Baby Surrendered in Safe Haven Baby Box Monday
By ERIN LARISON
Kokomo Post Staff
Kokomo’s first infant was surrendered to the Kokomo Fire Department in a Safe Haven Baby Box early Monday morning, marking Indiana’s fifth anonymous surrender of an infant through the program in 2023 and the 12th nationwide.
Authorities say the baby, a newborn girl, was several days old when she was placed anonymously in the box at Kokomo Fire Department’s Station 1, at about 6:30 a.m. Monday morning.
Photo provided | Safe Haven Baby Boxes
This photo shows what a Safe Haven Baby Box looks like. The boxes are now active in 10 states nationwide.
“Although these are hard choices to make, we applaud the mother for giving her daughter the chance at life through an anonymous, safe and legal option,” said Kokomo Fire Department Chief Chris Frazier in a press release Monday evening.
The Safe Haven Baby Box was installed at Station 1 in 2020 through funding from the Knights of Columbus, and for three years, Frazier said, the box sat empty – short of a few false alarms from curious people wanting to see the box or perhaps grieving parents who had left stuffed animals inside the box, memorializing a lost child.
But Monday morning, Frazier said, wriggling inside the box told the firefighters who responded to the alert this was no false alarm.
“The guys who came down, they said they turned the corner and saw some arms moving around and realized they have a baby in the box,” Frazier said via phone on Tuesday morning.
Firefighter James Shaffer was the first on the scene to find the baby, calling it “an honor.”
“As soon as I got the baby in my arms, I just wanted to protect her,” Shaffer said Tuesday. “Now she’s safe. She doing to have a good life ahead of her.”
The box also included a note from the child’s mother.
“The biggest thing is that it’s great that it happened and it’s great that the baby is safe, but it’s very sad that the mother is in a situation where she needs to do this,” said Frazier.
The Department of Child Services is now working on next steps in the fostering or adoption of the surrendered baby, said Frazier.
For those involved with the installation of the box, it wasn’t a matter of if they would see a surrendered baby; it was a matter of when. Since 1999, 4,414 infants were surrendered through safe haven laws nationwide, according to the National Safe Haven Alliance.
“I think we all felt like we would [see a surrendered baby] at some point in time,” said Frazier. “We didn’t know whether it would be 5 years or 10 years or any amount of time.”
“We are so grateful to this birth mother for bravely and lovingly surrendering her infant. It is a joy each and every time we get a call saying we have a baby in a Box. When we are prepared to aid women in crisis we can positively impact so many. A family who has been eagerly awaiting a baby to adopt has their life forever changed for the better,” said Monica Kelsey, Safe Haven Baby Box founder, in a release Monday night.
In her adult life, Kelsey discovered she was abandoned shortly after birth. She founded Safe Haven, which has 154 baby boxes throughout Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma.
To date, 130 babies have been surrendered through the Safe Haven Baby Boxes National Hotline, 1-866-99BABY1. Monday’s surrender in Kokomo marks the 12th baby surrendered nationally in 2023.
Kelsey and local authorities will gather for a press event at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Station 1.
