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The Survivors: Not just a TV show

Mention the word "Survivor," and most people will think of the CBS hit "reality" show that pitted competitors against each other in a remote location, vying for "survival" and a million bucks.

But the pro-life group, Survivors, is based on a much grimmer take on reality.

Survivors was founded to motivate and mobilze young people, who, by their very existence, are sur­vivors of the abortion holocaust, which has taken the lives of one­third of their generation.

"We are recruiters and trainers for the pro-life movement," says Jeff White who, with Cheryl Conrad, founded the California­based Christian group on January 22, 1998, the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Jeff, the ,father of 11 children, cut his pro-life teeth as National Tactical Director for Operation Rescue in its heyday in the late '80s and early '90s.

"Tactics were my forte," says Jeff: "I'm not a dynamic speaker, not particularly good looking or charismatic!"

Jeff has used his strategical skills to help Survivors with its two­pronged focus: training young people how to combat abortion and sponsoring youth to spread the anti­abortion message to their peers.

Survivors training is done primarily through their summer camp for youth, aged 14 to 29, held this year from June 25 through July 7.

"We have four days of just lectures," Jeff explains. "We train them in media relations, abortion apologetics and sidewalk counseling."

The "campers," mostly from Southern California but some from as far away as Washington, D.C., spend the remainder of the camp session putting their newly acquired skills into practice.

"We take them to do side­walk counseling, and to high schools and colleges, where they practice talking to kids their own age about abortion. They also bring media attention to abortion issues in their own area."

Survivors also sponsors quarterly activist events. In April, for example, 30 Survivors traveled to New York City to take part in Priests for Life's Face the Truth Tour.

While in New York, they demonstrated on their own in front of the MTV building in Times Square.

Survivors also sponsors weekend training sessions.

"We've trained about a thousand kids," Jeff estimates.

Their goal is not so much to build up their own membership, but to train young people to go back and do pro-life work in their own communities.

"People that we trained five years ago have started pro-life groups in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Colorado and Virginia," says Jeff.

In addition, Survivors graduates started Survivors' CALL (Collegians Activated to Liberate Life).

The director of GenLife is a Survivors graduate, as is Brian Kemper, who started the youth group, Rock for Life.

The Survivors' second main focus is their full-time campus tour group: a team of 8 to 10 college-age youth who travel to high schools and colleges to spread the pro-life message.

"They are on the road nine months of the year, traveling to 230 campuses," says Jeff.

At the high schools, they hand out a couple hundred thousand pro-life pamphlets.

"At colleges we use the signs of aborted babies. There are heated debates! These young people are excellent at defending their positions-philosophically, religiously and morally."

Because the tour group members are considered missionaries, they receive a small stipend, says Jeff.

As recruiters and trainers for the pro-life movement, he says, "We are hitting the right age group with the right message. We have recruited as many courageous young people as any organization I know.

"They are saving lives and changing our culture."

The Survivors' website is www.survivors.la