What started as a youth abortion awareness demonstration has become a community project which involves church groups from Libby, Troy and the Yaak.

The project began with the Catholic high school youth group of Troy and Libby over a year ago. Organizer Teresa Purdy says “the group asked for pennies, something of little value to most people. It was not for money making, but to raise awareness.”

They had a goal of raising 88,208 pennies, a number indicative of the average monthly abortions performed in the United States in a month over the 2013-2014 period.

As the project snowballed and Libby Christian school, the Troy Baptist church and the Yaak Community church also began to collect pennies, the group had to decide how to spend the pennies plus donations which had poured in.

“The Pregnancy Care Center in Libby seemed like a good choice. Money from our community to bring assistance to our community” says Purdy.

The care center will use the $500 raised to assist couples who decide to embark on parenting despite the hurdles they may face.

“We’d like to thank the banks who helped us by counting the pennies” laughs Purdy “Lincoln County Credit Union and First Montana Bank have spent days counting our pennies.”