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
