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Bill Belian/Contributing Photographer Joseph’s Store House offers expecting mothers numerous items to choose from for their new baby at the Pregnancy & Parenting Center of Murphy.
Murphy – The Pregnancy & Parenting Center has made a big move for a big reason, and they’re inviting the public to join them from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday for an open house.
The new building will offer more room, as well as more opportunities for learning and growing, to parents who are expecting a child.
The new center has a number of rooms each for a different purpose. Upon first entering the building and to the left is the reception counter and waiting area.
Another large room has been designated as a meeting room for the community. There will be no charge to use the new space, but rather by donation.
One wall of the new community room has about 20 canvas prints of different landmarks and venues from around town on it. Down a hallway another wall displays photos of different churches whose members played a role in making the center what it has become.
Gail Mullennix, director of the Pregnancy & Parenting Center, is excited about more opportunities to serve.
“We are so excited to introduce Murphy to our center and our community room because we want to give something back to Murphy,” she said. “They’ve been so good to us, and we want them to use the room.”
Other rooms include a work room, staff offices, nurse’s station, counseling rooms and a store room. Joseph’s Store House is filled with new and gently used items, including baby clothing and shoes, strollers, car seats, baby supplies, diapers and more, all of which were donated to the center.
The opportunity to shop in the store house at no cost for the items is based on a point system, which is calculated by the number of visits back to the center for parenting classes that an expecting mother participates in.
There’s also a large room set aside that will teach young expecting fathers such skills as how to fix an outlet or leaky faucet. Jeff Little is one of the men at the center who will be assisting the young men who come to the Pregnancy & Parenting Center for training.
“Our hope is that when we go through our fatherhood lessons that we can transition them in to learning trades, like drywall and woodworking,” Little said.
The hope is that these new skills will help young men be able to find work and better equip them to care for their new families.
About 3,300 hours were volunteered by different church members and others in the community to bring this new center’s look to fruition. Everything was donated or discounted, including materials and labor.
For example, Renewed Hope Ministries thrift store donated some of the amazing furniture, giving the center a first pick on the items coming to the store. An anonymous donor gave the center $18,000 worth of new cabinets. And Murphy Granite Outlet donated granite for several rooms.
Members of the community worked together to show their love and give hope to newly expecting parents who will be helped by the bigger, brighter and beautiful center.
Staff at the Pregnancy & Parenting Center include counselors, teachers, advocates, prayer partners, a nurse practitioner as well as a radiological diagnostic medical sonographer, who will be able to use a new ultrasound machine that helps determine the health and gestational period of the unborn baby. Many other services are also available.
“We are more than a pregnancy center, we’re also a parenting center,” said Bonnie Doty, the center’s community liaison. “It’s a place where people can come in and learn, grow and come to know Jesus.”
The Christian organization is dedicated to serving women, men and families facing an unplanned pregnancy without judgment. The center will be open three days a week in the old Sears building in the Valley Village Shopping Center.
Details: ppc-care.org, 828-835-3444.