-life groups attended as well as knights and dames of the Order of Malta, the Knights of Columbus, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. We were also pleased to see young people getting involved,” Ferguson said. “The youth group from Holy Cross in Kernersville served as hosts, and three varsity football players from Bishop McGuinness High School attended with their moms. It was a fitting parallel to our speaker Pam Tebow and her son Tim.”
The Order of Malta gave a $25,000 donation to Room At The Inn, which expressed gratitude for the order’s generosity and solidarity in protecting the most vulnerable.
The Marlene DuBose Faithful Servant Award was presented to Francis and Patty Disney. The Jim and Elizabeth Hedgecock Service Award was given to Dr. Christine Cugliari of High Point University’s Non-Profit Management program, and Donna Dyer received the Father Conrad Lewis Kimbrough Pro-Life Award for her service and defense of “His little ones.”
— Georgianna Penn, correspondent