By Brenna Eller
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — This morning marked a day of great significance for the State of Kansas as well as the City of Hutchinson. The newest baby box of the Safe Haven Baby Boxes was unveiled today at Hutchinson Fire Station 1, 2222 N. Main Street in Hutchinson. The baby box was also blessed by the CEO and founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Monica Kelsey.
Before the blessing, Chief Steve Beer of the Hutchinson Fire Department (HFD) shared how the fire department was able to obtain the baby box.
“We’ve been so blessed here at Hutch Fire and the City and the support we’ve had for this program,” Chief Beer said.
According to Chief Beer, it started off with a phone call to TJ Wyssmann, former Fire Chief of McPherson Fire Department and then a second call to Chris Cooper, Assistant Director of Hutchinson/Reno County 911. Through the conversations, Cooper lined up a meeting to start fundraising for the baby box. Within the first few days, Chief Beer said a donation for $25,000 from one organization came through to get the project going.
“With that, numerous other meetings have happened, and then finally we get to the point where we order the baby box and the Safe Haven Baby Box gets delivered here, and we have to install it into our brand-new fire station,” Beer said.
Chief Beer thanked Wiens Construction for donating their time and labor to install the baby box into the building, which he said saved the fire department probably $70,000.
He also thanked the citizens of Hutchinson for their emails, phone calls and donations, adding that the support shown has been “priceless.”
HFD has a goal to add another baby box to Fire Station 3 for the south side of town. Before that, Chief Beer said they will need to make sure everything is all in place for the first baby box and that it is fully functionable.
“Through the whole process, there has been a lot of testing with EMS, the hospital, 911 center, the police department, all key people to make this work,” Chief Beer said.
If or when the baby box is ever needed and the alarm goes off, it is set up to alert the 911 Center, the police department, EMS and Fire to get dispatched right away. When it was tested, they had it down to three minutes and the local alarm inside the building went off around one minute. Everything worked the way it should.
“We hope we don’t have to use this, but it’s an option out there,” Beer said. “If we save one life, it’s definitely worth it here.”
Hutchinson/Reno County 911 Director Kevin Irwin shared a few comments about the baby box as well.
“It’s been a great privilege and an honor to be a part of this project and to get it all done,” Irwin said. “It’s been a little bit of work for staff as well. We’ve gone through a lot of the testing with everybody.”
Irwin added that this included some extensive training with staff and additional protocols to the processes to make sure that once the alarm is triggered, they are notified right away, and can then notify all the appropriate officials, which include law enforcement, EMS, and Fire, and let them know that there has truly been an activation.
“It’s been a great experience,” Irwin said. “We’re glad we could be helpful within the community, and we greatly appreciate the partnership we’ve had.”
Monica Kelsey, Safe Haven Baby Boxes CEO/Founder from Indiana shared her background and thanked all of the partners in Hutchinson who have been working to help with the baby box program.
“Today is box number 294. I blessed 293 and 292 in Texas yesterday. And tomorrow, New Mexico,” Kelsey said. “This movement is crossing this country by storm and saving babies along the way.”
The protocol is five minutes or less, and the Hutchinson responders were well within the range according to Kelsey, adding, if a baby is to be surrendered, they will be in “great hands.”
Kelsey shared a story about when a little girl was placed in a Safe Haven Baby Box in Ohio while she was doing training in Wolfforth, Tex. She got a call about the baby and her phone has a certain ringtone for these alerts, so when they called, she put it on speakerphone for the fire department in Wolfforth to hear as well.
“We don’t get that option very often. It was such a neat thing for them to see,” Kelsey said. “A little girl had been placed in one of our boxes in the state of Ohio. A healthy beautiful little girl. That’s what it’s all about.”
Kelsey added that the point of the program is to make sure that moms have a resource available for them so that they can save the life of their child and save their own life as well.
“When we get a baby in our box, two lives are saved,” Kelsey said.
Kelsey shared that it doesn’t mean there isn’t pain involved in the process of a mother surrendering her baby in a box. She said the mother usually “carries that weight.”
“There is a lot of pain when a mother chooses that, but we respect her and we honor her when she says or the dad says, ‘I want what’s best for my child and it’s not me’,” Kelsey said. “We should be honoring them in choosing something safe.”
Kelsey is passionate about this project for multiple reasons.
In August of 1972, a 17-year-old girl was brutally attacked and raped. That girl gave birth in April of 1973 and abandoned her child two hours after she was born. The abandoned child was Monica Kelsey herself.
“I stand on the frontlines of this ministry as one of these kids that wasn’t lovingly, safely, legally, and anonymously placed in a Safe Haven Baby Box by a parent that wanted me,” Kelsey said. “This is my legacy, and I am their voice. I will forever walk with these moms as they choose something safe for their child and I will forever walk with these kids and show them their worth.”
Kelsey gave a blessing to the box and afterward, a quick tour was given to see the baby box and watch how it would work in a situation where a baby may be surrendered and the time it would take for responders to be alerted.
For more from the Baby Box unveiling, listen to Sunday Focus on 94.7 KSKU, 95.9 KWHK, 106.1 KXKU, and 100.3 KNZS around 6:15 AM Sunday, Dec. 8.
