Carolyn’s Place Pregnancy Care Center to Mark Two Decades
of Helping Babies and Families at November 4th Celebration
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WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, September 28, 2012 – Carolyn’s Place, a pregnancy care center serving the Greater Waterbury region, will celebrate its 20th year of caring for babies and families at an anniversary dinner on Sunday, November 4 from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at La Bella Vista at Waterbury’s Pontelandolfo Club.

The anniversary celebration will also honor several individuals for their exceptional advocacy for life. The Most Reverend Daniel A. Cronin, S.T.D. Archbishop of Hartford from 1992 to 2003, will be presented with the Carolyn’s Place Ministry Award. This award was established to recognize individuals with a religious vocation who exemplify extraordinary commitment to protection of the sanctity of human life.

 Jim Vicevich, WTIC AM1080 radio host, will be honored with the Carolyn’s Place Maureen A. Donohoe Life Award. This award is given to an individual who represents life affirming values and actively promotes them in the general community. Maureen Anne Donohoe, daughter of Ray Donohoe and the late Jessie Donohoe, died in 1986 at the age of 20.  Despite having cerebral palsy, Maureen spent her short life courageously speaking out and writing in defense of the sanctity of human life Carolyn’s Place was founded in memory of Maureen Donohoe.

The Walter J. Williams Service Award will be presented to the original founding members of Carolyn’s Place, including: Fr. Robert Rousseau, Peter and Mary Arduino, Ellen Cavallo, Raymond Donohoe, Marge Fisher, Barbara Fydenkevez, Maria Mancini, Mary Moynihan, and Clare Townsend Keating. This Service Award is given to an individual who has provided outstanding volunteer service to the Carolyn’s Place ministry in memory of Walter J. Williams. Walter served on our Board of Directors from 2000 until his death Feb. 8, 2009. As a lawyer, Walter provided invaluable legal advice to us while organizing fundraisers for Carolyn’s Place, a pro-life group and a monthly pro-life rosary at his parish- St. Teresa, Woodbury

The five-course dinner celebration will be emceed by WATR radio host Ed Flynn and will feature live jazz music by Gomez & Sadlon and a silent auction featuring items including a two-night getaway to Boston, Yankee tickets, wine baskets, a Waterford Crystal basket, and much more.  

All funds raised will help the non-profit 501(c) (3) center continue its work of “empowering individuals through education, comfort and assistance to make life choices related to their sexuality and child-bearing that are consistent with the sanctity of human life.”

The cost per person is $50. Reservations for the dinner are required. For tickets or for more information, please contact Ginny Baudinet at (203) 597-9080 or e-mail staff@carolynsplace.net

Event sponsors (to-date) include: Diamond level: TD Bank; Gold level: Sullivan Brothers Remodeling; Silver level - Prospect Veterinary Hospital, Watertown Knights of Columbus St. Pius X Council #3594; and Maureen E. Williams in memory of Walter J. Williams; Bronze level: Waterbury Swiss Automatics, Prospect Boarding and Grooming, United Auto Sales and Services and Main Street Financial Group, LLC.

The November 4th event will also commemorate the 21st birthday of Carolyn Marie, for whom Carolyn’s Place is named.

On November 4, 1991, Fr. Rousseau, then pastor at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Watertown, discovered a three-hour-old baby girl, left in a box in the entryway of the church. Born on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, Father named her Carolyn. Father could scarcely imagine how afraid and alone the mother must have felt, but how courageous she was to choose life for her child and place her in a safe surrounding where she would be found.

Fr. Rousseau and a core group of parishioners formed a committee that worked and prayed. In the fall of 1992 the group opened the doors to Carolyn’s Place so that “no woman should face pregnancy alone.”  Baby Carolyn Marie was adopted confidentially but her legacy continues on in the more than one-thousand babies born through the center and countless other lives touched.

Since then, Carolyn’s Place has assisted mothers with the births of more than 1,000 babies; conducted nearly 1,200 education presentations to schools; logged over 166,000 hours on the 24-hour hotline; filled nearly 4,000 personal needs items requests; and taught nearly 200 mothers and fathers on child birth preparation and parenting skills.