Boston College’s Pro Life Club Volunteers at Friends of the Unborn

On November 22nd of this year, the Boston College Pro Life Club embarked on a short, but fruitful and fun service trip to the Friends of the Unborn. Around midday, eight Pro-Life Club students piled into two cars and drove down to the house where they would be working. Their trip did not begin smoothly, as much to their surprise and dismay, one of their cars had been towed! No matter, the otherwise-ever-prudently-parking James Markis made haste in arriving at the yard where his car was held hostage. Upon paying the ludicrous amount of $170 and twenty lashings for his automobile, he and his entourage made no haste in arriving on time to help out in the much needed yard work that needed to be done.

The work itself wasn’t too difficult, and was finished in only a few hours. Most of the work consisted of just moving some tables and chairs as needed, raking up the thousands of leaves which inundated the property, and erecting a nativity scene in preparation for the upcoming Christmas Holidays.

Friends of the Unborn is a maternity shelter home for pregnant women and their babies who are in financial or familial crisis, and need a place to stay. The charitable group has existed for over 40 years, and started when a woman, Marilyn Birnie, out of her charity, opened her home to a pregnant woman who had nowhere else to go. Seeing firsthand the desperation of many of these women with no other place to go, she kept opening her home to more and more women who needed a loving place to call home during difficult times in their lives. This charitable endeavor, Friends of the Unborn has outlived Marilyn Birnie, and her home has, over the years, been home to hundreds of mothers and children in need of a place to stay. Joan Bailey took up the mantle in 2009, and has since led the Friends of the Unborn. This year marks her 15th year with the charitable organization. Joan was so kind to offer the Pro Life Club volunteers sandwiches, tangerines, and cookies while they beautified and cleaned up the outdoor spaces.

Although the work was not gruelling, or particularly impressive–just raking leaves, moving tables, and arranging a nativity scene–it was a wonderful experience to get to be a part of a charity that meaningfully and earnestly cares for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the mothers and children who are the most vulnerable and often neglected in our modern world.