Abortion Alternatives & Women's Center

Tree House Community Center

Angie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:45:47 +0000

School Time At The Tree House

With school starting back soon, summer activities are winding down at The Tree House Community Center and we are getting ready to start the school time activities. We are currently looking for persons, civic groups or churches to help us provide after school activities to the children served by the Tree House Community Center such as games, homework assistance and all sorts of other fun. We are also looking for volunteers to sponsor weekend events for these children. For more information on how you or your group/organization can help make a difference in the life of a child, call our center at (423) 543-4673. The Tree House Community Center is located in the Arney Hill community near the office for Pine Ridge Apartments. (We are next door to the Elizabethton Police Department substation for the community.)

Summer Food Program

Angie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:43:19 +0000

Our Summer Food Program was a huge success this year and we were able to deliver meals to children that they might not otherwise have. This year we served 7,654 meals to children over the course of eight weeks. That is in comparison to last year when we served 6,936 meals over 10 weeks. On one day of the program this year we fed 217 children. This year, we worked with Second Harvest Food Bank and we provided a hot meal to each child for lunch Monday through Friday. The children were served a meat, a vegetable and a fruit daily. The children also received a sandwich and snack to take home with them for dinner which was provided by local churches and a breakfast meal and snack to take home with them which was provided by Assistance Resource Ministries (ARM).

Pure Talent Contest

Angie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:39:03 +0000

Pure Talent Contest

Each year we hold our Pure Talent Contest for local children in7th-12th grades. The contest is open to children who attend either the City orCounty schools and also to those children in those grades who are home-schooled.In the past we have held this event in April, which is close to the end of the schoolyear, but this year we have changed the date of the contest. This year we will beholding this annual event in October. This change is being made to an effort tominimize any disruptions for students or teachers as holding the event at the endof the school year may have conflicted with end of the year exams.As part of the contest, we hold auditions in each of the schools to find children toparticipate in the event. The contest will be held on Oct. 16 at Happy Valley HighSchool. During the month of September we will be holding auditions within theschools. We will also hold one public audition for those children who are homeschooled. We will announce the dates for those auditions at a later time along withmore information about the contest at a later time.

10 Year Anniversary Event

Angie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:35:55 +0000

10 Year

Anniversary Event

A Celebration of Life

This year marks the 10th year that Abortion Alternatives & Women’s Center has been serving Carter County. This is quite a milestone for us and we hope that you will help us celebrate this big event. During the month of August we have a couple of big events planned to help celebrate our anniversary of service. First, on Friday, August 27, we will be holding a special blood drive for the American Red Cross in honor of Carolina Skye Odom. Many times when people think of donating blood they think of accident victims or people undergoing srgery. However, infants who are born premature often have health problems and they often require one or multiple blood transfusions to help them fully develop. This is especially true for infants who are so ill they just stay in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at a hospital. These precious young lives are born having to fight. The blood you donate at this drive will go to help these young lives as well as others who need blood for whatever reason. The blood drive will be held from 1:30-6 p.m. here at our Center. Donors are asked to eat a good meal approximately 1-2 hours prior to donating. Appointments are recommended but walk-ins arewelcome. Call our center at 543-4673 to make an appointment to donate. The second event of our celebration will be a special singing event which will be held on Saturday, August 28

from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Valley Fore Free Will Baptist Church. The Valley Forge Praise & Worship Choir will begin music at 5:15 p.m. and continue as people enter the event. Featured performances during the evening will be by Greater Glory and The Fortune Family from Georgia. The Fortune Family has a very special testimony which they share when they perform. Prior to being saved, Terry and Lynn Fortune were faced with an unwanted

pregnancy, which they chose to end through abortion. Years later after becoming saved, Terry and Lynn were devastated by the choice that they had made and prayed and asked God to bless them with a family. Terry and Lynn are now the parents of eight children. Together, all 10 members of the family travel around the country to sing, praise God and share their testimony.

Our goal for the special singing event is to raise $10,000 for 10 years of service. We are accepting donations at the door of the event and advance tickets are also available for a donation. We are also asking that our area churches help us out by taking up a love offering for the center which can be presented to us at the center before hand or at the event that night, where we will be updating our donations received throughout the course of the evening. Refreshments will also be available at the event and will be provided by area restaurants.

Come and help us celebrate 10 years of helping people Choose Life.

A Celebration of Life

Saturday, Aug. 28

5:30-7:30 p.m.

Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church

News From Our Centers

Angie — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:24:02 +0000

A lot of things are happening at our Center in Elizabethton and if you get the opportunity to visit us, we hope you will excuse our mess. We are currently renovating a portion of our Center in order to create a Day Care facility. Our hope for the day care program is that it will become a useful service to our clients who are in school and will help them in continuing their education by allowing them to attend school with the peace of mind that their child is being well cared for. We are having to do some renovations to our building in order to make this happen. Once the day care program is up and running we will be able to apply for a grant to support the program and make it self sufficient but in the beginning the funds to get everything under way will have to come from our Center’s budget through the generosity of our community. We will be in need of your continued support to help us get this very needed program up and running. With the creation of the day care program we will have some specific needs that we are hoping the community can help us meet. Please contact the Center to find out ways in which you can help. During the first year, day care slots will be open to the community. Ages and prices for the day care program have not been set at this time and will not be announced until after licensing for the day care is complete. The creation of the day care program will assist the center by providing a steady income to offset some of the overhead costs of operating the center. If we can make it through this critical financial time, then the daycare will bring in revenue to keep us above water.

