MONTICELLO — Monica Kelsey made a stop in Monticello on Feb. 14 for an extremely special reason.
It was Valentine’s Day and the founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Inc. was in town for a special blessing ceremony — activation of the device at the Monticello Fire Department.
And Kelsey spread a little love to the city of Monticello for bringing the baby box to the community.
“Today, the women of Monticello now have a last-resort option available if they want anonymity and they’re going to surrender their children,” Kelsey said. “They otherwise will be found in a Dumpster or a trash can,” she said.
Kelsey, who was abandoned by her birth mother two hours after she was born in April 1973, said 15 babies, since November 2017, have been placed in her Safe Haven Baby Boxes around the nation.
“I stay on the front lines with moms today, giving them a safe option that my birth mom did not have in 1973,” she said. “My birth mother chose an option that doesn’t have to be chosen anymore because we have a safe and legal option available for these kind of moms.”
Monticello’s baby box is No. 99 nationwide.
“I stay on the front lines with moms today, giving them a safe option that my birth mom did not have in 1973,” she said. “My birth mother chose an option that doesn’t have to be chosen anymore because we have a safe and legal option available for these kind of moms.”
Monticello Fire Chief Galen Logan said people in Monticello likely won’t use the baby box.
“It’s for people from out of town to come here and surrender their children,” he said. “Mothers around here are likely not to use it because, as a small town, everyone knows everyone. Moms won’t use the baby box where they know people. They’re likely to travel somewhere where people do not know them. We now offer that option here in Monticello.”
A Safe Haven Baby Box is a device provided for under the state’s Safe Haven Law that legally permits a mother in crisis to safely, securely and anonymously surrender her baby if she is unable to care for her newborn.
The devices are installed in an exterior wall of a designated fire station or hospital. It has an exterior door that automatically locks upon placement of a newborn inside, and an interior door allows a medical staff member to secure the surrendered newborn from inside the designated building.
Logan said when a baby is placed in the box, a beam is broken, a heater is activated — if needed — and the box will automatically lock as soon as the door shuts.
“A monitoring company will contact dispatch informing the fire and police departments that the box has been utilized,” he said. “At that time, the box can only be accessed from inside the fire department.”
Logan said the responding firefighter or police officer is responsible for the baby until the Indiana Department of Family and Children’s Services take custody of the baby for foster care placement.
“It is essentially ‘their’ baby until it can be medically cleared at the hospital and a foster placement can be made,” he said.
Logan said all money for the baby box and its installation came from donations and fundraising efforts.
“We have an annual monitoring fee of $600 and dues to SHBB foundation of $200 per year that will need to be self-sustaining,” Logan said. “The City of Monticello will incur some minimal cost for the utilities needed to run the alarms but the majority of the funds for maintaining the White County Baby Box will need to come from community donations.”
Donations will continue to be accepted through the SHBB foundation at: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/shbb.
