Franklin County’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, which allows parents to surrender children anonymously and safely without facing criminal charges, was dedicated at Prairie Township Fire Station 241 on Thursday, July 16 and blessed by Father Dan Moloney, associate pastor of Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator Church.
The box allows parents in crisis to surrender a newborn baby that is up to 30 days old. Parents who change their minds and decide to keep the baby have 30 days to contact local child service agencies to begin the reunification process.
When a child is placed in the temperature-controlled box, it locks from the outside. After one minute, an alarm inside the fire station alerts firefighters that a child is there. Once the child is retrieved, it is taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Firefighters do not contact or search for the mother.
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About 450 boxes have been placed in 26 states, including 26 in Ohio, since Monica Kelsey, a firefighter and emergency medical technician from Woodburn, Indiana, near the Ohio border, came up with the idea in 2016. Kelsey herself was surrendered at an Ohio hospital two hours after her birth in 1973.
The Prairie Township Fire Department is at 123 Inah Ave. near West Broad Street and Norton Road in western Franklin County. There is one other baby box in the Diocese of Columbus, located at the Berkshire Township, Sunbury, Trenton Township and Galena Fire Department, 350 W. Cherry St., Sunbury. It was installed in 2021.
Prairie Township Fire Lt. Andrew Joseph led the effort to install the box at his station. “What started it was a case in Plain City in 2023 where a dead baby was found abandoned by a worker picking up trash,” he said. “That got me thinking that if this is happening in a small town like Plain City, how many more of these cases are out there?
“I did some research and that led me to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes site. I got in touch with the township trustees and the other officers in the department and we started looking into how we could get a box at the firehouse. We raised about $30,000 in donations for construction and installation of the box and alarm system. Most of the money came from the Prairie Township Community Improvement Corp.
“I’m very excited to have it here and now that it’s been installed, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I hope we’ll be able to use it to save a child. On the other, I hope there’s never a situation where a parent feels it’s necessary to place it here to ensure the child’s safety.”
Father Moloney said Fire Chief Matt Powers contacted St. Brendan the Navigator Church to request that a priest bless the box at its dedication. “The hardest part of getting ready for the ceremony was finding an appropriate blessing for the box,” he said.
“Nothing in the blessing book the parish has seemed to fit. In the end, I worked with Father Sam Severance, the other parochial vicar. Together, we came up with what we hoped was an appropriate blessing.
“When I’ve told people I blessed a Baby Box, they’ve always said something along the lines of ‘It’s a beautiful thing.’ It’s certainly a very pro-life thing. I’ve learned boxes like this have been available in Europe for some time. When the other priests here at St. Brendan’s heard about it, they all said there should be a lot more boxes available.”
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The Safe Haven organization recently launched Safe Haven Education, a website designed to be a one-stop nationwide resource related to surrender or abandonment of infants.
Every state has a Safe Haven law, but the details vary. Age limits, approved surrender locations, anonymity protections, provider responsibilities and Baby Box access rules differ from state to state. When families, educators and community partners are unsure where to turn, confusion can cost time. Safe Haven Education was created to close the gap.
The website includes state-specific Safe Haven law information, downloadable awareness materials, shareable social media graphics, classroom resources, outreach tools, model legislation and best-practice guidance. The site is designed to help communities communicate Safe Haven options clearly and responsibly without altering legal meaning or sharing unsafe or outdated information.
“Safe Haven Education gives every community a place to start,” Kelsey said. “We have spent years building, teaching, training and walking alongside communities across the country. Now we are putting these resources in one place so schools, leaders, volunteers, and first responders can share accurate information before a crisis becomes a tragedy. This is not about politics. This is about saving lives.”
For more information about Safe Haven, go to its general website, www.SHBB.org, or the new website, www.SafeHavenEd.org. The organization also operates a 24-hour helpline for parents in crisis which can be reached by calling 1-866-99BABY1.