MADISON — Our Lady of Hope Clinic and the Women’s Care Center are partnering in a Celebration of Life with a benefit dinner for both organizations to be held on Friday, April 1, at the Madison Concourse Hotel.
The benefit, now in its third year, will begin with cocktails at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and a program featuring keynote speaker Steve Karlen, the North American outreach director for 40 Days for Life. The event will celebrate the work both organizations have done to build a Culture of Life in Dane County.
Our Lady of Hope Clinic
Our Lady of Hope Clinic, which will be celebrating its seventh anniversary this spring, is Dane County’s only 100 percent pro-life primary care clinic. The clinic also provides free primary medical care to the uninsured.
Dr. Michael Kloess, Our Lady of Hope Clinic’s attending physician, is a family practitioner treating the entire family for a full range of primary care. Dr. Kloess also consults in Natural Family Planning and has helped many couples who have struggled with infertility conceive children by using NaPro Technology.
Dr. Kloess practices medicine consistent with the Catholic healthcare tradition and will not prescribe or refer for contraception, abortion, sterilization, or euthanasia. Dr. Kloess explained his commitment to women’s health by stating, “At Our Lady of Hope Clinic, we celebrate life and families. We have established a clinic where the family feels safe and respected. I feel blessed to be able to help couples grow their families through safe, ethical, and medically sound methods that seek to discover the root of infertility, rather than masking the medical issues as chemical contraception does.”
Dr. Kloess is also the medical advisor at Madison’s Women’s Care Center.
Women’s Care Center
The Women’s Care Center supports women facing unplanned pregnancies. It provides free medical grade pregnancy testing and free ultrasounds to pregnant women. The Center also offers prenatal and healthy relationship counseling, along with community resources.
Greg Wagner, president of the Women’s Care Center, is thankful “in the four years we have been open, we can see how generous God has been in blessing our efforts. He has provided a staff that is gentle, compassionate, and loving, that has helped many families. Many babies are now enjoying life that without our clinic would not have had that opportunity.”
In addition to free client services, the Women’s Care Center in 2015 alone has helped over 500 young mothers with material assistance. Kila Hagie, director of the Women’s Care Center, acknowledged that “babies will sleep safely in their new cribs, ride securely in their new car seats, and stay warm with their new clothes and blankets.”
Supported by community
Both Our Lady of Hope Clinic and Women’s Care Center are nonprofit organizations supported by community donations. Since both organizations are dedicated to celebrating life — from conception through the end of natural life — a joint event to a benefit both organizations seemed to be a natural fit.
A Celebration of Life will feature a speech by guest Molly Ries. Ries is a certified nurse midwife at the Reedsburg Area Medical Center and has seen, first hand, how both organizations are committed to growing happy, healthy families.
Keynote speaker Steve Karlen travels to cities in the United States and Canada to support local 40 Days for Life efforts. He previously led local 40 Days for Life campaigns in Madison.
In 2009 and 2010, he helped lead a volunteer effort that was organized to prevent the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics from opening a late-term abortion center near the campus in Madison. After a grueling 16-month campaign, the university health system canceled its abortion plans, later citing the work of Karlen and his team as the reason for making that decision.
For more information about a Celebration of Life or to receive an invitation, visit www.celebratelifemadison.org or contact Julie Jensen at 608-957-1137 or [email protected]