Annual Mother’s Day Baby Bottle Campaign starts May 12
On Mother’s Day, May 12, baby bottles will begin to appear in churches and local businesses around Mille Lacs County.
These baby bottles on display are part of a campaign to help community members by raising funds for Rum River Life Choices Center.
Every year for the past 20 years, Rum River Life Choices Center hosts a Baby Bottle Campaign to help raise funds for its operational costs.
This year is no different, but it also features an added twist. This year is the organization’s 40th anniversary.
“Every year, we’ve been doing this for about 20 years now, we’ve been doing this Baby Bottle Campaign. What we do is we provide these baby bottles to churches and businesses in pretty much all of Mille Lacs County,” Executive Director of Rum River Life Choices Center Ann Morell said. “Those churches then promote it and hand out the bottles to families to take home on Mother’s Day to put coins or checks or whatever in there and return them three weeks later.”
Some of the participating communities include Zimmerman, Princeton, Milaca, Foley, Foreston, Isle, and Wahkon.
All of the donations from the Baby Bottle Campaign go back into Rum River Life Choices Center to help them with their operational costs and to provide those in the community with the family planning help they need.
“It’s a really good fundraiser for us. Our goal this year is $23,000. I’m confident that we can hit that,” Morell said. “The money is used for operating expenses, so that we can offer the services that we have. We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so it’s 100% supported by the community to keep us going.”
Some of the services the organization offers include pregnancy testing, limited ultrasounds, STD information and testing referrals, mentorship, support with pregnancy loss and post-abortion help, men’s family mentoring, maternity and infant supplies, and education on pregnancy, parenting, childbirth, healthy relationships, and abortion information. All services are at no cost to clients.
The Baby Bottle Campaign begins on Mother’s Day and runs until June 2. Baby bottles for donations can be found in businesses throughout the Princeton and Milaca communities including Coborn’s, Marv’s True Value, Princeton Book and Bible, both Coffee Corner locations, Milaca Unclaimed Freight, Koch’s Hardware, and more.
Donations will also be accepted by mail to 1006 Fifth St. SE. in Milaca or online at rumriverforlife.org/donate.
“This is one of our two main fundraisers. In the fall, we do a picnic fundraiser,” Morell said. “We have our next one scheduled for September 14th at Rec Park. It’s an outdoor, family event that includes an auction, a live band, and food trucks.”
Rum River Life Choices Center’s main office is located in Milaca at the address listed above. It also has an office located at 712 S. Rum River Drive in Princeton that opened in 2015.
The Milaca office first opened 40 years ago in April 1984 after a small group made the decision to open a pregnancy center in the area.
“A few individuals that felt they wanted to start a pregnancy center in the area, the Christian Action Council is what they organized under. They found that there were two sides that the abortion topic fell under. There was the political and then there was the front lines — that’s who we are,” Morell said.
The organization first started out in the basement of a church that no longer exists, and has many other locations within Milaca including a downtown storefront.
We moved to several locations, including the building downtown before we sold that and moved to this location two years ago. A year ago we expanded and have two buildings connected,” Morell said.
One of the biggest changes the organization has seen over the years has been the drastic changes in technology as well as the expansion of the services it offers.
“Technology has changed and how we reach the clientele we need has changed. What I see in the next five years, is that kind of technology changing with everything becoming digital. I think that’s where our biggest change is going to be,” Morell said.
“We know that when they first started out, all they did was pregnancy tests, and we’ve expanded our services. The boutique was next, then the education classes, and ultrasounds,” Director of the Rum River Life Choices Center in Princeton Jenny Kick said. “The mission is still the same, but you have to change with what’s going on in society and try to serve the clients the best we can.”
But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the way Rum River Life Choices Center has been able to help its clients with their family planning.
“We’ve had people come back and say how much it has helped them. I think we just do what we can to help, and it means a lot to people,” Kick said. “If we can’t help them, we can send them to someone who can. I think it’s important for people to know that someone cares for them and can help them.”
None of the organization’s services would be possible without the generosity of the communities it serves, and Morell and Kick are very grateful for that generosity.
“We so much appreciate the support, the encouragement, the prayers, the donations that this community has provided. It’s very unique that we can continue without outside funding,” Morell said.
“Our donors are very important to us and the clients. It’s really neat the way they come together,” Kick said.
To learn more about Rum River Life Choices Center, visit https://rumriverlifechoices.org/.
Reach Chloe Smith at chloe.smith@apgecm.com
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