The Pregnancy Center of Rome will host its 18th annual Friends for Life fundraising banquet today, where some of those helped through the organization will share their stories.

Click to see the Christian Counseling & Education Ministries Web site.

According to Yvonne Miller, the center’s director, the tables for tonight’s banquet — which will be at The Forum at 6:30 p.m. — are all sponsored and underwritten by various businesses and individuals, and people have been especially charitable this year.

“We’re completely full with sponsorships,” Miller said. “We’ve had as many as 850 people at the banquet some years, and we probably average around 500. We’re a Christian ministry, but we’re not affiliated with any denomi-nation and don’t receive any government funding. We’re completely supported by people in the community.”

Miller said the funds raised each year go to the center’s ministry, which provides free pregnancy tests, a clothes closet, and follow-up work to clients.

“We provide a lot of information to people, and we send them to other social service agencies that provide for their specific needs,” she said. “We’re not a medical facil-ity, but we can help refer them to the health department or physicians, and we encourage them to get good pre-natal medical care.”

Miller said people come to the center seeking help for a variety of things.

“All our clients have different needs, whether it is finding housing, paying for utilities, getting car seats, getting medical information or looking for the right agency to help them,” she said. “We also provide counseling, and when someone comes to us considering an abortion, our policy is not to tell them what to do because it’s their decision.

“We just want to get them information about all their options, and we make sure they have all the facts to make their decisions. We try to help educate them during their pregnancy.”

Miller said many people that come to the center go through with the pregnancy, but others still decide to have an abortion. Even then, she said, the center still offers counseling afterwards if they would like it.

“Being a pro-life ministry, we do hope peo-ple choose to have the babies, but our primary goal is to have all the information they need to decide,” she said. “Usually each year at the banquet, we have a client come speak who came to the center during their pregnancy, and they share their stories and ex-periences.

“That’s what’s so rewarding, hearing how we were able to help and seeing them bring their babies to show us.”

Tonight’s banquet will also feature Mike Williams, a comedian and author, and Miller said he presents an inspiring message through his humor and stories.

For complimentary tickets to the event, call the center at 706-235-6833, and for more information about the center, visit www.cceminc.com