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After a grant expired for the University Life Care Center the non-profit began contacting local churches to participate in raising funds to keep the Center in its current location.

A two-year grant allowed the Life Care Center to move into the heart of Dinkytown, but the money ran out in August. In order to stay, the Life Care Center must raise an additional $2,350 each month.

The Life Care Center provides men and women with information about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections to help them make the best choices. The baby bottle fundraiser was created to keep the Center near the University of Minnesota campus.

The baby bottle fundraiser depends on parishioners at the St. Paul Cathedral to raise money by filling the bottles with loose change. The baby bottles were left for pickup after Mass and are expected to be returned in three weeks.

“[The Life Care Center] exists to help men and women know abortion isn’t their only option,” said Lisa Hunter, executive director of the Center.

“The largest number of abortions in our state are performed on college-aged women in Hennepin County,” she said.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 4,800 abortions were reported in 2006 for Hennepin County, where the center is located. The report showed that about one-third of the abortions done in Minnesota are for women between the ages of 20 and 24.

The Center offers counseling, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection testing and material assistance for people who need help. All of the testing and counseling is free and confidential, which it hopes will attract people to use its services.

Megan Stanislav, a junior at the University of St. Thomas, picked up a baby bottle at the Cathedral in St. Paul after mass a couple of weeks ago.

“I thought it was a really good way to give back,” Stanislav said. “I told all my friends and family about it and they gave their spare change as they came to my apartment.”

The center has several contributors that donate maternity and baby clothing, food and money for new mothers and fathers, but it must also depend heavily on volunteers and fundraising to keep it running.

The spare change from the baby bottles adds up. Usually three or four churches in the area participate in the baby bottle fundraiser, which is planned for a couple times during the year.

A partnership with the Catholic Church stems from the founder of the Life Care Centers, who was a Catholic nun. The University Life Care Center was founded in 1975 near the Minnesota campus. It was the founding center in a system of pregnancy resource centers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The University Life Care Center is one of 24 within its organization in the Minnesota and Wisconsin areas.

“This is an important issue for Catholics and women alike,” Stanislav said.

Through growing public awareness, the Life Center has done twice as many pregnancy tests during early 2008 than it did by February 2007.

Last year the University Life Care Center received more than 500 visits and more than 100 were for testing or counseling. The other visits were for those seeking material or financial assistance.

Many options are available for expectant mothers through the Life Centers. It provides them with information on choices including adoption, abortion and giving birth. It gives help from the beginning by walking expectant parents through the steps they need to make a decision.

The website provides stories from several different people who chose each option when they found out they were pregnant. The stories are provided to give people more information on what needs to be taken into consideration while they are trying to decide.

The Life Center does not perform abortions or hand out contraceptives because “we are a life-affirming organization,” the center’s website says. Its Treasure for Life Program provides expectant mothers with maternity and baby gifts as well as information to prepare them for motherhood.

There are several other clinics in the Dinkytown area that provide similar services. “We are all on the same team,” Hunter said.

The Life Center raises funds with the help of several non-Catholic churches in the area. I donated my dollar to the Life Care Center in Dinkytown for this story. I helped Stanislav raise $14 for her baby bottle, though she hopes to be able to raise $20 before she turns in her bottle in next week.

Since hearing about the Life Care Center at Mass, Stanislav has offered to volunteer at the Highland Park Life Care Center.

“It’s not just about giving my time, though,” Stanislav said. It’s also about asking the community to give what they can financially so the program can continue to give support to others.”