Black Girls Walk For Life planned Sept. 9

Black Girls Walk For Life is the result of one woman’s mission to create awareness of the number of black babies aborted every day.

Jasmine Bozeman, Davenport, organized “Black Girls Walk For Life” team just weeks ago to take part in Pregnancy Resources’ annual Walk 4 Life fundraiser.

This year’s walk on Sept. 9 starts at 9 a.m., with registration at 8:30. The walk kicks off from two locations — Veterans Memorial Park, 1645 23rd St., Bettendorf, and Ben Butterworth Parkway, 55th Street and Old River Drive, Moline. For more details, contact Liz Ryan at 309-797-3636.

The Black Girls Walk For Life team will begin their two-mile trek at the Bettendorf site.

A former Pregnancy Resources client, Ms. Bozeman now is executive assistant of the organization. She organized the team “to help Pregnancy Resources reach their $80,000 goal, and to support life-affirming activism in the black community.

“Unexpected pregnancies and abortions affect the black community in a vicious and devastating way,” she said. “When I learned that abortion has taken more black American lives than any other cause of death — including crime, accidents, cancer, heart disease and AIDS — since its legalization in 1973, I was blown away.

“I want to do something that will help raise awareness of the help that is available, increase awareness within our community and promote unity as we celebrate the lives we have been blessed with — both our own and the lives of our children,” she said.

Ms. Bozeman recently met with eight other moms and their 16 children at a local park to pull off a powerful photo shoot in hopes of raising funds for the Black Girls Walk For Life team. Those funds will be donated to Pregnancy Resources.

“The photos capture images and videos of us using our most obvious similarity — our mahogany brown skin — to all come together for one purpose, which is to defend life,” she said. “Our goal is to raise awareness that black babies lives matter.”

The goal of Black Girls Walk For Life also is to raise $900 which Ms. Bozeman said represents black American lives lost daily to abortion. The photo shoot was a means to encourage donations to their effort.

When the group has collected $300 in pledges, they will release a slideshow of the photo shoot on Facebook. When they reach $600 they will release the blooper reel. And when they achieve $900, their Facebook page will include the Black Girls Walk For Life victory walk video.

For information on how to support Black Girls Walk For Life, visit the Black Girls For Life Facebook page or contact Ms. Bozeman.

The mother of three sons, Ms. Bozeman found help at Pregnancy Resources when she was pregnant with her first son now 6 years old. A freshman in college in Atlanta, Ga., she returned “home” to Davenport to be close to family and to figure out her next step. She said her mother, Judy Frank, Davenport, helped her find Pregnancy Resources.

“They helped me by providing parenting classes, clothes and items for my baby, and a bassinet for him to sleep in as I could not afford these things at the time,” she said. “I wasn’t going to have an abortion. I just needed help in learning and of available resources.”

Not long after the birth of her son, Ms. Bozeman moved to New York and married his father. The couple lived in Ft. Bragg, N.C., where he was stationed with the Army. She completed her college education and …