Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse
Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse is your go-to podcast for staying connected with the heart of Richmond, Indiana. Dive into the latest community updates, local events, city initiatives, and stories that matter most to our vibrant community. Whether you're a lifelong resident or new to the area, this podcast keeps you in tune with the pulse of Richmond!
Inside Richmond: The City's Pulse
Episode 22 - Inside Richmond: The City’s Pulse | How Safe Haven Baby Boxes Save Lives with CEO Monica Kelsey and Richmond Fire Department Leaders
A locked door, a soft bassinet, and a two minute response window. Sometimes that is the difference between a life saved and a tragedy. On this episode of Inside Richmond, host Lindsay Darnell sits down with Monica Kelsey, CEO and Founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, along with Richmond Fire Department Deputy Chief Nick Arbogast and Battalion Chief Chris Chappel, to talk about the Safe Haven Baby Box initiative and the one located right here in Richmond.
Monica shares the origin of the program and how her own story of abandonment led her to discover a baby safe in a Cape Town church. That moment sparked a simple sketch on a napkin that eventually became the first Safe Haven Baby Box in the United States, installed in Woodburn, Indiana in 2016. Today the program has expanded to more than twenty states. Communities that combine boxes with education, outreach, and a 24/7 hotline are seeing fewer unsafe abandonments and more parents choosing safe, compassionate surrender through trained responders.
Lindsay and the team break down how the system actually works. Alert tones. A locking and temperature controlled environment. A bassinet design shaped by real world use. Weekly drills and documented maintenance to keep readiness high. Support bags placed inside the box that offer resources for medical care and counseling for mothers in crisis. Deputy Chief Arbogast and Battalion Chief Chappel walk through Richmond’s journey to installing its Baby Box at Richmond Fire Department Station 1 at 101 S 5th St, Richmond, Indiana. The box is located in the rear of the building at the 6th Street entrance and parking lot. They talk about the role community fundraising played, why responder mental health is part of the conversation, and how short social videos and awareness campaigns continue to spread life saving information across the community.
If you care about infant safety, maternal dignity, and practical steps communities can take right now, this episode gives you a grounded look at what is working in Richmond and beyond.
If you or someone you know needs help today, share this link: https://www.shbb.org/. The primary hotline for Safe Haven Baby Boxes is 1-866-99BABY1 (1-866-992-2291). It is a confidential 24/7 service for parents in crisis who need support, information, or guidance. You can call or text to learn how Safe Haven laws work in your state, how to safely surrender a newborn, and how to connect with trained responders who protect the safety and dignity of both parent and baby.
Please share this episode to help raise awareness of the Safe Haven Baby Box program and the resources available. Be sure to share the location of the Baby Box in Richmond at Station 1, 101 S 5th St, in the rear of the building at the 6th Street entrance and parking lot. This information saves lives.
Welcome back to another episode of Inside Richmond the City's Pulse. I'm Lindsay Darnell, your host, and today I am honored to have Monica Kelsey, the founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, as well as Chris Chapel, Battalion Chief, and Nick Arbagast, uh, deputy chief for the fire department. Guys, thank you for joining me.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_02:So I really wanted to get you on. Back in June of 2024, the Richmond Fire Department Station 1 had their grand opening or uh reveal of the Safe Haven Baby Box, uh first one in Richmond, Indiana. Can you give me a little bit of information on how this started? What was your inspiration for creating the safe haven baby boxes?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the safe haven baby box was actually birthed out of my own story of being abandoned as an infant. You know, back in 1973, there was no safe haven law, and my birth mom abandoned me two hours after I was born. And so um, that's literally kind of always been in the back of my mind. But then uh I grew up and had uh a family, and I was a firefighter and a medic, always knew about the safe haven law. Um, and I I didn't, I didn't realize the restrictions of the safe haven law at the time. And so I was actually in Cape Town, South Africa, where a baby safe was in the site of a church. Now we were speaking in South Africa. We spoke 14 times in 16 days. It wasn't a vacation at all. This church was the only church in Cape Town that had a baby safe. And so we're walking in and I'm like, what is this and what is it used for? And they said, Well, women bring their babies here at night when they can't care for them or they don't want them. And I was like, shut the front door. Like, is does this really work? And they had saved seven babies that year.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:And so on the flight back from Cape Town, South Africa, on a Delta napkin, I hand drew my version of the baby box and uh and then brought it to the United States and started the uphill battle, you know, of getting people to understand that women want anonymity, you know, and anonymity is so important to some women. And and I never took away the old safe haven law. I just added to it, you know, just added another option. And and so uh that's literally how how it started. Um, but you could go back literally to 1972 to, you know, to literally when it really kind of was instilled in me.
