GREENSBORO — Eight hundred supporters gathered Oct. 13 at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro to celebrate Room at the Inn of the Triad’s 17th annual banquet, raising a record-breaking $150,000 in sponsorships and donations to support the charity for women in need in the Triad area.
Room at the Inn of the Triad provides mercy and refuge for homeless pregnant women with food, shelter, clothing, life skills education, health care and spiritual care. The maternity home provides transportation and helps women find work and get back into school. Over the past year, nine babies were born to women being served by the charity.
“Thank you for making Jesus’ mercy and presence real to our mothers and thank you for making Room at the Inn,” said Albert Hodges, president of Room at the Inn of the Triad. Sisters of the Mother of God of Pennybyrn at Maryfield in High Point, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Charlotte, Room at the Inn of the Triad staff and clergy, and the Knights of Columbus were all honored for their support over the past year.
“If the Knights of Columbus had been in Bethlehem years ago, Jesus would not have been born in a manger,” Hodges said in deep gratitude for the Knights of Columbus’ support.
But the greatest thanks of all was due to the mothers of Room at the Inn, he said. “They are my heroes.”
Volunteer awards were presented to special supporters. The Kirk Church was the recipient of the James and Elizabeth Hedgecock Volunteer Award. The Father Conrad Kimbrough Pro-Life Leadership Award was given to three people: Jim Hoyng, Paul Klosterman and Diane Rzewnicki. St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem and St. Pius X Church in Greensboro were among the top sponsors for this year’s banquet.
“I am so happy for this organization,” said Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculée Ilibagiza, who gave the keynote address. “Thank you for what you do and thank you for the support you are giving to this organization. It is so needed.”
“In my country,” she said, a mother garners the highest level of respect. And when a child is born, everyone brings a gift to “pay homage for the new person, the new member of the village.”
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Ilibagiza hid in a tiny bathroom for 91 days in a pastor’s home with seven other women, while most of her family and neighbors were murdered. Despite losing everything and everyone she loved, prayer saved her life, she said. Ilibagiza recalled how she endured the fear and trauma by praying the rosary, sometimes 27 times a day.
Prayer sustained her, filling her with hope and faith, she said. God’s mercy, poured out on her through the kindness of others, propelled her forward and compelled her to live.
“I think of you guys as the pastor who took me in, as the woman who gave me a home to live in after the genocide,” she said.
— Georgianna Penn, Correspondent
Pictured: Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculée Ilibagiza gave the keynote address at Room at the Inn of the Triad’s 17th annual banquet, which a record-breaking $150,000 in donations and sponsorships, for the charity which assists homeless pregnant women in the Triad. (Georgianna Penn | Catholic News Herald)