Friday, November 14, 2014

One Step



We had a wonderful guest speaker for the volunteers the other day. Her name is Bev Orrill and she works with the Chaffee County Health Department and their One Step program. She had some interesting facts in regards to smoking, tobacco, and a baby’s health. 
*A person who smokes usually comes from a smoking culture, meaning that everyone around them smokes also. 
*There are at least 7,000 chemicals in a cigarette and 70 of them are known to cause cancer. *Smoking is 10 times more addictive than heroin and cocaine so be patient and uplifting to those who want to quit. 
*Not your grandpa’s cigarette…It wasn’t until after WWI that they started to put nicotine in cigarettes because companies realized that only about 20% of those returning home were addicted. *When asked if he smoked, RJ Reynolds, owner of his own tobacco company made a rather nasty comment stating that he would never smoke his own product. 
**Smoking acts as a vasoconstrictor and it closes the arteries and veins for 20 minutes after smoking. If a woman is pregnant and she smokes half of a pack of cigarettes a day, then her baby is deprived of nutrients for 200 minutes on that day. 
**Small children take in more breaths than adults, so second hand smoke triples the effects of smoking on young ones. The One Step program encourages you to take on step… simply step outside to smoke. Use a smoking jacket or something that you can leave on the porch to put on and remove when smoking so that the effects on children, babies and pregnant women can be greatly reduced. 

There are many resources available for those who need it. Call 1-800-QUIT-NOW in Colorado. There is also a texting app if you don’t want to make contact with anyone at Quit Mobile. If you would like a more hands on approach, then start by contacting Bev Orrill at 719-221-9777 or 719-539-4510 in Salida, Colorado. By joining up with Bev you can earn gift certificates for gas and diapers when you go through the One Step program. Plus you can earn points for the Buena Vista Pregnancy Center’s Earn While You Learn program well. It’s a win-win for everyone!

Welcome!

If you have stumbled upon this blog, then welcome! This is for the Buena Vista Pregnancy Center in Buena Vista, Colorado.  We are a little town of roughly 2,600 people in the Arkansas River Valley.  I hope to tell you a little about the folks that volunteer at the Center, events that we do with the community and stories of joy within our walls.  But let me start by telling you a little about myself.  My name is Amy.  I came to know about the Center in 2008 when a friend of mine suggested that I join the Board of Directors.  To say that I did not feel equipped was an understatement.  I had never volunteered in that capacity before and had never been on a board before.  After some prayer and soul searching I couldn’t think of a better way for me to get involved.  I said yes and so began my journey with the Center.  The choice I made was truly life changing.  I have learned so much about hope, courage and what it takes to build a family these days.  Along the way, I even gained a new family of my own through all of the wonderful folks that are involved with the Center.  It is such a great feeling when you belong to a cause that extends beyond the lives of those immediately around you…when you can look out after some time and feel its reaches far beyond the limits of your life, your home, your city and that bubble you have created that holds your world in place.  As we begin to stretch our boundaries now comes another part of the journey.  With the creation of the internet we have an opportunity to let more people see our world at the Buena Vista Pregnancy Center.  We want to extend our reach as far as we can so that we can grow our community of family.  To achieve this, we have created a website http://www.bvpregnancycenter.com/ and a Facebook page (titled Buena Vista Pregnancy Center) and now this blog in order that you may get a chance to see us in our element, to hear from us on topics that we have learned about and to understand how our hearts beat for each and every human life on earth.  We look forward to getting to know you as well.  So please feel free to comment and share your journeys with us.  We can’t wait to get to know you!