SPEAKER_02:So what which which was what city? I know Indiana was the first state, what city was the first city to get a safe haven baby box?
SPEAKER_00:So uh I was a firefighter medic out of Woodburn, Indiana. Uh I was a medic out of Fort Wayne for TRA, um, but a firefighter out of Woodburn. And so um my husband is the mayor of our city, and so it was pretty easy to talk him into putting a baby box at our firehouse if he wanted to sleep with his wife at night, you know. And so uh so we became home of Safe Haven baby box number one in the nation. And I never thought that it would be used. I just wanted it there just to be, you know, the the pilot, you know, the the this is where it started kind of thing. And uh we've had two babies at our our our fire station since then. So uh it's been such a blessing to have.
SPEAKER_02:And what year was that?
SPEAKER_00:That was April of 2016.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So uh going on nine years now?
SPEAKER_00:Going on nine years, and uh next Friday we will bless the 400th baby box of the nation. Oh wow in in the state of Texas and Texarkana.
SPEAKER_02:So was it difficult to get it started in other states? Um, or did they kind of see what happened here in Indiana and then were on board with it?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, I started, I just wanted to save a few babies in Indiana, to be honest with you. I didn't really look at my life as traveling across the country. I mean, I loved being a firefighter in a medic. And um, but when Christ calls you, you you either get on the bus or he's gonna keep trying to get you on the bus. And you eventually you're gonna get on the bus. And so I eventually got on the bus and and started in Indiana. And then other states were looking like, what are you doing? You guys haven't had a dead baby in your state in how many years? And um, it just kind of took off. You know, it's interesting though, because the second state that allowed baby boxes was the state of Ohio, and the third state was the state of Arkansas. And so, and then we came back to Kentucky. It was like, you know, we were like like shooting all over the United States, and it was most of these states that had an abandonment problem, you know, and they wanted to save even those two to four babies that were being dumped in their state every year. And uh, and so the states that have the baby boxes, we are seeing a drop in abandonment. It's just a it's a blessing.
SPEAKER_02:That is amazing.
SPEAKER_03:There's about what, 150 or so in Indiana now?
SPEAKER_00:I think, yeah. I think we're close to I it's last check was 140. So I bet you we're at 150 now. That's crazy. That's yeah, but you know, I mean, in Indiana, you have every city almost in Indiana. So a woman does not have to drive far. Sure. You know, if she needs a baby box. And so we've had 31 babies just in Indiana in our boxes. That's not even including the handoffs. You know, we still have women walking into fire stations and hospitals and handing their child to a person, even at baby box locations. And so um, that's you know, 31 just in the boxes in nine years. That's a lot of babies. But we also had a stretch of no dead babies in our state. And that's really where the success lies is it's not by how many babies we have in boxes, it's by how many babies we don't find dead, you know, in our state. That's really where we look at the success. And, you know, for you know, 10 years, we went without an abandoned baby found dead in our state until this past summer. And it was just devastating when we got the news that this little girl had died, you know, in a park. So um to answer your question, that was a long answer to your question.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's great. I I really think that we need to educate more on the safe haven laws, the safe haven baby boxes. I believe there's a lot of people out there that just don't have that information. And so this is really one reason why I wanted to get you on here to talk about it. It's been about a year and a half since we've had our reveal. Um, it it's not been used, thankfully. We've not had any issues in our city. Um, but it's very important for the community to know that it's there. Right. Um, one thing I do want to ask you is what are the common misconceptions about the program that you would like to clear up?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that we're just directing every woman to a baby box. You know, we've had 187 handoffs that we have facilitated through our hotline and uh 71 babies in the boxes. So you can see we're not we're not pushing women to boxes, we're pushing women to hand them to a firefighter or a medic. Uh, but we also aren't ignorant to the fact that if a mother doesn't want to hand the child to one of these guys, we better have an alternative or we're gonna find a baby in a dumpster or a trash can. You know, the other day there was a baby found, um, it was in uh Canada, I believe, outside the door of a firehouse on the ground. It's maybe survive, thankfully. But you don't have a box, and a woman goes to your fire station, and you know, these guys will be able to tell you better than anybody, they're not always there. You get a fire, you're leaving. You didn't join fire service to sit and man a baby box, right? I mean, or man the front door. You you go when you're called, and that's their job. And so if nobody is there and someone walks up to their facility and wants to hand a baby to them, how many fire stations is she gonna go to? Because they're not there. And I guarantee you, if they're out on a fire, the other three stations closest to them are on that same fire. So how many stations is she gonna go to until she just finally says, screw it, I'm just leaving this baby at the door? You know, and so um it's important to have uh at least one in a community, you know, and the larger the city, obviously you would want to have more, like Oklahoma City has four, you know, but they have a huge base.
