Volunteers with the Pro-Life Billboard Project install a sign along Route 45 near Ludlow. The sign is one of 20 the group has placed in Central Illinois. The landowners for this sign location are Judy Jepsen-Popel and her grandson, Cody Wyman, and the volunteers pictured are, from left, Steve Clarkson, Mike Ostrowski, and Victor Vasquez. (Provided photo)

By Paul Thomas Moore

CHAMPAIGN — The Pro-Life Billboard Project has installed 20 billboards across Central Illinois over the past three years.

“This is an entirely volunteer-led endeavor to install pro-life signs . . . so that people facing an unplanned pregnancy can find help at free, faith-based pregnancy centers as opposed to ending up at an abortion facility,” said pro-life advocate Renée Mullen, a member of Holy Cross Parish in Champaign.

Each sign is 4 feet high by 6 feet wide — “the largest size we can fit on a standard truck bed,” according to Mullen.

The signs have been placed along highways, state roads and county roads, on farmland, outside businesses and beside churches. The only common denominator is that they are all on private land.

Mullen said signs can also be affixed to the side of buildings, such as a barn. She added that the Pro-Life Billboard Project has operated “on a shoestring,” with each billboard costing $400 to $700 for materials. But the donations that funded the cost of materials for the first 20 billboards are nearly depleted.

Additional funds are needed “to keep installing these signs, so that we can help foster a stronger culture of life, and greater respect for the sanctity of all life.”

SIGNS NEEDED ON I-74

To date, signs are located in Champaign, Coles, Douglas, Ford, Tazewell and Vermilion counties, including the following communities: Danville, Dewey, Fisher, Gibson City, Hopedale, Ludlow, Mahomet, Mattoon, Newman, Ogden, Paxton, Rantoul, St. Joseph, Tolono, and Tremont.

In terms of additional hosting locations and signs required, “We need more on I-74, especially headed west, as people are clearly coming into Illinois and specifically coming to two abortion clinics in Champaign from out of state,” said Mullen.

Donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, and can be sent to Holy Cross Parish, 405 W. Clark St., Champaign, IL 61820, or made on the Holy Cross website at tinyurl.com/tukh9782. (It’s important to specify on the memo section of the check or the notes section online that the donation is for the Pro-Life Billboard Project.)

Landowners interested in hosting a pro-life billboard may contact Mullen at (765) 237-7500 or reneemullen1@comcast.net.