Adam and Dana Puharic, a Monmouth County couple who turned personal tragedy into a life of service, were honored as the 2011 Champions for Life by the Monmouth Coastal Respect Life Committee at a gala dinner Oct. 23. The Puharics, members of St. Denis Parish, Manasquan, were presented with the pro-life committee’s 22nd annual award in the Waterview Pavilion, Belmar, in recognition for their work in creating Michael’s Feat, a foundation which aids families coping with a challenging pre-natal diagnosis or seriously ill newborn.

Each year, members of the Catholic community who work in protecting and defending human life are recognized by the Monmouth Coastal Respect Life Committee, which includes the parishes of St. Catharine-St. Margaret, Spring Lake; St. Denis, Manasquan; St. Mark, Sea Girt; St. Rose, Belmar; St. Elizabeth, Avon by the Sea, and Holy Innocents, Neptune. The MCRLC’s pro-life activities raise funds for state and local organizations such as Epiphany House, Asbury Park; Birthright, Red Bank, and Good Counsel Homes, Inc., Hoboken.

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Youthful pro-lifers were active participants during the gala. Members of the St. Mark Parish CYO group received the MCRLC’s Guardians of Life Awards in recognition for their work at Catholic work camps, nursing homes and homeless shelters, and other high school students served as junior masters of ceremony and supplied musical entertainment to the evening’s attendees.

Pro-life Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-District 12) presented a resolution from the State Senate and general assembly for the Puharics, and Msgr. Thomas A. Luebking, pastor of St. Catharine-St. Margaret Parish, presented the Champion for Life award to the couple, who then passed the microphone between them as they related the story of their firstborn son Michael. 

During Dana’s routine 20-week sonogram, doctors diagnosed the Puharics’ son with Trisomy 13, a serious chromosomal disorder that would most likely kill the child in the womb or just hours after his birth. “The doctors immediately began pressuring us about abortion,” Adam stated, “but we were determined we were going to meet our son. Our only decision was life. We believed it was God’s will he would live to see the day of his birth.”

Michael Gerard Puharic was born July 29, 2000 and lived for almost four days. “He met his family, he slept at home. He was not a victim, not a statistic; he refused to go quietly,” his father remembered with a catch in his voice. The devastated couple soon put their pain aside to help others with critically ill babies, forming the Michael’s Feat foundation shortly after Michael’s funeral.

Citing the work of the foundation that bears his late son’s name, Adam Puharic spoke of the legacy Michael created in the mere 83 hours of his life. The father told the room of pro-life individuals, “God calls each of you to be a witness. Michael was not an accident, not a mistake. Popular culture aggressively pushes science to replace God. It’s a war out there.”

For further information about pro-Life activities in the Diocese of Trenton, contact Donna Goodwin, coordinator, Respect Life Ministries, at 609-403-7192 or www.respectlifetoday.com. Information about Michael’s Feat, may be found at www.michaelsfeat.org.