Southeastern Students for Life gathered together for their third annual baby shower event, which raises awareness and donations for unexpected pregnancies. Despite the low turnout, they received eight donations which the organization was happy to receive and gift to mothers in need.
Southeastern Students for Life gathered for the event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 p.m. in the Student Union, room 227.
Hailey DeLaune, a psychology junior and President of Southeastern Students for Life, shared her dedication to this event and the importance it has to our campus.
“This is put on by the Southeastern Students for Life organization on campus,” said DeLaune. “Our goal for Southeastern Students for Life is to promote education on our campus about different pro-life issues. We try to educate our campus about the issues but also ourselves. At our meetings, we come together and try to learn as much as we can about it so we can tell other people. We also do service events like this baby shower for different crisis pregnancy center
 This organization is hopeful for the future of this event as their past success overshadows the low turnout this year has brought.
“We’ve been having this for three years, and it’s been very successful,” said DeLaune, “The first year we did it for the Northlake Crisis Pregnancy center, last year we did it for Women’s Life Ministries in Amite, and this year we did it for Restoration House in Hammond. We’ve always gotten a good turn out and a lot of donations. The crisis pregnancy centers love when we show up with all these gifts, and we see it as one of the most successful things we do.”
Restoration House centers focus on the scared women experiencing unexpected pregnancies. They provide pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling to women who may otherwise feel lost, scared and confused. Baby items and education resources are also provided to these expecting mothers in a free and confidential manner.
Allison Harrison, a communication science and disorders junior, expressed how the act of helping these mothers in a tangible way provides its own reward.
“I’ve been involved with this pro-life group for a couple years,” said Harrison.  “I love doing events like this because its something tangible, and you really get to see how you physically help those in need.”
The low turnout was unexpected in comparison to previous years as the baby shower had a legacy of fun, light-hearted games, as well as educational merit.
“Last year we had a really good turnout. We did activities like baby shower games,” said Harrison. “For example they melted candy bars into diapers, which looked really gross, and the people playing had to look at it and smell it to guess which candy bar it was. We also did one where everyone drank Hawaiian punch out of baby bottles to see who could do it the fastest. We did fun little things like that, and then a person from the crisis center came and talked about their program.”
Although this event has passed, it is never too late to donate to the Restoration House. Various baby items are needed such as clothing, bottles, bibs and formula. If interested in donating to the Restoration House, call 985-542-0492. To get involved with Southeastern Students for Life, contact [email protected].