WASHINGTON, D.C., February 1, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and inspiring a new younger generation to take up the mantle of pro-life leadership. That was the message from the January 22 Life Prizes awards, which split $600,000 among six recipients in order to recognize their contributions to the pro-life cause and give them a financial boost to their work.
LSN’s coverage on the event can be found here, but here is a brief photo journal of that night and some of the people there.
Photo 1: Dr. Alveda King (right) and her mother (left). King is the niece of slain US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, jr. King said her own journey to advocating civil rights for the unborn did not begin from a pro-life position – she had two abortions early in her life. Now, as a Christian pro-life minister, she says that she like her uncle Martin also has “a vision” that abortion will be ended in her lifetime.
Photo 2: Meet the Schindlers: Bobby Schindler (right) and his sister Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo (left) showing the award given to the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network at a private party after the Life Prizes ceremony. The funds from the Life Prizes award will go to help the Network in its anti-euthanasia education efforts and aid to families trying to protect vulnerable loved ones from euthanasia.
Photo 3: Jeanne Head at her acceptance speech for the Life Prizes Award: Part of Head’s work has been to outwit the UN wordsmiths trying to craft ambiguous language that threaten legal protections on the right to life. Head was also instrumental in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which prevents denying health care, services, or food and fluids based on account of disability, among signer nations.
Photo 4: Two Life Prizes Awardees stand together: Marie Smith (left) and Jeanne Head (right). Smith is founder and director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, an organization that helped alert the public about Kenya’s pro-abortion constitution and the pro-abortion NGOs working behind it. Head is the UN representative for the International Right to Life Federation and National Right to Life Committee, whose work has centered on thwarting efforts to make abortion an international human right.
Photo 5: Kristan Hawkins, a pro-life advocate since 15, and at 25 years old, the driving force behind Students for Life of America. SFLA is the largest student pro-life organization in the world with nearly 600 campus chapters. Hawkins, who lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia with her husband, Jonathan, and two young sons, Gunner and Bear, told the audience that the pro-life fight is more personal to her now than ever since she found out that babies diagnosed with cystic fibrosis like her son Gunner are aborted just as much as Downs syndrome babies on account of their disability – well over 90 percent.
Photo 6: A snapshot of the ballroom in the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where more than 500 invited guests attended the 2nd Life Prizes Awards ceremony.
Photo 7: A marriage made in right-to-life: US Rep. Chris Smith (center) stands next to his wife Marie (right), as she gives her acceptance speech at the ceremony. Marie said that she wanted to “recognize and thank the person who first invited me to get involved in the pro-life movement 36 years ago, when we were both college students, a truly remarkable and incredibly humble man, who has been in the forefront of so many pro-life struggles, and whom I am proud to call my husband, Chris Smith.”
Marie then encouraged young people to consider a career in government, to run for public office, and to “work from within” and to “build a government that cares for all lives, regardless of whether they are planned, perfect, or privileged.”
At far left, in red, is Master of Ceremonies, Laura Ingraham, who has a nationally syndicated radio talk show program and is a Fox News contributor.
Photo 8: Christian pop band BarlowGirl provided a live musical performance between the first and second halves of the award ceremony.
As part of the pro-life theme, BarlowGirl music video “Beautiful Ending” was also seen by the Life Prizes audience.
