Volunteer, Board Awards Presented At Gathering Of Hope
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
The community gathered Thursday night to celebrate the sanctity of life. The fourth annual Gathering Of Hope was at First Christian Church, Warsaw. Keynote Speaker was Actress Shari Rigby and the crowd was sold out at over 300 people. There was $37,000 raised for Heartline during the fundraiser. She has starred in movies including “October Baby,” “Not Today” and “Easy Rider: The Ride Back.” She has also starred in “Young And The Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Rigby spoke about her journey as a mother at age 16 into adulthood. She said at age 16 she got married and got pregnant with her son on her wedding night. Her high school removed her scholarships and put her in a pregnancy care school. Her husband was abusive so she left him. “I walked down the aisle with a five week old baby and my diploma and people looked at me as a failure,” Rigby said. She said after graduating she got a phone call about modeling so she did that. Three weeks later she got a phone call from Matthew, a high school friend, and they dated and they got married. They then had two children, and she was told she could not have any more children. She had a hysterectomy and was told by doctors she would die because of excess water in her body. The water was drained and she lived and she had eight months of recovery. She said she felt God was calling her to Hollywood. “God called me to witness to the broken hearted in Hollywood,” Rigby said. She was asked to play a role in the movie “October Baby,” a movie about a girl who tried to abort her child. She had the opportunity to talk to girls who saw the movie and shared their abortion stories. During Thursday’s event, Aaron Hoak was presented with Heartline’s Volunteer of the Year award and Josh Bailey was presented with Heartline’s board member of the year award. Hoak has volunteered in the fatherhood program at Heartline for the past three years. Master of ceremonies was John Bryan Lowe. He said Heartline served 5,600 clients in 2015 and 92 percent of them chose life and not to have an abortion. Jon and Mylisah Bennett told how they have benefited from Heartline after their son, Terrence, was born. They have been clients since March 12, 2015. They went to Heartline and their pregnancy was confirmed using an ultrasound. “We had been told by many doctors that we would not be able to have children and that because the fertility treatments were not working there was not another option for us at that time,” Mylisha said. Terrence was born Oct. 9 and they were able to purchase needed baby items from Heartline such as diapers, a crib, jumper, high chair, lotions and soap. “Heartline has been a huge source of support for Mylisha and myself,” Jon said.
