CONWAY — Life Choices, a pregnancy-resource center in Conway, finally has a new location after a capital campaign was announced in 2014 to build a facility.
“Finding the right property is what took so long,” Executive Director Maria Speer said last week.
The 2,000-square-foot former home at 1330 S. Donaghey Ave. will be remodeled and undergo a 1,400-square-foot addition. The estimated cost of the project is $600,000, which includes the purchase price of the house and 1 acre, Speer said.
“We began the search [in 2014], but it was this past summer when we found this property and began to work with the homeowner,” she said.
Speer said that during the past few months, plans were drawn by architect Joanna Nabholz, those plans were approved, and the property was rezoned by the city.
“We just had a lot of steps [to go through],” she said.
“This location answered so many prayers,” she said. The original fundraising estimate was $1.25 million, “but that was when we thought we were going to have to buy land and build.”
The existing house will be remodeled.
“We’re not significantly moving any walls,” she said. The renovation will consist of gutting the interior of the home and replacing flooring, doors, scraping the “popcorn” ceilings and replacing paneling with drywall, Speer said.
The addition will bring the total square footage to 3,400 square feet to house Life Choices’ programs and administrative offices. The program primarily serves Faulkner and Van Buren counties.
Speer said as much volunteer labor and services will be used as possible, which could impact the estimated seven- to ninth-month construction time frame.
However, Speer said Ray Nabholz, construction manager, is still confident the work can be completed within seven to nine months.
“We are saying by the end of the year that we will be in,” she said.
Speer said the location achieves a goal of being close to the University of Central Arkansas, which is on Donaghey Avenue, too. Speer said most women who seek services at Life Choices are 20 to 24 years old, followed by 15- to 19-year-olds.
“Being just a couple of blocks off Dave Ward Drive, we feel like we are in that circle where we wanted to be. We hope women from all walks of life will come [to Life Choices], but UCA has such a large proportion of our demographics.”
She said the way social media is today, young women “are going to look us up on their phone, and we’re going to be less than a mile from them; that’s huge for us.”
Speer said 440 women in 2016 visited Life Choices “for pregnancy tests, limited ultrasounds, as well as our parenting program. Those are the primary ones. All our services are free.”
Josh Sims, chairman of the Life Choices Board of Directors, agreed that the Donaghey Avenue location is perfect.
“I love it; it’s right were we need to be. We’re close to UCA; it really fits the demographic we need to reach,” Sims said.
He said when the capital campaign was announced in 2014 that Life Choices needed “a forever home.”
“This is it; we’re going to completely remodel that thing; it won’t look anything like it does right now,” Sims said. “It’s definitely a forever home.”
The 37-year-old faith-based nonprofit organization has a lease with Lifeword in a two-story former home at 609 Locust St., adjacent to Lifeword, an arm of the Baptist Missionary Association.
“They have been so wonderful and patient with us and excited for us about us getting our own facility,” Speer said. “That’s been a huge blessing.”
More than $120,000 has been raised for this project, with more than $50,000 pledged, Speer said.
“The majority of our funding comes from individuals, churches and businesses,” she said. “We get very little grant [money]; I’m talking $1,000 to $2,000 a year.”
The majority of Life Choices’ funding comes from the Change for Life Baby Bottle Campaign, in which 40-plus churches and organizations participate.
“We distribute baby bottles to the churches and other places — Conway Christian [School] does it, and St. Joseph [School] does it; their members fill them up with change, cash or checks, … and we deposit the money,” Speer said.
The last campaign raised $45,000, she said.
The other fundraiser is Light Up Life, the annual gala in the fall. This year, it’s scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Conway Expo Center.
“We’re constantly in fundraising mode,” Speer said.
For more information on this building project, call the Life Choices office at (501) 329-5944.
“We really want this to be something the community gets involved with and behind; it’s a community effort to get this done,” she said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.