Notre Dame students in the Right to Life Club supported soon-to-be mothers who decided to have their children with the Project Mom Baby Shower Saturday.
"These are all women that considered abortion at some point in their pregnancies and decided instead to have their babies," coordinator Kellie Raddell said. "We want to say as the Right to Life Club, ‘We're really glad you decided to have your babies, and we're going to help you do it.'"
About 80 students collaborated to provide gifts and activities for the six mothers-to-be at the shower, which took place from 12 to 2 p.m. in Lewis Hall. The event was co-sponsored by the Right to Life Club, Lewis Hall, the Fund for Life, University Life Initiatives and the Institute for Church Life.
"There are three [locations of the] Women's Care Center in South Bend, and all of the women have come there for some type of assistance during their pregnancies," Raddell said. "Now most of the women are in their sixth or seventh month of pregnancy, and their family and friends don't have the money to put on a baby shower for them, so we put on this shower so they can have basic baby supplies."
Raddell said students welcomed the mothers-to-be when they arrived and mingled and ate with them. Everyone then played games, which allowed the women and students to get to know each other.
During one of the games, students blindfolded the mothers-to-be and handed them their gifts, and the women guessed what they were, Raddell said. The women then opened their gifts and held them up for the shower participants to see.
"Each woman received the exact same sort of gifts, ranging from all the little stuff like a teething ring, a sippy cup, baby wipes and baby powder to big items like a baby bath, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a car seat," Raddell said.
Raddell said the shower participants also played a game of Bingo in which each square had the name of a baby item in it.
"[The mothers-to-be] were very appreciative, and I don't think they expected this much," Raddell said. "A couple of them brought children and friends with them."
Raddell said one of the mothers-to-be who attended the fall semester's Project Mom Baby Shower came to Saturday's shower with her baby.
"He was using the blankets that we had donated … [and] one of the toys that we had given him," she said. "It was really nice to see the people we had been helping and see that the babies are using our gifts."
Raddell said the most rewarding part of coordinating the Project Mom Baby Shower was seeing the students leave their comfort zones in order to interact with the mothers-to-be.
"[The shower] was very successful," she said. "This event has grown from three people two years ago, to 25 or 30 in the fall, to 50 in the spring. It was great to be a part of CommUniversity Day because we were joining with everybody else that was giving to the community."
