Walk for Life raises funds for, celebrates work of Birth Choice

Birth Choice and its supports overtook the northern end of the parking lot at West Jackson Baptist Church on Saturday as the organization held its annual Walk for Life fundraiser.

Birth Choice is a non-profit whose mission is to let pregnant women understand they have options other than abortion if their pregnancy is unwanted.

Saturday’s event wasn’t just a fundraiser, but also a celebration of what the organization has accomplished in its history that spans more than 30 years.

Brent Lambert, the founder and director of Birth Choice, shared a story with the gathering that he said exemplifies the reason the organization exists.

“Within the last couple of weeks, a man who works around Birth Choice’s offices but doesn’t work for us was doing work near our place and a man comes up to him and asks if he works for Birth Choice, and he said ‘no, but I know them,’” Lambert said. “The man told him that he was grateful for Birth Choice because he has a 17-year-old grandson that is alive today because of Birth Choice.

“He said, ‘The boy’s mother was planning on an abortion, but she came here and changed her mind and made the choice to give birth to my grandson. That’s a relationship I’d have never had if it weren’t for them, so I thank God for them.’”

Set up in the parking lot were a number of vendor booths for walkers and other supporters to find different items for purchase, there was face-painting and other children’s activities and local first responder organizations had their vehicles available for children to sit in and get a look at.

When it came time to walk, Birth Choice’s Tiffany Dawson said the tally of funds raised as of Saturday morning was more than $73,000 with the goal of $120,000 being set for this year.

“Now because some of our pledged funds come in later than today, it will take a few weeks before we have a final total,” Dawson said. “But thank every one of you so much for how much has been raised so far and how much will be raised.

“We celebrated 76 babies whose mothers were considering abortion and decided against it last year, and just recently, we had a woman come in with an appointment the next day to have an abortion and she canceled it because she’s giving her baby a chance at life. That’s why we’re here.”

After the presentations, walkers enjoyed the planned stroll from the WJBC parking lot on the sidewalk up Oil Well Road, turning left onto Pleasant Plains Extended for a few hundred yards and coming back onto the church’s campus through the normally-closed back entrance near its athletic fields back into the parking lot.

“The Lord blessed us with a perfect day for a walk, and we’re grateful for every one of you,” Dawson told the people.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news