Hats in the Garden offers tea and hope

Lucette Moramarco

Associate Editor

The staff of Hope Clinic for Women hoped to have 150 people attend their Hats in the Garden Tea, Oct. 16, at the Fallbrook Community Center. Instead, 250 registered for the fundraising event which featured 239 gift baskets and items in a silent auction, eight raffle items and a collection of vintage hats which were for sale with half the money going to HCW.

All the funds raised at the event are supporting the growing program needs at the clinic. Thirty-two babies were born to moms served by the clinic in 2020; 3,345 free services were provided at 950 client visits while volunteers served over 2,400 hours.

The tea itself included bacon swiss and broccoli cheddar quiche; mixed greens with pear, cranberry, walnut, feta and champagne vinaigrette; egg salad and cucumber dill sandwiches, as well as lemon lavender and cranberry orange scones along with Savvy Macarons and a choice of teas.

The highlight of the event was the talk given by guest speaker Lisa Dunckel who told about her own unexpected pregnancy 22 years ago. She and her husband already had three children and weren’t planning on having another one but decided to welcome one more.

However, her 21-week prenatal visit revealed more unexpected news; their baby girl had anencephaly, a defect in the formation of a baby's neural tube during development that causes an underdeveloped brain and an incomplete skull. They were told she would only survive a few hours at most after birth. Despite a lot of tears, “the Lord carried us through this whole time...God’s grace can get us through anything,” Dunckel said.

They named their baby Grace. When the doctor offered them the option of inducing an early delivery, she couldn’t do it. “Our baby girl is moving, flip flops, kicking, hiccuping; there was no option, we would carry to full term...it’s her time to live,” she explained.

Eventually, they had to pick a date for Grace’s delivery; at 36 weeks, she was born Dec. 6, 1999. Their three older children were there to hold their baby sister and they took pictures with her. Later, the Dunckels had a funeral service as much for their family and friends who had supported them for four months as for themselves. It was standing room only in the church; “We take solace that she is in God’s hands,” Dunckel said.

Originally started about 20 years ago as the Fallbrook Pregnancy Resource Center, HCW Executive Director Carolyn Koole said it is now a primary care medical clinic. They have seen a lot of pregnancy loss this year and now offer the abortion pill reversal drug to offer hope. “We offer ourselves as a circle of protection and love in a safe place,” Koole said.

The clinic is only open two days a week as they don’t have the funding to be open more, (Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 125 E. Hawthorne St.). “We want to be open five days because Planned Parenthood is open six days a week and we are an alternative; it breaks our heart that three days a week, the doors are locked,” she added.

According to Koole, in the past year, “[our] clients benefited from one-on-one time (online during the pandemic) with medical staff and with trained, caring volunteers who listened, learned, and shared no cost medical services, education resources, physical resources, referrals, and spiritual encouragement.”

She added that the services provided last year were worth $111,300 and provided at $0 cost to the community, or the state or federal governments.

The goal for the tea was to raise $30,000 and while they did bring in that much money, Koole said that, after expenses which were higher this year, they cleared around $22,000. For more information on the clinic’s services, visit https://www.hopefallbrook.com/; to arrange a tour of the clinic, call 760-728-4105 or email [email protected].