ATHENS—A “March for Moms” took place around the University of Georgia campus.

To raise awareness, supporters walked a two-mile route down Milledge Avenue on Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Catholic Center for prayer, coffee and donuts.

Julia Maher, who worships at St. Joseph Church, leads the Athens area Walking with Moms in Need ministry. Walking with Moms in Need is a national initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help parishes better support and accompany pregnant and parenting women. In Athens, it works alongside the Students for Life of UGA. In the past three years, they have helped 360 moms.

Pregnant and parenting moms in need are on the university campus. Mahar said the ministry’s mission is to raise awareness of assistance, where they can get it and how to reach out. When women reach out, university students empower them while members of Walking With Moms in Need will journey with these moms during their pregnancy and through their postpartum years.

Maher said a mom in need can feel helpless, but she is not hopeless. These pregnant woman or mothers are looking for the resources and guidance, and the local organization is “the help in their hope,” said Maher.

Some 20 volunteers host two monthly events, serving about 30 women at the diaper distribution and about three dozen families at a play date on a playground with breakfast served. Since half of the moms they serve only speak Spanish, they rely on Spanish-speaking volunteers and students with the ministry.