Baby box surrender is first in Florida

Safe Haven Baby Boxes founder Monica Kelsey displays the medical bassinet used in the Baby Box located at Ocala Fire Rescue Station #1 on Jan. 5, 2023. Kelsey was on hand to celebrate the safe surrendering of a child recently at the OFR station through the Baby Box program, the first such surrender in Ocala and in Florida under the program. [Andy Filmore]

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Posted January 5, 2023 | By Andy Fillmore, Correspondent

A healthy baby recently was surrendered anonymously over the holidays in Ocala’s Safe Haven Baby Box. This marks the first time a child has been surrendered this way in Florida.

The device, which has been in service for two years and is the only operational device of its kind in the state, is at Ocala Fire Rescue’s (OFR) Martin Luther King Jr. First Responder Campus on MLK Jr. Avenue.

Twenty-three babies have been safely surrendered in Safe Haven Baby Boxes since the program began in 2017. A hotline maintained by Safe Haven Baby Boxes has been involved in 125 child surrender cases.

The infant, whose age nor gender have been divulged, received an immediate medical evaluation. The infant should be with an adoptive family within 30 days, officials announced during a press conference at the campus on Thursday.

The Safe Haven Baby Boxes program was founded in 2017 by Monica Kelsey, 49, a Navy veteran and career firefighter/medic who retired in 2019. Kelsey was abandoned as an infant by her then 17-year-old mother. She authored the book, “Blessed to Have Been Abandoned: The Story of the Baby Box Lady.” She was inspired to establish Safe Haven Baby Boxes by a safe surrender program she observed while visiting South Africa.

Each Safe Haven Baby Box features a compartment and inside and outside doors. It is climate controlled, and alarm equipped, with an automatically locking exterior door. It contains a packet that the person may use for sharing rights and other information. The alarm notifies issue a 911-type call.

OFR Chief Clint Welborn said a crew of firefighters cared for the child after the alarm issued the call. He said he felt that saving the life of the child is the same as saving a life when a firefighter enters a burning building for a rescue.

Kelsey said costs vary but, typically, each Safe Haven Baby Box costs about $15,000 to install. She said it is a “last resort,” but is a way to leave a child “lawfully and lovingly.”

“We are so proud of the selfless parent who has lovingly surrendered their infant via a Baby Box over the holidays,” Kelsey wrote in a press release.

She said for a person in a crisis with a child, it’s the “worst day of their life.”

She said she spoke with one parent who left a child in a Safe Haven Baby Box and the person said they did so because they did not want to go into a firehouse and turn the baby over as someone might try to talk them out of the decision.

Florida Safe Haven laws allow for infants under seven days old to be left at certain locations with emergency services, such as firehouses, and the infant can be reclaimed before a court terminates parental rights.

OFR Public Information Officer Ashley Lopez said officials joined Thursday to mark the success of the Safe Haven Baby Box process and how the child was protected and cared for immediately. She said it was a joint effort involving OFR, the Ocala Police Department dispatch team and Marion County Fire Rescue for transport.

Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn said he was thankful the person who left the child had made the “tough decision” aimed at a “better life” for the child. He said the state legislature wrangled with the issue of the boxes but, in the final analysis, a local ordinance enabled the Safe Haven Baby Box to be added to construction plans for OFR Firehouse #1.

“There was no law that we couldn’t do it,” Guinn said.

“It’s a great day in the neighborhood,” said Ocala City Council President Jim Hilty.

To learn more, go to shbb.org

The National Safe Haven Crisis Line is 1-866-99-BABY1