State Representative Peter Breen will be honored with the Caritas Award at this year’s 8th-annual Rise and Dine Benefit Breakfast by Project Love, the charitable division of Illinois Citizens for Life, on Sunday, April 10, at 11 a.m., at the Hilton Hotel, 3003 Corporate West Drive, in Lisle.
Project Love is celebrating 20 years of providing support to pregnant women and new mothers in a financial crisis as a not-for-profit charitable outreach of Illinois Citizens for Life Trust, based in Downers Grove. Since 1996, it has given over 1250 grants to families in desperate circumstances to help pay for rent, utility bills and other necessities.
The mothers are referred to Project Love by pregnancy assistance centers all over the state of Illinois, and if her application for a grant is approved, the funds are sent directly to her creditor. The Caritas Award for an organization will go to Woman’s Choice Services, one of the pregnancy assistance centers that help young women and their babies in countless ways. All of the funding for the grants comes from charitable donations.
The day will include a bountiful breakfast, a silent auction and the presentation of the two Caritas Awards. Tickets for the breakfast are $40, and reservations are required. A copy of the invitation may be found on the ICL website: www.icl-life.com. You can print it out and mail your reservation to Project Love at the ICL Office, 5021 Fairview Avenue, Downers Grove, IL 60515, or you may call Eileen at 630-963-8039 or the ICL office at 630-852-5448 to make a phone reservation by April 5.
Peter Breen was fresh out of Notre Dame, with his newly minted law degree, when he started promoting Project Gabriel ministry in the Western suburbs around 2005. With his empathy for women who were feeling alone, abandoned, scared or pressured he was the natural choice to head up the new Woman’s Choice Services center that was founded in 2005 as a concrete response to the need in our community for real options and true choices.
The mission of WCS is to provide outreach, counseling and referrals to create a culture where no pregnant woman will feel forced to have an abortion, to provide support for those women who decide to have their babies and to help in healing for those who have been personally impacted by abortion.
The parishioners of Sacred Heart Parish in Lombard and St. Isidore Parish in Bloomingdale were very instrumental in getting the young organization off the ground. And of course Father Thomas Milota and Father David Lawrence were invaluable. As well as Father Peter Jarosz and Father Dan Hoehn.
Peter has come a long way since those early days, serving as a trustee and temporary mayor of Lombard and now as a state representative in the 48th District. He is also a busy attorney with the Thomas More Society, helping to right the wrongs in society. He is working hard to defend David Daleiden, who was indicted in Texas for the Planned Parenthood videos which revealed the sale of baby body parts. Come and help to honor these very fitting awardees!