HeartReach opens doors on sharp new facility

WASILLA — HeartReach Center is a business name that’s not terribly descript.

At it’s core, it remains a pregnancy crisis center aimed at steering women away from having abortions, but once inside the magnificent two-story structure where the center celebrated its grand opening Friday evening, the word ‘crisis’ seems miles away and years ago.

Staffed with professionals and volunteers providing counseling and mentoring on parenting skills and labor delivery, along with the medical services of free pregnancy testing and an ultrasound machine on site, the cozy, yet modern facility does its best to dispatch with any of the guilt or shame that might accompany a ‘crisis pregnancy.’

And yet, HeartReach executive director Joyce Moropoulos said it shouldn’t be forgotten that many women in such a situation are indeed in crisis.

“If you don’t have a man that will support you, it is a crisis,” she said, adding that the mean age of the center’s clients is 23-25. “If they don’t have someone who will support them in this decision to carry, sometimes they will abort. That’s the No. 1 reason they will abort, when the man won’t walk beside them.”

Moropoulos said HeartReach, one of 10 pregnancy centers in Alaska under the umbrella of Care Net and HeartReach International, partners with Catholic Social Services and several other adoption agencies to help accommodate some of the more than 2,000 clients to come through the doors each year.

Moropoulos said that number is bound to increase now that the center has moved to its new location, across from Sears on Seward Meridian Parkway, from its old location, which she described as essentially a house on Leatherleaf Loop off Bogard Road.

“Heart Reach had impacted the community in such a big way, we were actively looking for pieces of land and property,” Moropoulos said. “Not having any money, we were hoping and praying.”

With the donation of $250,000 from an individual who wished to remain private, as well as other grants from other groups, including the Rasmuson Foundation and the Mat-Su Valley Health Foundation, the center’s prayers were answered.

Moropoulos said one of the center’s most attractive features is it’s ‘parents bucks’ plan, which rewards mothers and fathers for performing well in the programs.

“It’s an earn while you learn program. Clients get points which translate into parent bucks,” she explained. “If you come to class on time, bringing your homework, having it done, reading to your child, doing well-baby check-ups, you get parent bucks — they look like Monopoly money.”

Inside the market, parents can use those bucks to buy clothes for children up to age 5, and receive free diapers and free quilts for newborns, stitched by the Valley Quilting Guild.

Moropoulos said that soon the center will begin offering free testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, too.

“The center has really been impacting the valley for years and in an even greater way now,” she said. “We’ll be able to reach more people with the growth of our medical center and STD testing treatment, which is a huge issue in the Valley.”