MONROE – Rebecca Kiessling, an international speaker and advocate for rape victims, and Kaye Lani Rae Rafko-Wilson, a former Miss America and executive director of Gabby’s Grief Center in Monroe, will be the guest speakers at the Monroe Walk for Life on May 25 .
“Every woman, every child – love them both” is the theme for the sixth annual event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning and ending at the St. Mary Catholic Central High School gym, 108 W. Elm Ave. This year, all participants who register on the day of the walk will receive a free taco lunch and will be entered into a free raffle for various gifts.
All participants are encouraged to arrive at 9:30 am to register for the free lunch and raffle drawing that will take place after the walk.
Kiessling will be the keynote speaker at the opening event led by Joe Boggs and Bill Terrasi, walk coordinator and founder of the Ius Vitae Foundation, sponsor of the event that includes rallies, videos and the 1.1-mile city walk . Those not participating in the walk can stay in the gym and eat their lunch.
Kiessling, 54, is an attorney and married mother of five — the two oldest are adopted — who lives in Rochester Hills. She has helped pregnant rape victims around the world choose life for their children. She will tell her personal story. She was conceived during a rape and almost aborted by two abortion doctors, because the elective procedure was illegal under Michigan law at the time. In the 1960s, Kiessling’s mother was raped at knifepoint and became pregnant after the attack. After giving birth to Kiessling, the mother gave her daughter up for adoption. At the age of 19, Kiessling met her biological mother.
Kiessling, author of the pamphlet “Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope,” is co-founder and board member of Hope After Rape Conception. Her goal is to support and protect rape survivor mothers and their children so that the rapist can have parental rights. She is a national spokeswoman for Personhood USA and director of Save the 1, an uncompromising pro-life organization whose mission is to prevent and decriminalize rape exceptions. She also testified before numerous state legislators about rape and abortion, personhood and frozen embryos.
A stop along the walk will be at the Trinity Lutheran School gym, 323 Scott St., where Rafko-Wilson will give a brief message about the responsibility everyone has to protect and defend life from conception to natural death . She served as a community leader to help two founders establish Gabby’s Ladder Grief Center in Monroe in 2001.
“Life is a gift and every life matters,” she said.
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She is a registered nurse and uses her Miss America platform to draw attention to the nursing profession, hospice programs and critical healthcare issues. Rafko-Wilson, also Catholic, is committed to caring for those suffering from grief and pain, and she is a passionate believer in the sanctity of life, event organizers said. Rafko-Wilson and her husband, Charles, have three living children: Nicholas, Alana and Joseph. Their fourth child – Gabriel – died shortly after birth in 2002.
In addition to the free raffle items for registered participants, free gifts will once again be given to every mother in attendance. For more information, please email iusvitae@aol.com
This article originally appeared in The Monroe News: Kiessling and Rafko-Wilson to speak at Monroe Walk for Life on May 25
