The 24th annual Walk for Life to benefit the Women’s Resource Center in North Platte is scheduled for this weekend (May 3rd and 4th). The center exists to assist pregnant women to carry to term by providing emotional support and practical assistance. Executive director of the center, Linda Logsdon, was a recent guest on KCNI’s Public Affairs. Logsdon shared some of the history of the center from it’s beginning as a crisis pregnancy hotline.
“We have been here in our area really serving young women for over 50 years. We began as a crisis pregnancy hotline back in the 70’s when it seemed to be no options for young women who found themselves in an unplanned or unexpected pregnancy but that grew into being the women’s resource center where we started providing supplies and training and opportunities for these young moms who really wanted to keep their babies. They just needed help.”
The Walk for Life is a fundraiser for the center. Each person that participates in the two mile walk is encouraged to find sponsors to support their walk. All money raised will benefit the pregnancy help services provided by the WRC for women, men, and children in the North Platte and surrounding areas. The walk started in North Platte but has now grown to include ten communities who host the event. Logsdon stated that the reason for the walk extending out to other areas is not because the center reached out to other communities but because communities reached out to them.
“It was the communities reaching out to us. They would call, in fact Mary Ridder from Callaway had called me way back when and she said I think we can do this. We have a group of people and we would just like to walk. What would be the steps for us to do that here. Our most recent added walk was in Paxton and this will be their third year of doing a walk for life for us and they called us. We have a group of people that would like to walk could we walk here. I always say for a fundraiser there are two things. We want to raise awareness we want to let people know we are here and that we’re providing services. We have about 160 – 170 client visits every month. We have anywhere from five to ten new clients every month. As far as our unique clients we’re somewhere between 70 and 80 unique clients every month and so there is a need. So we always excited there are those who want to help us raise the funds to continue to provide for those services.”
Stapleton will host a walk on Saturday at the North end of the High School football field. Registration at 8:30 a.m. Dunning will host a walk on Sunday at Sandhills Community Church. Registration at 1 p.m. Gothenburg will host a walk on Saturday at Lake Helen Recreation Area. Registration at 9:30 a.m. Arnold will host a walk on Sunday at the Arnold Park Recreation Area meeting at the Baptist Church for registration at 1 p.m. Thedford will host a walk at the Amazing Grace Church on Sunday with registration at 1 p.m. Callaway will host a walk on Saturday at Morgan Park with a bicycle rodeo to follow. Registration at 9:30 a.m. Other walks will be held at North Platte, Wallace, Hershey, and Paxton. For more information and to sign up to participate visit the center’s website www.friendsofwrc.com
