Claire Culwell, author of "Survivor: An Abortion Survivor's Surprising Story of Choosing Forgiveness and Finding Redemption," will headline the Loving Choices benefit banquet, A Star is Born, Oct. 28 at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale.
"Loving Choices is a pregnancy resource center that offers a variety of services at no cost to teenage girls and adult women who find themselves in unplanned pregnancies," according to Dana Schwiethale, executive director. "These services include STD testing, pregnancy tests, limited obstetrical ultrasounds, short-term crisis counseling, counseling for fathers of the babies, long-term peer mentoring, parenting education, infant supplies, community health referrals for prenatal care and referrals for adoption services. For clients seeking healing from past abortions, we also offer weekly post-abortion counseling."
Each year, Loving Choices serves more than 1,000 women, whose average age is 18 to 24 years old. The group has Rogers and Fayetteville locations and a mobile unit that goes to Prairie Grove, Springdale and outlying areas in Rogers and Fayetteville.
Benefit organizers say: "Culwell is a twin abortion survivor. Claire was adopted into a loving family and says that finding out she survived an abortion that was meant to take her life never changed who she knew she was: wanted, chosen and loved."
The banquet is free to attend because of the generosity of Loving Choices' sponsors. However, organizers add, it is the year's largest fundraiser, so they are asking for monetary gifts.
-- CARIN SCHOPPMEYER
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Fundraising banquet
Who: Loving Choices Pregnancy Centers of Northwest Arkansas
What: Author Claire Culwell, dinner
When: 6:30-9 p.m. Oct. 28; doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale
Tickets: Admission is free, but reservations are required and donations encouraged.
Information: (479) 631-6677 or lovingchoices.org