By BETH CHAPMAN / Community Columnist

Lifeline Children’s Services, a Birmingham-based non-profit organization, is holding a family reunion in celebration of 30 years of service. It will be held on Saturday, Oct. 15, in the student building at Hunter Street Baptist Church.

The event will include special guests and members of the Chinese government. It will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude at 2 p.m. Lunch will be provided as well as games and activities for the children and their families. This event will be a special time for these special children and their families to re-connect with Lifeline’s many guests and staff.

Lifeline Children’s Services’ mission is to provide a “hope and a future” for children around the world through the mission of adoption. Since 1981, Lifeline has placed more than 1,000 children into loving homes through its domestic program. It has helped thousands of young women in the midst of crisis pregnancies and crossed the borders of 14 countries to reach orphans with the hope of a future family.

In addition to the domestic adoptions that Lifeline makes possible within the United States, some of the other countries with which they work are the Ukraine, Uganda, China, Guatemala and Ethiopia.

Many of the families Lifeline has placed together are residents of Shelby County and surrounding areas.

Lifeline Services is located at 2104 Rocky Ridge Road in Hoover. You can learn more about them by visiting their website at Lifelineadoption.org.

For complete details on the upcoming family reunion, please contact Krisha Yanko at krisha.yanko@lifelineadoption.org or call 972-8479.

The family reunion is open to the public and many members of the staff past and present will be on hand.

Beth Chapman, Alabama’s secretary of state, is a Shelby County resident and writes a weekly column for the Shelby County Reporter. You can reach her at bethchapman@bellsouth.net.