Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506060013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The building where the center rented space had been sold - to Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge - and president and executive director Ruth Fielder was told her agency's lease would not be renewed.
The irony of working in a building owned by an organization at philosophical odds with her own wasn't lost on Fielder. Her center was founded with a primary focus of guiding women facing crisis pregnancies to decide to continue their pregnancies to delivery. The local Planned Parenthood affiliate is the area's most visible advocate of abortion rights.
But even if Fielder had wanted to move, eight months' notice was relatively little time to find a new location.
The search was complicated, Fielder said, by the realization that a new spot meeting the center's needs for a visible location, easy access and expansion space was going to be a lot more expensive than its Liberty Road Northwest quarters had been - perhaps as much as three times its previous rent of $675.
The Crisis Pregnancy Center board of directors decided it would be as cheap to buy a permanent home as to rent one. But that meant even more delays - from negotiating the purchase, to financing, to remodeling.
But after some discouragement, a year in temporary quarters and the exhilaration of building a new home, the agency is ready to hold an open house at it's new location at Williamson and Airport Roads Northwest.
The open house will be Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the 5034 Williamson Road N.W. location. Kay Coles James, Virginia's Secretary of Health and Human Services, will be the keynote speaker at 7:30 p.m.
The pristine facility is a combination of 1920s elegance and modern practicality.
"To be good stewards" of their donors' contributions and what they consider God's provision of the facility, Fielder said, "we've tried to make the best use of every inch of floor space." Rooms "are the minimum size they can be to accomplish their purposes," she said during a recent tour. "Every decision in the project had to pass the test of efficiency, practicality, durability and low maintenance."
The agency made some renovations to the original 2,300-square-foot, two-story home's floor plan and added a 2,200-square-foot extension, which includes former garage space. There is a paved parking lot and a covered ground-level porch where donors can drop off baby furniture and other supplies and moms-to-be can pick up items they need.
The "supply closet" - holding baby cribs and beds, maternity and baby clothes, and a mountain of disposable diapers - is actually the largest room in the addition. There are also six counseling rooms where women and their families are given information on sexuality, pregnancy, adoption and parenting. There are waiting and reception areas, a counselor work area, and rest rooms. A large unfinished attic space will eventually be available for group meetings and babysitting.
Space in the original house is used for administrative offices, meeting areas, storage and a kitchen.
Getting into the house provided a lesson in patience and "God's grace."
When Fielder and her board first heard about the house, they thought it would be appropriate for the agency but they weren't willing to pay the $160,000 asking price. They made a low offer that was rejected and the brick house went on the auction block.
"We were pretty sure it would go," Field said. But to her surprise, the building didn't sell at auction. The Crisis Pregnancy Center board went back to the owner for new negotiations and came out with a deal for $121,000 last December.
That was only part of the process, though. The addition had to be designed and built. The house itself needed extensive cosmetic work inside, as well as a new heating and air-conditioning system. The basement was in such bad shape Fielder wasn't sure it would even be usable, but volunteer labor turned it into dry, bright storage space.
The question of financing such a massive project was a matter of prayer and a capital funds campaign. About $200,000 in cash donations to cover the $350,000 total cost of the project has already been received. That doesn't include donations and discounts for furnishings, appliances, and labor. Fielder hopes the final 15- to 20-year mortgage will have payments under $1,000 a month.
The facility is "not extravagant, but a pleasant place for our clients" and staff, Fielder said. "We want our clients to feel loved and valued when they come in the door."
The center served more than 600 new clients in 1994, Fielder said, and recorded more than 1,500 "client contacts" through counseling, office visits and other interaction. The staff took more than 2,700 phone calls from clients and potential clients.
Free pregnancy tests mark the initial office contact for about three-fourths of the center's clients. About half of those tests are positive.
Counselors talk to the ones who are pregnant about options other than abortion, but "it's their decision. They have to make it," Fielder said. "We do point out the disadvantages and consequences of each option," she said. "We try to be as straight as we know how."
For those whose tests are negative, counselors talk about sexuality and promote abstinence as the biblically mandated option for single people.
The center is a distinctively Christian operation, but Fielder said less than half of its clients describe themselves as church-goers, and the percentage is consistently declining.
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