Pregnancy Life Line hosts annual banquet fundraiser in Kimberling City
Missouri 65 bluegrass band entertains the audience at Babies, Bluegrass, and BBQ.
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Volunteers help serve food to the hundreds of attendees at the banquet.
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Guest Speaker Sophie Shore talks about the impact of abortion on mothers.
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Kadee Brosseau DeCourley
More than 500 people attended Pregnancy Life Line’s annual banquet event called “Babies, Bluegrass, and BBQ” Thursday, April 21. The event raised money for Pregnancy Life Line, a Stone County organization that helps parents facing unplanned pregnancies.
“The money goes to help pay for diapers. It helps pay for our staff,” Community Relations Director Barbara Garlich said. “We have a lot of volunteers, but we do have some paid staff.”
Garlich explained that the funds also help pay for their facility, which is located in Branson West, as well as items to help the parents they serve.
“[It pays for] materials and curriculums for classes that we teach to our clients. We follow an ‘earn while you learn format.’ So, they come and do a class and then they earn points and they can shop with those points in our Baby Boutique,” Garlich explained. “We don’t just give out stuff. We do have car seats and pack n’ plays and things like that but they do have to take the class on how to install the car seat and what is safe. For the pack n’ play, we have a safe sleep class. So, it’s about what should be in the pack n’ play with your child and what shouldn’t be in there and what’s the best position for the baby to sleep in. We marry helping young moms and dads out with material things and helping them learn how to be good parents.”
Pregnancy Life Line not only serves Stone County, but surrounding areas as well.
“We have between 10 to 15 percent come from Taney County. We will get a few from Christian. We get a few from Arkansas. We don’t have any kind of limitations. Anyone who walks in our door, we will help,” Garlich said.
Last week’s banquet took place at Kimberling City First Baptist Church with five other live stream locations throughout the county. This was the second year that the organization offered the live stream locations for the event.
“At the Baptist Church, we had about 330 people,” Garlich said. “We [had live stream locations] last year because of COVID, because we were limited to only 150 people at the Baptist Church. This year, they took that restriction off, but we used to cram over 400 people in there. So, we are capping it at a smaller number, then these churches, between all five of them, we had another over 200 people watching.”
Attendees to the event enjoyed BBQ, music by Missouri 65 bluegrass band, and heard from a guest speaker, Sophie Shore.
“She is very passionate in the pro-life arena and had worked in a post-abortion ministry,” Garlich said. “We all talk about the effect of the abortion on the baby, who is destroyed, but women are being told ‘Oh this is great for you and it’s a blessing and it’s healthcare,’ but she was able to share her stories of women whose lives were tragically affected by the abortion, not necessarily physically, but emotionally.”
Garlich said the Babies, Bluegrass, and BBQ event is Pregnancy Life Line’s main fundraiser for the year.
“We raise over half of our funding at this one event,” Garlich said. “We have levels of sponsorships and the highest level is $1,000. This year we had eight organizations that each gave us at least $1,000 to pay for the banquet, which was amazing.”
Garlich said they received more than $15,000 to pay for the banquet itself through sponsorships.
“We don’t charge [for the banquet]. It’s free. That way, all of the expenses are covered and every donation made that night goes directly to serve our clients,” Garlich said.
Garlich said it takes the help of many local organizations and volunteers to make this event happen and she’s thankful to those who step up to help support their mission.
Below are the website addresses for Pregnancy Life Line:
For donors and supporters: pregnancylifeline.com
For parents needing help: PLLhelp.org
More than 500 people attended Pregnancy Life Line’s annual banquet event called “Babies, Bluegrass, and BBQ” Thursday, April 21. The event raised money for Pregnancy Life Line, a Stone County organization that helps parents facing unplanned pregnancies.
“The money goes to help pay for diapers. It helps pay for our staff,” Community Relations Director Barbara Garlich said. “We have a lot of volunteers, but we do have some paid staff.”
Garlich explained that the funds also help pay for their facility, which is located in Branson West, as well as items to help the parents they serve.
“[It pays for] materials and curriculums for classes that we teach to our clients. We follow an ‘earn while you learn format.’ So, they come and do a class and then they earn points and they can shop with those points in our Baby Boutique,” Garlich explained. “We don’t just give out stuff. We do have car seats and pack n’ plays and things like that but they do have to take the class on how to install the car seat and what is safe. For the pack n’ play, we have a safe sleep class. So, it’s about what should be in the pack n’ play with your child and what shouldn’t be in there and what’s the best position for the baby to sleep in. We marry helping young moms and dads out with material things and helping them learn how to be good parents.”
Pregnancy Life Line not only serves Stone County, but surrounding areas as well.
“We have between 10 to 15 percent come from Taney County. We will get a few from Christian. We get a few from Arkansas. We don’t have any kind of limitations. Anyone who walks in our door, we will help,” Garlich said.
Last week’s banquet took place at Kimberling City First Baptist Church with five other live stream locations throughout the county. This was the second year that the organization offered the live stream locations for the event.
“At the Baptist Church, we had about 330 people,” Garlich said. “We [had live stream locations] last year because of COVID, because we were limited to only 150 people at the Baptist Church. This year, they took that restriction off, but we used to cram over 400 people in there. So, we are capping it at a smaller number, then these churches, between all five of them, we had another over 200 people watching.”
Attendees to the event enjoyed BBQ, music by Missouri 65 bluegrass band, and heard from a guest speaker, Sophie Shore.
“She is very passionate in the pro-life arena and had worked in a post-abortion ministry,” Garlich said. “We all talk about the effect of the abortion on the baby, who is destroyed, but women are being told ‘Oh this is great for you and it’s a blessing and it’s healthcare,’ but she was able to share her stories of women whose lives were tragically affected by the abortion, not necessarily physically, but emotionally.”
Garlich said the Babies, Bluegrass, and BBQ event is Pregnancy Life Line’s main fundraiser for the year.
“We raise over half of our funding at this one event,” Garlich said. “We have levels of sponsorships and the highest level is $1,000. This year we had eight organizations that each gave us at least $1,000 to pay for the banquet, which was amazing.”
Garlich said they received more than $15,000 to pay for the banquet itself through sponsorships.
“We don’t charge [for the banquet]. It’s free. That way, all of the expenses are covered and every donation made that night goes directly to serve our clients,” Garlich said.
Garlich said it takes the help of many local organizations and volunteers to make this event happen and she’s thankful to those who step up to help support their mission.
Below are the website addresses for Pregnancy Life Line:
For donors and supporters: pregnancylifeline.com
For parents needing help: PLLhelp.org