Highland Lakes Pregnancy and Life Center will expand its reach in local communities to foster healthy families.
The Embrace Life fundraiser, scheduled Thursday, March 26, at Live Oak Pavilion, Horseshoe Bay Resort, aims to share how the facility and its program benefits area families.
Embrace Life features a dinner, live auction and raffle at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for a meet and greet. The event expects to wrap up at 8 p.m.
“We normally have it at a church, just a little more low key,” event spokesman Stennis Shotts told The Highlander.
“We talk about the vision and mission for the center, where we're going and where we're going to be for the next five years,” he said. “Most of these events are fundraisers but great marketing opportunities.”
The group has fostered relationships in Marble Falls and Burnet primarily and hopes to extend its mission into the Horseshoe Bay community with the location of this year's fundraiser.
Guests buy table sponsorships or individual tickets.
“Come out, enjoy the evening. It's a time of fellowship, thanking everybody,” Shotts said. “We are incredibly supported by the local community, both churches and individual donors.”
The latest goal of the organization involves an additional center.
Currently, the Marble Falls Center is located at 1016 Broadway St. The Kingsland Center is located at 3344 Rose Hill Drive. There's centers in Llano, San Saba and Lampasas, too.
“One of the things we want to do is open a location in Burnet,” Shotts said. “We see a lot of couples, a lot of men, single girls come in from Bertram, Burnet and that area.
“(A Burnet location) completes this area.”
Their mission kindles effective practices.
“It is about pregnancy but it's more about life, living life, helping people with life skills,” Shotts said.
Organization workers offer over 155 classes.
“There is a man involved in everyone of these pregnancies,” he continued. “We're trying to get more men to come in, more families to come in to talk about parenting, co-parenting, how you discipline your children and, frankly, how to touch their hearts with Christ.
“We are a faith-based organization. Our mission is to demonstrate the unconditional love of Christ – not just talk about it but demonstrate it and build longterm relationships.”
Programs place young parents on a positive pathway.
“Most, 95%, is generational – grandmother, mother. Everyone lives in poverty; there's abuse, and it has just carried on from one generation to the next,” Shotts said. “What we're trying to do is to break that generational cycle.”
Record participation emphasizes the need.
“Last year, to put it in perspective, we're open four days a week, in Marble Falls and in Kingsland,” he said. “We average five classes a day, Monday through Thursday, 48 weeks out of the year. That was a record for us last year.”
Organizers welcome those who wish to contribute to the cause.
“We need more counselors, more people to help us in our baby boutique. Everybody who comes and donates to us – clothes, pack-and-play, cribs, diapers, wipes – this past year we put a retail value on that – we brought in over $250,000 worth of donations that we would have gone to go ahead and purchase had we not had people donating it to us,” he added. “It's been a godsend in terms of what people have done in this local community in terms of helping us.”
The program allows people to earn “baby bucks” when they take classes.
Participants can shop in the boutique and purchase items and clothing up to 3T sizes.
“Basically, we provide almost everything. All we ask is that you build a relationship with us. Let's do life together. Give us an opportunity to get to know you.”
For more information, call 325-388-0354 or email [email protected]. Visit hlprc.org for ticket information.
