The risk of death decreases by 71 percent when infants are strapped into car seats and 54 percent for toddlers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Junior Auxiliary of Vicksburg knows car seat use is important, and they recently donated 10 infant car seats to the Center for Pregnancy Choices’ baby bucks program, which allows parents to earn credits by attending their parenting classes and can be exchanged for items in their baby boutique.

Center for Pregnancy Choices Executive Director Stacy Tennison said the baby boutique is stocked with new and gently used items donated by members of our community.

“The car seat program is in tandem with our parenting classes,” she said. “When they’ve done 40 classes, and the classes could be anything depending on where they are in their stage of parenting, they’ve earned a new car seat.”

Some of the classes participants take include car seat safety, Tennison said.

“We have one couple coming, and they’re having twins,” she said. “Both the mother and the father of the babies are coming so they can earn two car seats.”

Tennison said the program has been going on for nearly two years, 40-50 women are currently enrolled, and about 20 car seats have been given away.

“We had a client who lost a child because of a lack of our car seat, and that’s why we started this program: so they have them to use, and they know how to use them,” she said.

Tennison said the organization is very appreciative of the Junior Auxiliary.

“I love how their main mission is to help children and families in our community,” she said. “I was very honored when they chose our organization to help out, especially with the car seats, because they’re something that can seem trivial, but they’re a big deal.”

Junior Auxiliary Fundraising Chairman Holly Porter said their main goal is to support the children of Vicksburg, which in the end is what the Center for Pregnancy Choices is doing.

“We’re strong supporters of CPC, and we wanted to help them in any way we could,” she said. “Stacy said they needed car seats, so that’s what we did.”

Porter said the project was part of Junior Auxiliary’s community outreach.

“We just try to touch different organizations in the community that we think could use some extra help,” she said.

Tennison said everything the Center for Pregnancy Choices does is provided through volunteers and community support and the organization is not government funded.

“The fact that we’re here functioning is due to our community supporters,” she said. “That comes in a lot of ways. Sometimes it’s financial, sometimes it’s time, and sometimes it’s talent.”

In addition to car seats, program participants can buy a variety of items from the baby boutique ranging from maternity items to necessities for toddlers.

“We have baby clothes, diapers, wipes, and sometimes we have things donated like strollers, cribs, and play pens,” she said. “We don’t necessarily stock toys, but we do have bottles, bibs, and blankets.”

The center also offers services including pregnancy testing, ultrasounds and post-abortion groups in addition to the parenting classes.

“We do parenting classes where we teach everything from first trimester to potty training and everything in between,” she said. “We teach labor and delivery, breastfeeding, all that fun stuff.”

All services provided are free and confidential, Tennison said.

The center held an open house Saturday at their new location, 1401 Adams St.

“We’re just giving our supporters an opportunity to walk through and see how things have changed,” she said. “We had the walk for life, and we also had the jump for life for kids, where people sponsor them for every minute they jump rope.”

For more information about the Center for Pregnancy Choices and their services, call 601-638-2778.