Sav-a-Life Director Jane Ward updated the Troy Exchange Club Thursday on the pregnancy center’s status after an expansion in 2018.

“We were able to raise $200,000 last year through our fundraiser, grants and donations,” Ward said. “We held three fundraisers last year including our annual dinner auction, our Baby Bottle Boomerang and the Siran Stacy event.”

Ward said the support of people in the community helped to put the center in position to complete a $98,000 renovation to the center’s existing location including  a new building to house educational programs and a new medical space, where the center began providing limited obstetric ultrasounds for the first time ever.

“We have performed 40 sonograms so far, or about 10 per week,” said Carleigh Lyons, an intern with the center. “We administered 420 pregnancy tests and 378 participated in our Family Life Education and Enrichment Cooperative (FLEEC).”

Ward said the center currently has 14 people on staff of which 11 are volunteers.

“They offer 560 to 800 free hours for us,” Ward said. “They are so valuable to us.”

Volunteer nurse Mallory Hamilton, who works as an RN at the emergency room at TRMC, said working with the center’s new medical wing has been an amazing experience.

“We get to show these women their babies, their heart beats,” Hamilton said. “It’s amazing. Seeing a little line is not the same as seeing a little baby.”

Interns Brittany Rowe and Belle Waldrop also spoke to the Exchange Club about the center’s services.