Elwood becomes first community in Madison County with operational Safe Haven Baby Box | News | newsandtribune.com

2022-07-27 17:04:38 By : Mr. Marvin Bao

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Elwood Fire Chief Mark Sullivan, third from left, talks about the setup of the baby box and it’s alarm system with members of the Edgewood Fire Department which is working toward installing one at their department.

Monica Kelsey, founder of the national Safe Haven Baby Box movement, said there are now 113 baby boxes in seven states with Elwood being the 86th Indiana community to install one.

People gathered around for pictures after the first Safe Haven Baby box in Madison County was blessed and put into operation Tuesday morning located at the Elwood Fire Department.

The 86th Safe Haven Baby Box in Indiana, and the first in Madison county, has been installed on the east end of the Elwood Fire Department in downtown Elwood.

Elwood Fire Chief Mark Sullivan, third from left, talks about the setup of the baby box and it’s alarm system with members of the Edgewood Fire Department which is working toward installing one at their department.

Monica Kelsey, founder of the national Safe Haven Baby Box movement, said there are now 113 baby boxes in seven states with Elwood being the 86th Indiana community to install one.

People gathered around for pictures after the first Safe Haven Baby box in Madison County was blessed and put into operation Tuesday morning located at the Elwood Fire Department.

The 86th Safe Haven Baby Box in Indiana, and the first in Madison county, has been installed on the east end of the Elwood Fire Department in downtown Elwood.

ELWOOD — Elwood on Tuesday became the first Madison County community to put a Safe Haven Baby Box into operation.

The baby box, installed in the southeast corner of the fire department building, was blessed by Pastor Roberta Cook of Elwood United Methodist Church before an audience of about 40 city employees, paramedics and firefighters, and residents.

“We ask that you bless this box, bless this community, bless this ministry,” she prayed.

Elwood is the 86th Indiana community to install a baby box. There are 113 in seven states.

“Ministry never happens alone,” Cook said. “It happens in community; it happens in faith; it happens in love.”

Monica Kelsey, founder of the national Safe Haven Baby Box movement, told the crowd an average of one baby per month has been surrendered to a baby box in Indiana this year.

“The amazing thing is we haven’t found a dead baby in this state since bringing the baby boxes here,” Kelsey said.

Baby boxes allow mothers to surrender their unharmed babies without the threat of arrest or prosecution within 30 days of birth under the state’s Safe Haven Law. In addition to baby boxes, which provide anonymity, infants also may be surrendered to a firefighter, law enforcement officer, paramedic, or a doctor, nurse or other medical professional.

Once surrendered, an infant is examined and given medical treatment, if necessary, before being turned over to the Indiana Department of Child Services to be placed with a caregiver.

“Today in Elwood, we are giving another option to moms in crisis, and that is total anonymity,” said Kelsey, author of “Blessed to Have Been Abandoned the Story of the Baby Box Lady,” after sharing her own story as a child born of rape.

“This box offers no shame,” Kelsey said. “It offers no names and no blame.”

The heated baby box is a two-alarm contraption that notifies dispatchers once a baby is placed in it. The box sets off one alarm when it’s opened, and as the baby moves, it covers a sensor that sets off a second alarm similar to those used in home security systems.

“It’s doing the same thing as when there’s somebody breaking into your house,” Elwood Fire Chief Mark Sullivan told a small group prior to the ceremony.

The baby box is attached to a generator in the event of a power outage.

Elwood has a paid professional fire department where staff always is available should an infant be surrendered.

“This is just another tool in our box,” Sullivan said at the ceremony. “In my 23 years, we have always been taught we would be a safe haven.”

Anderson officials announced two years ago that a baby box would be installed there. However, to date no box has been installed in the city.

It was thought in June that Edgewood would become the first in the county to install a baby box after the town council approved an effort to raise money to put it in the fire department. Baby boxes and their maintenance are typically funded through private donations.

However, Elwood quietly has been working on the baby box since December when Christy Clark, who then was executive assistant to Mayor Todd Jones, fielded a call from Alice Humel Denton of Elwood United Methodist Church.

Humel Denton had received a call from an anonymous donor asking whether she would be interested in spearheading a baby box effort in Elwood. In exchange, the donor was willing to pay the $15,000 necessary for the production and installation of the baby box.

“Immediately, I was thrilled,” said Clark, who now is economic director for the city. “It wasn’t something we’d thought about doing here, but I was on it.”

In fact, Jones admitted he wasn’t familiar with the concept of a baby box when the idea was brought to him.

“I now truly grasp the importance of this little black box,” he said.

Denton said when she first was approached by the donor, she thought about the death of 2-year-old Emmarie Pablo in 2020 in Elwood.

“I wonder if we had this kind of assistance for that toddler when she was born whether she would be alive today,” Humel Denton said.

Follow Rebecca R. Bibbs on Twitter at @RebeccaB_THB, or call 765-640-4883.

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