It’s National Volunteer Month! (Part 4)
It’s National Volunteer Month! Throughout the month of April, we’ll be highlighting some of our great volunteers from around the state, and sharing how you can connect with the pro-life grassroots network in your community.
This week, we’re featuring 2 volunteers who recognize the importance of passing down their pro-life values to their children – Joan from Jefferson and Liz from Waukesha.
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The O’Reilly Family
Jefferson/Walworth County Chapter
Volunteering for Wisconsin Right to Life is a family affair for the O’Reilly’s – literally! Joan, mother of 7, says, “Since I was a child, I can remember selling ‘Roses for Life’ and going with my mom to pro-life events.” Joan’s mother and her best friend Mary (who we met in an earlier volunteer profile!) “helped to form and educate both me and my family over the years. It all began with pro-life camps, conventions, and conferences, which the Jefferson/Walworth Co. Chapter not only helped me and my friends to get involved in but also now has gotten my children and their friends involved in. The camps have helped form me and later my kids to, I hope, be pro-life warriors forever.”
As a member of the Jefferson/Walworth County Chapter – the same one her mother helped start – Joan is now the Rose Sale Chair and Youth Coordinator. She loves getting young people invested in the movement by helping them go to Teen Impact Camp, inviting them to walk in parades, and encouraging the local Life on Campus group to host presentations and informative sessions. In addition to their chapter work, the O’Reilly family also attends and volunteers at statewide Wisconsin Right to Life events, like the Education Fund Dinner, State Conference, and Teen Impact Camp.
Joan says, “Choosing to volunteer with Wisconsin Right to Life means new experiences, new people, and lifelong friendships. I volunteer for WRTL because I owe everything I am and everything I will be to my mother, who taught me what it means to be pro-life! If I can help enlighten one person and save one more baby, then it is all worth it.”
Want to learn more about the Jefferson/Walworth County Chapter? Send them an email at jcwcrtl@gmail.com or attend their monthly meetings on the 3rd Monday of every month at 6:30pm, located at their office: 144 W. Garland Street, Jefferson, WI 53549.
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Liz K.
Waukesha County Chapter
“I don’t have a lot, but I have passion. I give you my passion.”
A mom of 3 young boys, Liz knows the importance of involving her entire family in advocacy work. “My parents were in ministry and they definitely conveyed to us the importance of life and being involved,” she says. “I remember going to all the pro-life marches back in the day and going to different organizations to help. I’d like to do the same thing for my kids. It’s such a good thing to teach them to have an eye toward getting involved.”
Liz became involved with the Waukesha County Chapter last May, and has already organized a baby shower for Life’s Connection, an abortion healing panel with TwentyTHREE61, and a Christmas gift drive for local nursing home residents. Up next is a foster care panel on May 24th in Oconomowoc.
“Being pro-life is more than just opposing abortion,” Liz says. “What does it really look like to support life? It’s so simple – offer support to foster families, host classes at local pregnancy centers… if we really say we’re going to support life, these are things we need to do! Anyone can donate a package of diapers or support a local pregnancy center!”
Want to get involved in Waukesha Co. Right to Life? Check out their Facebook page or email our Wisconsin Right to Life – Region 1 Coordinator, Lizzie Cantrall, at lcantrall@wrtl.org.
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Interested in joining Wisconsin Right to Life’s Better Together Volunteer Corps? Please fill out the Volunteer Interest Form, or register to attend the Better Together Volunteer Training Luncheon on Saturday, June 12th!
