Volunteers make quick work of building Lake County pregnancy center

The new LifeBeat Family Resource Center on Church Street in Tiptonville was nothing more than a concrete slab less than two weeks ago. Volunteers from Cullman, Ala., have quickly assembled the building. Bill Lindamood of Tiptonville donated about an acre of land for the new center.

They're constructing a new office for LifeBeat Family Resource Center, which is currently based in Wynnburg. Director Dee Keeling said she hopes the new Church Street center will be open by the end of July.

At the pace work is progressing, her prayers could be answered.

Volunteers lay shingles on the roof of the new LifeBeat Family Resource Center. Within 10 working days, the crew from Cullman, Ala., had erected inner and outer walls, built the roof, installed electrical and telephone lines, installed vinyl siding and were almost finished with the sheetrock installation. [Click to enlarge]

The new center was nothing more than a concrete slab on May 20. The following day, about 45 volunteers from Cullman, Ala., churches arrived. They quickly assembled the walls and the roof.

The real push came this week with more than a hundred Cullman-area volunteers nailing vinyl siding; hanging sheetrock; installing electrical, telephone and computer lines; tacking shingles; and running a vacation Bible school at Lakeview Baptist Church. Volunteers even planned to host a baby shower for the center on Tuesday night.

LifeBeat obtained a $50,000 low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as a $30,000 grant last year and a $22,000 grant this year to finance the building.

Volunteers measure, cut and install sheetrock inside the new LifeBeat Family Resource Center in Tiptonville.

Keeling said she contacted the Baptist Builders, a group that builds churches and helps rebuild disaster-damaged homes. This is the first pregnancy center they've tackled, she said.

Osmar Morris, 75, is coordinating the construction. He's been volunteering since 1979 and has built churches and homes in McMinnville, Tenn.; Alaska; Oklahoma; Texas; Kentucky; Louisiana; and even in the Colony neighborhood of Cullman, Ala. He began coordinating this job in January and had everyone ready to go as soon as they arrived.

Marlin Jennings of Cullman said he joined the crew 6 or 7 years ago. "It's a lot of fun and we meet people from all over," he said.

For many of the volunteers, this trip to Tiptonville will be their summer vacation. Some of the families brought their children and held a vacation Bible school program.

Those who don't swing a hammer are likely to be found in the kitchen at First Baptist Church in Tiptonville, cooking three meals a day for the crew. Volunteers chipped in $30 a person to purchase food supplies. Volunteers also pay their own travel and lodging expenses. Some are camping out in recreational vehicles, some are staying in a local motel and the rest are sleeping on church floors.

Janice Foshee and Linda Morris were preparing Tuesday for a baby shower. The Baptist associations in East and West Cullman donated items any new mother would need. Morris also crocheted 25 caps for babies and Foshee made several baby quilts. Those items will eventually be placed in the new center. Mothers earn points and then redeem those points for maternity and baby clothes, baby furniture and supplies, diapers and formula.

Inside the building Tuesday, volunteers were busy installing insulation and sheetrock. The 90-degree temperatures didn't seem to slow them.

Keeling said the sheetrock project - including mudding the joints - and painting needs to be finished by the first of July. More volunteers are expected to arrive on July 5 from Springfield, Mo. That group of 25-30 persons will lay the flooring and install trim.

LifeBeat Family Resource Center averages 10 to 25 cases a month and strives to involve the entire family. The clients, for the most part, range in age from 13 to the late 20s. State statistics indicated that 50 percent of the pregnant women in Lake County are not married, she said.

"We try to help the whole girl," Keeling said. The center puts an emphasis on getting an education, helping the girls better themselves and showing the girls how to get their lives on the right track. They discuss the consequences of abortion and not practicing abstinence. While the center doesn't do adoptions, it does offer adoption counseling.

"We give them the options and they make the decisions," Keeling said.

The center also tries to get fathers involved. Keeling said fathers learn about the responsibilities of parenting and the influence they can have on their children.

LifeBeat has been housed in a church-owned building in Wynnburg since it started several years ago. Keeling said she appreciated the opportunity to use the building, but she now believes something more modern - and with temperature controls - will be more attractive to clients and volunteers. Besides, she said, the new location will be more accessible to Tiptonville residents.

The new center will have a lobby, reception area, two counseling rooms, a conference room and adjacent employee break room, offices, a childbirth classroom, an education room and a "baby" room. The baby room will contain items parents may purchase with their accumulated points. The childbirth classroom will eventually be used to do ultrasound procedures.

In the education room, Keeling said she hopes to provide a GED program to help parents earn high school equivalency diplomas. LifeBeat has previously provided GED classes in conjunction with a Dyersburg program. That ended when the Dyersburg program lost its funding. Keeling said she's now working with Even Start and hopes to receive funding through that program.

The LifeBeat Family Resource Center will be open four days a week during the summer, offing healing for the past, help for the present and hope for the future. For more information, call Dee Keeling at (731) 253-7222.