A New Home for Hope: Ashland Pregnancy Care Center Celebrates Grand Opening and Transformational $500,000 Gift
ASHLAND, Ohio — Beneath an overflowing tent filled with supporters, volunteers, community leaders and longtime friends of the ministry, the Ashland Pregnancy Care Center celebrated a milestone 45 years in the making Friday: the grand opening of its new 12,800-square-foot home at 2111 Claremont Ave.
The celebration was already filled with emotion, gratitude and excitement, but then came an announcement that stunned the crowd.
Bob and Jan Archer presented the center with a $500,000 legacy gift, a transformational contribution intended to help the organization prepare and equip families for the challenges and joys of parenthood.
The announcement drew enthusiastic applause and added another unforgettable chapter to a day centered on faith, life, hope and a community determined to care for families.
“We all just want Ashland to thrive and survive because it’s a great community,” Bob Archer said. “It’s safe, and we love it. We love to be here.”
From a Classroom to a 12,800-Square-Foot Home
Ashland Pregnancy Care Center Executive Director Melanie Miller welcomed the crowd to what she described as a “glorious and exciting day.”
Miller, now in her 11th year leading the ministry, said the center’s story began 45 years ago in a single classroom inside Andrews Hall at what was then Ashland College, now Ashland University.
Over the decades, its work continued in several locations, including a small house of less than 1,700 square feet on Sloan Avenue. Parts of the ministry were also housed by Ashland Emmanuel Church and Compassion Church.
For years, the organization operated with its services divided among separate locations. Friday’s grand opening marked the fulfillment of a longtime dream to bring the ministry together under one roof.
“Long before I was ever the director, the leadership believed that one day our ministry would be united under one roof,” Miller said.
She credited the former directors, board members, staff members and volunteers who carried that vision forward, including volunteers who worked until nearly midnight during the week leading up to the grand opening.
“This center has moved from a small facility of less than 1,700 square feet … to our new home, which is now 12,800 square feet,” Miller told the crowd. “It’s amazing. But today is not about square footage. It’s about what God is going to allow us to do inside of these walls.”
The expanded facility will give the center significantly more space to serve women facing unexpected pregnancies while also mentoring mothers and fathers and helping families meet practical needs.
Services discussed during Friday’s program included pregnancy testing, medical assessments, ultrasounds, options education and connections to health care and community resources.
The building also includes room for parenting education and practical family training. Miller said families will be able to learn about subjects including healthy cooking, infant CPR, first aid, breastfeeding, labor and delivery.
The center’s leaders hope the larger facility will allow the ministry to reach more people while ensuring that everyone who enters is treated with compassion.
“We’re able to meet more practical needs and remind every person who comes through our doors that his or her life has value and purpose,” Miller said.
Medical Director Dr. Deborah Cowen said the additional space also creates opportunities to expand the center’s medical clinic.
The center is seeking medically trained volunteers, including licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and others who may be interested in receiving ultrasound training.
Cowen said future goals include offering clinics multiple afternoons each week and potentially expanding services related to sexually transmitted infections. Such an expansion, she said, will require properly licensed and trained medical personnel.
“We don’t know exactly what this clinic will become yet,” Cowen said. “But we do have a lot of opportunities for people with medical training.”
She encouraged medical professionals, and community members who know someone who may be a good fit, to contact the center.
The story behind the new facility is itself one of extraordinary generosity.
Miller recognized Dick Beal for believing in the center’s potential and helping open the door to the building project. She recalled an earlier ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center’s 4D ultrasound equipment, when as many as 100 people squeezed into the small Sloan Avenue house.
“You need a bigger building,” Beal told her at the time.
Through Beal’s leadership and the support of Mona Campbell and the Samaritan Hospital Foundation board, the Claremont Avenue building, valued at approximately $1.1 million—was transferred to the Ashland Pregnancy Care Center at no cost.
“That very generous gift gave us a building,” Miller said. “Then our community helped turn this into a home.”
At the building’s dedication more than a year ago, the Gottfried family stepped forward with the first lead contribution of $100,000 to help begin construction.
Foundations, churches, businesses and individuals followed with financial gifts, donated materials, professional services, prayers and countless hours of work.
Beal was quick to share the credit with the foundation board and those who have supported charitable organizations throughout Ashland.
“It’s the donors that really make this happen,” Beal said. “I just want to end by saying, ‘Thank you, Lord, for this facility.’”
Archers Invest in Families and the Future
The $500,000 gift from Bob and Jan Archer will support the center’s continuing mission and its vision for a training and community room where parents can build skills and confidence.
Miller described the Archers as a couple well known throughout Ashland for investing in young people, families and organizations that strengthen the community.
“They believe the best is yet to come and that, if people know their purpose, anything is possible,” Miller said. “I thank you for making this possible for the families that we will serve in this community and surrounding area.”
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller also thanked the Archers, noting that Ashland University had honored the couple a day earlier by renaming Jefferson Street “Archer Way” in recognition of their generosity to the university.
