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Pregnancy Center Ready To Look Back, Forward

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By CARL ORTH, The Suncoast News

Published: September 8, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - A banquet this fall will cap an eventful year for the West Pasco Pregnancy Center as it prepares to offer more services at its larger location near Community Hospital.

Invitations will go out in the near future for the annual Celebrate Life banquet, set for Nov. 1.

Bobby Petrocelli, a motivational speaker and author of books including '10 Seconds Will Change Your Life Forever,' will be the keynote speaker.

In 1986, his wife, Ava, was killed and he was seriously injured when a drunken driver plowed a pickup into the couple's bedroom at their Texas home. Remarried and the father of two, Petrocelli now lives in Florida.

Sponsors are being sought for the pregnancy center's banquet, which raises the bulk of funding to keep its doors open.

More than 500 women received free help last year at the 21-year-old agency, Executive Director Marion Bauer said.

She expects that number to increase when the center adds ultrasound scans by the end of the year. Pasco Imaging donated the machine, Bauer said.

Primary care physician Melvyn Drew has volunteered to serve as the center's medical director. Three volunteer nurses also have been lined up.

Also this fall, the center is considering starting a program to help new fathers cope with their responsibilities and be good role models, Bauer said.

Expansion plans at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital displaced the pregnancy center early this year from its home on Ohio Avenue. North Bay administrators then helped relocate the center into office space on George Street, near Community Hospital of New Port Richey.

With about double the space at 5330 George St., the center will be able to offer more services.

'It turned out to be a blessing for us,' Bauer said of the relocation.

Most of the female clients there are 18 to 23 years old, but the center has helped girls as young as 14 and women in their late 40s, Bauer said.

'A crisis pregnancy can affect anybody,' she said. 'An unplanned pregnancy can throw anybody's life around. We found out with some of our programs they can break cycles of abuse or neglect.'

The center offers pregnancy testing; confidential counseling; abortion information (when requested); post-abortion counseling; adoption support; abstinence education; classes for prenatal and newborn care, combined with material assistance; childbirth classes; parenting program; and life skill lessons.

All services are free.

'The majority of our clients choose parenting,' Bauer said. 'Each year we have some clients that are placing their child for adoption and we work together with a network of adoption agencies and lawyers to guide them through the process. We also offer a special post-abortion program for those that need our help in this area.'

FIND OUT MORE

WHAT: On Sept. 20, the West Pasco Pregnancy Center, 5330 George St., New Port Richey, will offer a preview of its Nov. 1 banquet. The intent is to recruit guests who then will go out and invite others to the fundraiser.

DETAILS: Call (727) 846-9999, go online to www.wppc.info/index.htm or e-mail wppc@aol.com.

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