April 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – If you spot a group of young people this week playing tug of war with an invisible rope, diving into a waist-deep pool of packing peanuts, or wielding a battle axe and a lightsaber at the same time, don’t worry – at least, as long as they’re wearing pro-life T-shirts.
Thousands across America are pulling out the stops this week as they scramble to complete a contest sponsored by the American Life League offering prizes to the pro-lifer with the most photos of him or herself performing sometimes simple, sometimes crazy tasks while showing off their pro-life beliefs, ending with the National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week (NPLTW) this week.
The contest was officially launched a month ago, and ALL says that over 2,500 photos have already been sent in. Those who gather the most points (each task’s point value varies) will win a free iPad 2, and runners-up will get an iPod Touch or an iPod Shuffle.
ALL states that NPLTW, during which pro-lifers are encouraged to wear their pro-life gear, “is organized with the intent to increase awareness of the personhood of the child in the womb and the tragedy of abortion.” They say the eccentric photo contest that accompanies it “is designed to get as many people wearing a pro-life shirt out into the public arena to more effectively show how prevalent pro-life sentiments are.”
ALL Vice President of Operations Tom Mon told LifeSiteNews.com that the rules had changed this year to help groups of pro-lifers do tasks together. “We listened to what people were telling us last year,” he said. He said the goal this year was to get at least 8,000 photos: double last year’s amount, which was itself double the amount sent in for the previous year’s contest.
Mon also pointed out that a large majority of the contestants so far are female, about 80 percent, and an even large percentage were youth: a testimony to the pro-life demographic strongly backed by the young women who make up a large portion of the March for Life each year in Washington, D.C.
Asked for his favorite task, Mon pointed to a picture ALL tweeted today showing a pro-lifer fulfilling task #288: “Wearing a red or black cape and running across a field so the cape is fluttering behind you.”
“They’re getting really creative with this, and they’re having a lot of fun with it,” he said. “You can tell that over time, these kids are smiling more as they load photos.”
One new task Mon called “very thematic of what’s going on today” is to hold a sign with the word “defund” next to a Planned Parenthood building to form the words “defund Planned Parenthood” with the clinic’s own sign. “We’ve already had six or seven people upload that one,” he said.
But the going may get tough for some: ALL warns on the NPLTW site that being harassed or discriminated against for wearing a pro-life t-shirt “isn’t new,” and offers a page to help young pro-lifers defend their freedom of speech. In 2009, the mother of a seventh-grade girl in California sued school administrators after they forced her daughter to remove her pro-life t-shirt.
Click here for more on National Pro-Life T-Shirt Week and contest rules. ALL is also regularly posting updates and new pictures from the contest on Twitter.