JOLIET – Soon after Amy Doty of Frankfort began volunteering at Living Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Joliet, the nurse manager announced her retirement and Doty, a nurse for 20 years, stepped up.

With 50 to 75 client visits a month, Doty is busy. Twenty to 30 of those visits are pregnancy tests and ultrasound scans; the rest are parenting classes with the “mommy mentors,” Doty said.

The May 9 Walk for Life 2015 is a major fundraiser, important for a center that offers services for free. Doty, also a mother of nine children (four are biological and five came into her heart and home through foster care), said she loves working a job that lets her help other moms.

“As a nurse, I feel real strongly about empowering patients with education and informed decisions about their care that are medically accurate,” Doty said.

Overseeing the center – also known as the Pregnancy Resource Center of Will County – is Ruth Tibstra, who formally worked as a teacher, volleyball and track and field coach, and for the Girl Scouts.

Before Tibstra came to the center more than three years ago, she ran a pregnancy center in Oak Lawn for about eight years. Ever since Tibstra was in high school, she has wanted to serve women with unexpected pregnancies.

Clients who use the center run the gamut of ages and circumstances, Tibstra said. They are married, single, teenagers, 40-year-olds. The first step is to do a pregnancy test. The second, if clients are at least six weeks and four days along in their pregnancies, is an ultrasound, to determine if the pregnancy is viable.

“It’s a limited ultrasound, not a full-blown diagnosis of the baby,” Tibstra said. “But we make sure there’s a heartbeat and we make sure it’s in the uterus, where it belongs.”

Next, Tibstra said, is helping the client explore her options: keeping the baby (and offering parenting classes), adoption (with a referral to the center’s adoption director) and abortion (with an explanation of risks and the option of post-abortion care).

The center is one of 12 in Illinois and Indiana under the “Living Alternatives” umbrella, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. It receives referrals from local obstetricians and other social services agencies, Tibstra said.

Although many clients are first-time moms, the center sees exceptions.

“We have some women who are on their fourth and fifth pregnancies,” Tibstra said, “and they have used our service for every one of them.”

No matter what option clients choose, Tibstra said the goal is for each to feel loved.

“Sometimes women in that situation have nowhere to turn,” said Tibstra, who is the executive director. “We want to be the place that they turn.”

Clients that choose to keep their babies may attend HOPE (Helping Others Through Education) parenting classes. These are conducted one-on-one via a volunteer – or “mommy mentor” – and DVDs, Tibstra said.

“Parenting isn’t easy,” Tibstra said. “Sometimes our moms just need a little extra support and someone in their corner saying, ‘You can do this,’ and giving them the tools to be good moms.”

As clients complete certain aspects of the classes, they earn “baby bucks,” which they use to find gently used clothing and other baby products through the center’s boutique. Clients can remain with the program until their children are 18 months old, Tibstra said.

How to help? The biggest way is to support the May 9 fundraiser, by collecting pledges and by walking. The center receives no federal funding, Tibstra said, and relies on gifts from individuals, organizations and churches.

The goal for this year’s walk is $60,000, she added, which helps provide services to clients such as Jocelyn Banks, 28, of Joliet. Banks was so pleased with the service she received during her pregnancy with her son Christian McNair, now 4, that she returned to the center for support with her twins – a boy and a girl – who are due Aug. 31.

Banks said she is working with the same mentor she had with the first pregnancy, who remembered her, which Banks found comforting. To her, it illustrates how much staff and volunteers value their clients.

“They pray for these people, reach out to these people and build relationships with these people,” Banks said.

In addition, Banks appreciates that her children are included in meetings, and she’s thankful for the overall outreach and support she’s found at the center.

“They have a lot insight into the coping mechanisms of single parenting and how to use your faith to get through rough times,” Banks said, “even when it seems like there’s no outlet.”

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Walk For Life 2015

WHEN: 9 a.m. to noon May 9

WHERE: Judson Church, 2800 Black Road, Joliet

ETC: Family friendly, prizes in three categories – children, teen and adult.

DONATE/REGISTER: Online at hopeforafuture.com/event/will-co-walk-for-life/ or pick up pledge sheets at Living Alternatives Resource Center, 2 Uno Circle, Suite D, Joliet

VISIT: www.HopeForAFuture.com

CONTACT: 815-744-7755