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Benton County Right to Life

By Holly Miller, NRLC Field Coordinator

As explained in the March edition, "Chapter Profiles" will now be a regular feature of NRL News. By profiling grassroots chapters of NRLC we hope to achieve two things. First, it is important to share the good news of what our members and affiliated chapters have been able to accomplish in their local communities. Second, describing successful chapter events will give other chapters useful and usable ideas for their own chapters.

In this first profile, we are pleased to present the hard work of Benton County Right to Life (BCRL), located in the northwest corner of Arkansas.

BCRL meets monthly year round with a 15-member board of directors comprised of four officers and 8-12 trustees. It rotates officers annually in order to give everyone the opportunity to gain leadership experience. Additionally, BCRL can count on the volunteerism and support of over 1,000 local households and 150 churches.

The visibility of BCRL's chapter activities has undoubtedly helped save lives, as well as raised consciousness about the horror of legal abortion. For instance, the chapter started a " Crosses for Life Memorial" display where 4,000 crosses are arranged in the shape of a huge cross the size of a football field.

The exhibit is flanked by two large banners that read, "Abortion: The Ultimate Child Abuse. 4,000 Die Daily" and "Abortion: 8,000 victims daily, 4,000 wounded, 4,000 dead," respectively. The " Crosses for Life Memorial" is displayed for 3-4 weeks and has been exhibited in about a dozen communities around Arkansas.

Wayne Wadley, the chapter's vice president, explained that it receives "a very favorable response and the crosses make a big impact." That is no doubt confirmed by the number of letters to the editors of local newspapers the display generates.

In case you are wondering how a chapter can raise the money to sponsor such a massive display, BCRL has experience in that area too.

It hosts a "Spring to Life" benefit concert as a fundraiser every year to subsidize the group's efforts to promote life. The concert features local and nationally known recording artists that perform inspirational music including a capella contemporary Christian music and southern gospel.

Last year's concert raised over $2,000 that is being used to produce and display billboards. The billboards feature pro-life messages with a hotline number for pregnant women that need help. Four billboards are already posted with three more on the way.

BCRL does a great job of just letting the community know that there is an active pro-life presence there. By building floats to participate in holiday parades and sponsoring an educational booth of pro-life materials in its county fair, BCRL has demonstrated its year-round commitment to protecting unborn children. And community members know where to go when they need information - - as evidenced by a recent inquiry by a high school student looking for pro-life materials for a school project and to influence friends.

Every January 22 pro-lifers gather across the country to commemorate and mourn the Roe v. Wade decision. Benton County residents unable to travel to Washington, D.C. or Little Rock, Arkansas, for the Marches for Life participate locally in the " Care-o-Van," jointly sponsored by BCRL and its neighboring Washington County counterpart.

Participants meet at one county, courthouse, then caravan in cars bedecked in pro-life signs to the other county's courthouse for a rally. Members also hold signs every October in their local life chain.

Loving Choices, the local crisis pregnancy center, benefits from the support of BCRL members who participate in the local Life Walk banquets to fund its life-saving work.

Benton County Right to Life works closely with Arkansas Right to Life and National Right to Life to publish a quarterly newsletter which is distributed to 150 churches. The churches are encouraged to distribute copies to their members.

BCRL is now developing a web site on which it can post the newsletters and other pro-life information. It has also aided pastors by distributing brochures informing pastors of what churches legally can do under their 501(c)(3) status.

Finally, BCRL has made an impact by soliciting support for pro- life legislation. It gathered nearly 800 signatures of support for Arkansas' recently passed "Woman's Right to Know" bill.

It also cosponsored a candidate forum last April. BCRL conducted a candidate survey and published the candidates' answers to inform the community of the candidates' positions. Benton County Right to Life is an excellent example of just how much one chapter can do to promote life in its community. Of course projects take time and hard work, but by spacing out events, delegating responsibilities, and recruiting members willing to "do something," either great or small, each chapter will do something truly significant.

In his Inaugural Address, President George W. Bush remarked, "No insignificant person was ever born." Your labors to protect life and the one, ten, or a hundred lives you save or influence are significant. If you are not the voice for the unborn in your community, who will be?

National Right to Life welcomes our new chapters in Fort Lewis, Washington; Wilmington, North Carolina; Cherokee County, South Carolina; and Steuben County, Indiana.

For more information on chapter development, call Holly Miller at (202) 626-8800, ext. 108 or e-mail  nrlchapters@hotmail.com.