Living Alternatives Holds Banquet in Crockett
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – The Crockett branch of Living Alternatives held a banquet gala at First Baptist Church in Crockett Monday, June 19 to thank all those people and organizations who have supported the group.
The group has existed in Palestine for about 20 years, with the Crockett location opening its doors in 2015. The group runs a facility at 816 South Fourth Street in Crockett. The group is dedicated to offering alternatives to abortion, as well as help and advice for expecting mothers and those caring for children under the age of three.
Executive Director Rubi Hernandez who explained the group serves more than just expectant mothers.
“We serve mothers and fathers, so anyone who is expecting or has a child under the age of three,” Hernandez said. “We offer pregnancy classes, but we also offer parenting classes. The goal is in our our mission statement, ‘To change and save lives in Jesus’ name,’ and really just to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the lives of young parents.”
Being free and confidential, there are a lot of resources at the center for people to seek out.
“We provide pregnancy tests, referrals – maybe they’re looking for whether or not they qualify for Medicaid or WIC – so we can actually help refer them out to other services. You also have situations where maybe you have an abortion-minded woman. Our goal is to hopefully help her see she has other life giving options,” Hernandez said. “With that being said, we want to provide her with those resources, whether that’s an adoption agency’s information, getting her in contact with them or being able to answer questions for her.”
Hernandez mentioned how the group can help women find resources they might not be able to access locally.
“There are no OBGYN doctors whatsoever in Houston County. We’re able to help to get them connected to an OBGYN outside of our county which is a huge need here.”
The group helps the parents get in touch with health care providers, and other local services to make the process easier, such as local childcare for working parents. The group believes dads are important in kids lives, too, and encourages the family to work together, with a baby boutique onsite with all the little things news parents need.
Margaret Broughton of Cattleman’s Country Cafe provided the food, along with local Riley Beaver who provided music and the people at FBC Crockett who let the group used the facility and helped serve the food, along with all the other support from the group’s board and other local churches and organizations.
Hernandez said the group can offer so much to young men and women facing what for many, can be the most difficult situation in their lives.
“Some say, ‘I can’t be a mom. This is just not something I can do right now.’ But regardless, she’s pregnant and she needs services. She needs help, and we want to help her. She’s got a hard decision to make, but she can make a life-giving decision regardless of how hard that is. All of those decisions are going to be difficult in her circumstance, but we would love to encourage her to make a life-giving choice. That’s where we step in, ‘Here’s your support. We don’t want to just encourage you to choose life. We want to walk alongside you in making that decision.’ We have a program where mom can come in and take parenting classes,” Hernandez said. “Pregnancy classes, what to expect during her pregnancy and then she can move on to parenting classes. So we don’t just tell mom, ‘Choose life.’ We walk alongside her.”
The group’s activities are all free and confidential, but they always need donations and volunteers. For more information, please contact Living Alternatives in Crockett at (936) 545-8432, or their 24-hour emergency hotline, 1-800-712-HELP (4357).
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
