April 1, 2011
Celebrating Life
Pam Tebow will speak at annual Right to Life banquet
Pam Tebow, above, with her youngest son Timmy, will be the featured speaker at the 2011 Right to Life of Southwest Indiana spring banquet on April 7.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
It was spring break in Evansville last week, and many residents were out of town. Not Mary Ellen VanDyke. She was busy planning a birthday party.
She’s the executive director of Right to Life of Southwest Indiana, an organization that will “celebrate life” at its annual spring banquet on April 7 at The Centre in downtown Evansville.
She proudly notes that the event is the “largest pro-life banquet in the country,” and that this year’s theme is “Celebrate Life — It’s a Birthday Party!”
The evening is always filled with “education, spirituality and a celebration of life,” she said, and for the last couple of years it’s been attended by over 2,000 people.
The highlight of the evening is always the speaker. “We try to choose someone who has a personal pro-life story,” she said, noting the speakers have included “a Miss America, a cardinal, an actor. We look for a person with a pro-life story because that’s what we are about.”
That’s why Pam Tebow was invited to be this year’s speaker — because “she has that story.”
Pam and her husband, Bob, were married in the summer of 1971, and have five children. In 1985, Bob — a pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in northwest Florida — and Pam felt the call to be missionaries to the Philippines.
While there, she became pregnant with their fifth child. During the pregnancy, she was advised to get an abortion because of complications.
The family ignored the medical advice and prayed for the child “by name.”
Their son, Timothy, was born in Manila, and the family returned to the United States when he was three.
Athletics became a big part of his life, and in high school he played football, basketball and baseball. He was the starting quarterback at the University of Florida, and in 2007, he became the first college sophomore to receive the Heisman trophy.
He also received the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top football player, the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback, and was named the offensive MVP of the 2008 national championship game.
He now plays with the Denver Broncos.
The Tebow family’s pro-life stance came to national prominence when Pam did an interview with ESPN and mentioned her refusal to abort Tim when she was advised to do so.
VanDyke believes that Tim’s story “shows that God has a purpose for each of us. It shows that each one of us can make a contribution.”
The Tebow family is “very Christ-centered,” she said, noting that their story parallels many stories that she hears as the executive director of Right to Life of Southwest Indiana. “I can’t tell you the number of times I run into that type of story.”
Recently she talked with the mother of twins who had been advised by her doctor to undergo selective abortion. She refused, and now “they have these two beautiful twin sons.
“Over and over, I hear that.”
The Right to Life of Southwest Indiana spring banquet will be held Thursday, April 7, at The Centre in downtown Evansville. For additional information, call 812-474-3195.