Bristol Palin to speak in Louisville on behalf of home for single mothers By Peter Smith • psmith@courier-journal.com • August 22, 2010
Bristol Palin — the teen mother whose turbulent relationship with her son's father has added a soap-opera subplot to her mother Sarah’s political career — will speak Sept. 8 on behalf of a home for single mothers in Louisville.
Palin, 19, will receive $14,000 to speak at a benefit at the Louisville Marriot Downtown on behalf of the Lifehouse, which was founded in 2007 and has operated in a brick house on Riedling Drive, a quiet street off Zorn Avenue.
The $125-per-person benefit will raise funds toward plans to double the home's capacity, but it's also intended to bring publicity to the program after its low-key startup, executive director Joan Smith said.
“We needed the community to know that we're here,” Smith said. Until recently, “everything we've done has been by word of mouth,” she said.
To date, women staying at the program have given birth to 17 babies. Two of the mothers gave up their children for adoption, and the rest chose to raise them. Some of the clients leave the program while still pregnant, she said.
The non-denominational Christian program provides women with shelter, health care, counseling, classes in taking care of themselves and their children and aid toward their education.
“I’m one who believes if we're going to say, ‘Don't abort your baby,’ you have to offer alternatives,” said Smith, a registered nurse.
A team of volunteers has done everything to enovating the former four-unit house into a single-family residence so that the women can share meals, chores and other household life, she said. They also receive professional medical care.
She spoke in an interview with program director Sondra Warren in the basement office of the home, whose walls are adorned with Bible verses, paintings of the babies and an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Bibles share shelf space with the pregnancy bible, "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Cribs, play centers, baby gates and other staples of infant care serve as reminders of the home’s mission.
Smith said Bristol Palin, who has become a speaker advocating sexual abstinence before marriage, is relatively inexpensive compared to other speakers the group considered, such as conservative talk-radio host Laura Ingraham.