Safe Haven baby box arrives in Campbell County, assisting mothers in crisis
Bella Bailey
Multimedia Correspondent
Central Campbell County Fire District, Cold Spring, unveiled its new Safe Haven Baby Box among friends, media and state legislators, Sept. 28. The box is a safe, secure and anonymous way for a mother in crisis to surrender her under 30-day-old infant. This is the 71st box of its kind in Kentucky, joining the rising national total of 473. This is the first Safe Haven Baby Box to be opened in Campbell County.
The firefighters of Central Campbell County Fire District were in attendance to demonstrate how the box works. Speaking at the event was Fire Chief Dan Schultz, Fire Board chairman Mike Rust, Kentucky State Senator Shelley Frunke Frommeyer, Safe Haven volunteer Lisa Klee, Safe Haven representative and Kentucky Representative Nancy Tate and executive director of the Kentucky Right to Life Addia Wuchner.
Since 2017, 83 infants have been surrendered in Safe Haven baby boxes in Kentucky. The boxes are affixed to firehouses, ensuring that within minutes of a surrender, the vulnerable infant will be in the care of trained emergency medical professionals and first responders. Once surrendered, the child becomes a ward of the state, with the goal becoming finding a forever family. From the fire station, the baby is transferred to a local hospital for a well-check examination and any medical care they might need.
Mr. Rust said, “When we first started talking about this idea, in my mind, it was a simple decision. We’re a community building. This is just another extension of what our personnel do on a daily basis, and if we don’t have something like this where there’s immediate access, then the outcome may not be as good as we want.”
Safe Haven’s motto, “No Name, No Blame, No Shame,” emphasizes the importance of an anonymous surrender for mothers in crisis.
“In the moment of crisis, we do love family, we love life, we love babies and we want that to be so clear … we’re not trying to shame a person who’s doing one of the most beautiful things in bringing life into this world,” said Mrs. Frommeyer.
The seeds for the Campbell County baby box were planted almost two years ago, when Chief Schultz saw a story on the news.
“We looked into it, investigated it,” he said, “seeing the cost … it’s something we can’t do right now.”
Resigned to having the box be a future project, Chief Schultz tucked the thought away. Only weeks later, Diane McCormick, a St. Thomas Parish, Ft. Thomas, parishioner, emailed Chief Schultz about funding a Safe Haven baby box.
“I had barely sent the email when my phone rang, and it was Chief Schultz that called,” said Mrs. McCormick. “He said ‘we can’t fund it.’ I said, ‘if you’ll do it, we’ll fund it.’”
Safe Haven baby boxes cost approximately $20,000 to install because of the alarm system that alerts first responders that a baby has been dropped off, as well as the climate control and automatic locking systems. When Mrs. McCormick offered to pay for the box, she had no money raised, but a strong trust in the Lord to provide.
“I was sure that between the Catholic churches in our area, between all of them, I was sure we could do it,” she said.
Word quickly spread, and Mrs. McCormick was joined by parishioners across the Diocese who supported and organized the fundraising effort. Together, parishioners at St. Thomas Parish; St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, Alexandria; St. Therese Parish, Southgate; St. Philip Parish, Melbourne; and St. Joseph Parish, Cold Spring, raised enough money to install not just one baby box, but three across the county.
“We have funded the one in Bellevue-Dayton [Fire Department], and we’ve got money yet,” said Mrs. McCormick. “We’re trying to get one in Southern Campbell County, down closer to the border. So we’ll have the north, this [fire] house, and then one in the south,” she said.
The baby box at the Central Campbell County Fire District was prayed over by the department’s lay chaplain, Engineer Micah Leiss, who asked for the Lord’s blessing over the box, the families of the surrendered, the community and the fire department.
“We ask the blessing for the babies, we ask the blessing for the parents, but I also have another blessing I want to ask for, and it’s a blessing for this department. I pray and I ask that we will have compassion that we will have grace,” said Mr. Leiss. “Pray that God would give us the wisdom, the understanding, the capability to be able to care for and take care of these babies until we can get them transported.”
“It takes a community, it does take a village,” said Mrs. Wuchner addressing the community members gathered. “Someday if there’s a child in this box, your heart will be wrapping lovingly around that child, whether you ever get to see the baby or not.”
