Shalaine Bright is the proud mother of a baby boy, but it wasn’t long ago that the news that she was pregnant devastated her and her family. She had just graduated from college and started a promising career.

"My future seemed so bright," she said. "Then, suddenly, I found myself pregnant at 21."

Everyone around her, including her boyfriend and family members, encouraged her to have an abortion.

"Otherwise," Bright said, "My life would be over."

Bright said the support she got from the Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia not only saved the life of her son, Gabriel, but changed her life as well.

"Motherhood has changed me," she told the group at Wednesday's event, many of whom had tears in their eyes midway through her remarks. "Something about it has just matured me in a way I can't even describe. It gave me a new perspective of life. It has made me unselfish."