Baby Bottle Boomerang fundraiser benefits Open Door

By Sam Waller

Area churches are participating in the Open Door Pregnancy and Family Resource Center current fundraiser.

Baby Bottle Boomerang is an annual fundraiser during which baby bottles are distributed to area residents to be filled with coins, bills, or checks which will be donated to the Open Door. The program concludes on Sunday, Feb. 20.

Breckenridge Open Door center director Marlina Cowan said churches in Albany, Breckenridge, and Cisco are participating in this year’s fundraiser.

“We have several of the churches in Albany participating,” Cowan said. “Anybody who wants to is welcome to contribute.”

Baby Bottle Boomerang is one of two major fundraising projects Open Door conducts each year.

“We are a nonprofit, faith-based organization,” Cowan said. “Eighty-five percent of our funding come from these events, – Baby Bottle Boomerang and our annual banquet in October. We have a lot of donors who love us and promote us and want to keep us going.”

Cowan said Open Door aims to help the entire family structure – men, women and children.

“The point is we want to promote life, promote mothering, promote fathering, promote raising a family,” she said. “That’s our ministry.”

Among the prenatal care offered is free ultrasounds for women.

“We have a mobile unit that goes out to all of our surrounding area  Albany, Abilene, Throckmorton, Woodson, down to Brownwood, Mineral Wells, all the smaller towns around here,” Cowan said. “They try to go every month to help the pregnancy resource centers there conduct ultrasounds for women. We have on staff four registered nurses who are trained in sonography so they can do those for the women.”

Cowan said Open Door also offers educational services.

“We educate women on what’s about to happen with their babies and having babies through labor and delivery classes and parenting classes,” she said.

Other classes offered range from cooking to ESL.

“The women get together for fellowship and learn that they’re not in this thing alone,” Cowan said. “We promote life that way. The main thing about Baby Bottle Boomerang when it hits the churches is that it stresses the sanctity of life.”

Contributions may be made at one of several Baby Bottle Boomerang displays in area businesses and churches.

“If people see one of the larger bottles that say Open Door in a store, they can feel free to write a check or put money in there,” Cowan said. “People can also send donations to either of our locations. If a church is participating, take one of those little baby bottles we give the churches home, fill it up, and take it back next Sunday.”

For more information about the Open Door and the services provided, contact the Breckenridge location at 254-559-4045 or the Cisco location at 254-442-3000, or stop by when the bus is parked in Albany.