Living Hope Pregnancy Center saving babies, serving mothers

At Living Hope Pregnancy Center, a focus of life and love is multi-layered, including protecting the lives of the unborn and extending to lifting up young mothers.

The facility in Ponca City serves the needs of new mothers who are experiencing an unexpected pregnancy with a variety of services, including ultrasounds and abortion alternatives, yet its aid to women in a crisis situation extends to helping them raise their newborn children through the first few years of their lives.

“We help women and families who have unplanned pregnancies and love and support them, and show God’s love,” said Ramona Ash, executive director of the center. “We want them to choose life, but we also want them to thrive as a parent.”

At Living Hope, they help new mothers with a needs room, which provides clothing, food, wipes and other items to help raise a child during their first two years after birth, along with maternity clothes for the mother.

Living Hope has protected the lives of unborn children in the Kay County community for generations. For the past 40 years, Saint Mary Catholic Church in Ponca City and Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Newkirk have walked hand-in-hand in that goal of saving children. That relationship stands strong today in the community, where parishioners serve on the board of directors, volunteer at the facility and make donations to help young mothers raise their new children.

Saint Mary helped celebrate the organization in its current facility on North Fairview Avenue. 

“Father Carson Krittenbrink came and blessed the building when we moved into it,” Ash said.

The needs room is operated through a team of volunteers, including some from Saint Mary, like Mary Andrews.

“When people come in with needs, they (may) need diapers, they speak to a counselor, and they keep track of what people need,” Andrews said. 

The needs room is filled in part through local church donations, starting with needs drives at both parishes during Sanctity of Human Life Month each January.

“Once a year, we put out a list of things they can use at the center,” Andrews said.

Those lists are left for parishioners to collect and deliver to the church. The items flow in, many times a week, even past the drive.

Once the donations arrive, it is the efforts of volunteers to prepare it for a needing mother and family. The clothes are divided into sizes, premature through 2, so families can easily find what they need. Some of the clothes are handed out in sets.

They also take coats and jackets for winter months and swimwear in the summer, as well as shoes.

Some of the families return the clothing once their kids outgrow them, and the clothes are washed and folded, ready for a new child. 

Saint Mary Catholic School is also involved in helping stock the center.

“One of the classes will do a baby shower or diaper drive. The kids have a lot of fun buying diapers and little outfits,” Ash said. 

The parishes hold the drives to support the mothers in raising their babies and helping the center in that goal.

“There are always clients that have needs, so the more we can help them help the new moms out, hopefully, the moms have more time to spend with their babies,” Andrews said.

For Living Hope Pregnancy Center, the relationship is important in providing for the young mothers in such a dire time.

“Saint Mary and Saint Francis have been our longest supporters, and most consistent. They were our first supporters in our area,” Ash said. “That is love in action.”

Everett Brazil, III, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.


Photo: St. Mary Catholic Church members Janice Connelly, left, Sue Bond and Mary Andrews volunteer at Living Hope Pregnancy Center in Ponca City. St. Mary and St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Newkirk have been supportive of the center since they opened in 1984. Photo provided.