The mayor reflected on Bob Archer’s familiar statement: “We like to support winners.”
But winning, the mayor said, is not limited to earning medals, money or fame.
“A winner is someone who gets out of bed in the morning and works hard to make themselves better,” Mayor Miller said. “A winner is someone who gets out of bed in the morning and works to not only make themselves better, but those around them better.”
He told those gathered that their donations, encouragement and volunteer service had made Ashland stronger throughout the center’s more than four decades of ministry.
“It’s pretty incredible, Bob, how many winners we have in this great community,” the mayor said.
Among the celebration’s most heartfelt moments came when Melanie Miller shared a recent encounter with a former client.
Miller said the woman approached her during another community event. The woman’s young son wrapped his arms around Miller as his mother described the impact the Pregnancy Care Center had made on both of their lives.
The boy, now 6 years old, had recently made a profession of faith and had been baptized.
According to Miller, the mother credited the center’s willingness to love her, pray with her and treat her without discrimination or judgment.
The story served as a powerful reminder that the center’s work is not measured by the size of a building, but by the people whose lives are touched inside it.
“That is what we’re doing,” Miller said. “We’re hoping that we not only are saving lives literally, but we hope that there are more lives saved for eternity through this ministry.”
Following a countdown of “five, four, three, two, one,” center representatives, board members, supporters and donors cut the ribbon and officially opened the new facility.
Ashland City Council members Dan Lawson, Angela Woodward and Dennis Miller attended, along with Ashland County Commissioner Jim Justice and Ohio Rep. Thaddeus Claggett.
Representatives of state and federal officials presented commendations recognizing the center and its work.
Mark Everhart presented certificates from the Ohio House, Ohio Senate and the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor. Caleb Stidham offered congratulations on behalf of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, while Rachel Schaefer presented recognition on behalf of U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.
Renee Osborne, representing the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce, presented the center with a certificate of recognition and thanked its staff and volunteers for supporting local women, men and families.
The center also thanked Simonson Construction and its team, along with BCU Electric and other contractors and vendors who helped transform the facility.
Following the ceremony, visitors were invited inside for guided tours, food, commemorative cookies and frozen custard donated by Culver’s.
“A House That Will Bring Life Into Our Community”
Pastor Kevin McClain of Trinity Lutheran Church opened and closed the program in prayer, dedicating the building and the work that will take place there.
“This place, Lord, is special and dear to you and to us,” McClain prayed. “For it is a house that will bring life into our community. It will be a reflection of your love.”
For Miller and the center’s supporters, Friday was more than a ribbon cutting. It was the culmination of decades of prayer, work and generosity, and the beginning of a new era of service.
The Ashland Pregnancy Care Center’s new home represents more than bricks, walls and additional space. To those who gathered Friday, it is a place where frightened parents can find reassurance, where mothers and fathers can gain the skills they need, where practical help is offered without judgment and where every person who walks through the doors will be reminded that their life has purpose.
After 45 years of serving Ashland, the center’s doors are now open wider than ever, and its leaders believe the best chapters of its story are still waiting to be written.
Miller Receives Midwifery Advocacy Award
Following the grand-opening ceremony, the celebration continued as Jerry McCoy, representing Community Midwives of Ohio, presented Melanie Miller with the organization’s Midwifery Advocacy Award.
McCoy praised Miller for combining her leadership at the Ashland Pregnancy Care Center with her legislative work in Columbus to support Ohio families and expand recognition of midwifery care.
“We are so excited to be partnered with you on the midwifery bill,” McCoy said. “Not only are you doing boots-on-the-ground work in Columbus, trying to build something for Ohio families there, but you’re out in your own community doing the same thing.”
McCoy said the organization was grateful for Miller’s willingness to put her faith into action through both public service and community ministry.
“We couldn’t do what we do without people like you doing what you do,” McCoy said while presenting the award. “We are so grateful.”
Miller said she was honored to stand alongside midwives and advocate for the important care they provide to mothers and babies across Ohio.
“As moms are expecting and getting ready to deliver, they should have choices,” Miller said. “Midwives are experts in labor and delivery in many instances.”
The issue also carries a deeply personal connection for Miller. Through her involvement with the midwifery legislation, she learned more about her own family’s history.
“My great-grandmother and my grandmother were midwives in Hungary, where my family is from,” Miller said. “This process has made this bill even more special for me on a personal level.”
Miller thanked Community Midwives of Ohio for working to ensure women receive safe, compassionate care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.
“We appreciate the work you do to make sure that women are safe, that they’re cared for and that their babies are healthy,” Miller said. “Thank you for this incredible honor.”
The award provided one more meaningful moment during a day already overflowing with gratitude, recognizing Miller not only for the work taking place inside the Ashland Pregnancy Care Center’s new home, but also for her efforts to strengthen care for mothers, babies and families across Ohio.