Also, as our national and local economies continue to struggle our centers are also struggling financially as we try to meet our day to day needs as well as the needs of our clients. Any assistance we receive is greatly appreciated. For more information on how your church, community group or civic organization can help our center with our needs please contact us.

Welcome

Angie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:23:21 +0000

We’re getting the new site setup and should have everything up and ready to go shortly.

January is National Sanctity of Life Month

Angie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:27:26 +0000

During National Sanctity of Life Month, individuals from our two centers will be speaking in area churches about the sanctity of all human life. “Each life is precious, no matter how young or how old,” said Director/Founder Angie Odom. On Sunday, Jan. 17, a special Sanctity of Life service was held for the community at Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church. The services featured performances by the Valley Forge Praise Choir and the Valley Forge Praise Team. Kara McGee spoke about her recent adoption of a child. Also during the service, candles were lit in honor children who have been lost due to miscarriage or death. Also this month, Cheri Jo Potter will be speaking at services in Mountain City at The Community Church and at Evergreen Baptist.

A Note From Our Director

Angie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:25:31 +0000

I would first like to thank everyone who assisted us during the Holidays in making Christmas brighter for our clients and their children. Through your generous donations of food, items and time you were able to help us bring joy to some very special children and their parents. At this time however, our Centers in Elizabethton and in Mountain City are in need of continued and increased support. Providing additional and needed services to our clients during Christmas time can really strain the budgets of our centers. Also, with the continuing down state of our national economy, the services provided by our centers are being needed more and more and by an increasing number of clients. As our nation’s economic crisis continues and many people in our communities are still without jobs the work being done in our centers has never been more important to help serve our clients in their decision to choose life. Please encourage your churches, community groups, clubs and civic organizations to sponsor us either through a one-time gift, continual monthly support or through fund raising events. One of the easiest ways to raise funds for our center is through a Baby Bottle Fundraiser where we provide your church, group or club with empty baby bottles and your members simply will them with pocket change and return them to us. It is amazing the difference that can be made with something as ordinary as pocket change. You can also help out in other ways. Our centers often have need of baby items, hygiene items or even office equipment that can be donated. Currently our Elizabethton Center is in need of a 15 passenger van to assist in our programs, a VCR/DVD combo and also someone to install hard drives into our office computers for us. Our Mountain City Center is also in need of a computer and a copier/printer that can be networked to a computer. For more information on how you can help us meet the needs of our clients and our community, please call your local center to find out how you can help. In Elizabethton you can call (423) 543-4673 and in Mountain City you can call (423) 727-8600. Your gifts can change the life of a child. January is National Sanctity of Life Month and during the month volunteers from our centers will be speaking in area churches about how every life is precious. This is a perfect time for your church or organization to support the work of our centers in helping to preserve the sanctity of life.

I also at this time have a personal prayer request that I would like to make. I ask that you please remember my 18-year-old daughter Bethany as she will soon be undergoing surgery on her back.

Once again, thank you for all that you do in helping us to serve our clients and our community and encouraging others to Choose Life.

Special Thanks

Angie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:21:34 +0000

At our Elizabethton Center we were recently able to install security equipment on the property through a generous donation. This will allow us to provide better safety for our staff, volunteers and clients. A security camera was donated to the center and installed by TCS Telecommunications Service in Elizabethton. Adrian Watkins and Jason Simerly came out and installed the camera for us.

We would like to give a special thanks to Sunny Side Baptist Church in Kingsport. They recently collected more than $1,500 for our center by handing out baby bottles to their congregation to be filled with change.

News From Mountain City

Angie — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:20:09 +0000

We are currently planning a Holiday Dinner for our clients during the month of November. The Dinner will be held on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. at the Central Baptist Church. The even was originally to be held at the Mountain City Community Center but due to a double booking at the Community Center the Holiday Dinner was moved Central Baptist Church. We are in need of church or civic groups to provide desserts for the dinner and youth groups to assist in serving the meal. A local business man in Mountain City has donated all of the main dishes and side dishes for the dinner and we thank him for his very gracious donation. Ray Branch will be serving as emcee for the event and Sherry Jo & Terry Potter will be singing. Clients of the Mountain City Center will be receiving their Christmas presents on Dec. 7.

Our Mountain City Center is continuing to grow. We currently serve approximately 40 regularly attending clients. The Mountain City Center is currently open Monday, Wedensday and Friday from 10a.m. to 4 p.m. and is completely staffed by volunteers. The Center is in need of continued regular financial support to allow for the hiring of a staff member to operate the center with the support of volunteers. Due to the growth of the program, our Mom’s Classes will be moved to a new date and location after the start of the new year. Currently the Mom’s Classes are held on the first Monday each month at the Center. Starting in January the classes will be held on the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Mountain City Community Center. Also due to the growth of the program we are currently having to rent a storage building which has been placed at the Center. We are currently looking for support from the community to either purchase or build a storage building in order to eliminate the cost of renting the storage building. Some of our supporters in the Mountain City community are: First Freewill Baptist, Cobbs Creek Baptist, Pleasant Grove Baptist, Evergreen Baptist, First Baptist, Community Church, Little Doe Baptist, Bethany Baptist, Sink Valley Baptist, Butler Baptist and the employees of Mountain City Care Center.