A new maternity home for Peel County, a large suburban area west of Toronto, is in the works, according to Mr. Paul Crawford, newly elected Ontario State Warden of the Knights of Columbus. It is a first-time-ever joint project of District 53, K. or C., under the direction of Len Abraham, District Deputy, and Barbara Bishop, chairperson of the 13 council Peel Region Catholic Women’s League.
All Grand Knights and Catholic Women’s League presidents in Peel have been contacted and the John F. Kennedy Council 5523, alone, has pledged $200,000 over a five-year period.
The new maternity home, as yet unnamed, is designed to answer the desperate need for facilities for pregnant women who do not want to leave the Peel area to have their babies. A maternity home in Peel (there isn’t one now) would provide an alternative to the pressure placed on expectant mothers to undergo abortions.
It is hoped that Catholic parishes in Peel will also take up the challenge to help finance this undertaking. Mr. Crawford said that it was brought to his attention by Birthright in Mississauga, which claimed that volunteers do not hear back from many pregnant women because they are too frightened to leave familiar surrounding, friends and family in the Peel area.
A site is being sought in Peel for a new facility with building expected to commence some time early in 1991. It was felt that the two largest Catholic lay organizations in the world should be able to pull this off jointly, said Crawford, but they won’t be able to if they don’t succeed to getting the cooperation of everybody involved. A fund raising event for the new maternity home will be held Saturday, November 10 at Sts. Martha and Mary Church half in Mississauga. For further information call 270-0179 or 823-4220.