SPEAKER_03:You know, you created the hotline, right? With uh that people can call in for if they're having problems or information and have helped over, I think I saw 9,000 people have reached out to that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, and that's the key. And it's also firefighters too. So when a firefighter has a mom standing in front of them, you know, we we want you to call us if you don't know what you're doing. You know, don't don't try to fumble through it. And I know firefighters are great at fumbling through things. You know, we kind of roll with everything, right? Well, in this case, you know, you can screw it up, you know, because this mother that is is handing a baby to you, she's gonna remember this moment for the rest of her life because this is one of those moments that you will not forget that, you know, as a mom, you would not forget. And what you say to her is going to matter. Absolutely. And so, you know, we want you to call. So some of those calls are from firefighters, you know, asking for advice because there's a mom standing at their door. Um, but the majority of them are from mothers that want to surrender. And we've referred, I don't even know how many, thousands probably at this point, to crisis pregnancy centers across the country. Um, if they are four weeks or out from delivering, um, that's not our, that's not our wheelhouse. Our wheelhouse is safe haven. And they're at a time where they can either do an adoption plan or a parenting plan, you know, figure something else out rather than a last resort option, which is a, which is a baby box or a safe haven handoff.
SPEAKER_02:And I really want to stress too that there is no shame in if you have a baby and you just feel like you can't take care of it, or you might have some other issue going on, you might not have a job or any way of means of pay providing. Um, there's no shame into passing this baby off to a fire department, a firefighter, or in the baby box, um, you know, you're giving this baby a better life than what you could provide for it.
SPEAKER_00:A chance. You're giving them a chance, you know, and you're right, there is no shame. There's no shame, there's no blame, there's no names, you know, at the baby box. But we also, when we come into a community with a baby box, we also train the staff. These guys have been trained. They're they're not sitting across here with a baby box in their facility without knowing every detail of the safe haven law because we have to educate them so that they get it right, you know, and that we can we can tell a mom, you know, go to Richmond Fire Department, walk in, we'll call them and let them know you're coming, you know. You don't have to use the box if you don't want to. And then we have, you know, the comfort in knowing that they're gonna do exactly what they were trained to do. And so it's a good thing. The training is a good thing, the cut the hotline is a good thing. We've really put this program together over the years, you know, it's taken a while to get to this point, but um, we've we've got a pretty good program going and it's helping moms and babies across this country.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's amazing how you guys have spread in just nine years and how um, I mean, you have a TikTok, you have a huge amount of followers. Um, it's just it's crazy. Uh so I really wanted to talk about too how does the safe haven baby box work? Um, what what are in place with the safe haven law for mothers um being anonymous? They cannot be asked what their name is or what the situation is, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, the the baby box, um, it's got three alarms on it. It's got the door alarm, the baby and box alarm, and the power-off alarm. So if the box loses power, it's no good with no power. So um there's an alarm that lets these guys know that it has no power. Um, and then the door actually locks when baby's placed inside. And so no one can come after this infant and take this infant out. Um, and the baby's average time is about two minutes from the time that the the door is open until um dispatch gets these guys to this to this baby box. Um but uh the box is actually pretty simple. It really is. I mean, when you see it, you you you think of oh, this really sophisticated thing, and then you're like, this is it.
SPEAKER_03:You know, it's got a heater in it and everything too, you know. I mean, so we train on it once a week on Saturdays. So everybody is fully trained. You know, you made it pretty streamlined as well. So we've got the numbers that we need to call. Um, to you know, you don't want it over the iRn or that public information out. So it's very guideline, and I think you guys did a great job of streamlining that.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02:So, Chris, I want to kind of jump over to you. I know you played a major role in getting the safe haven baby box here in Richmond. Can you kind of tell me a little bit how did that start? Who came up with it?
SPEAKER_04:Um, well, Monica came up with it.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean here in Richmond, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Um so the last five, I don't know, 10 years or so, there's been a large focus uh shift into first responders' mental health, um dealing with some of the things we have to deal with and that sort of thing. Um and every once in a while we'll come across a story on on TikTok or some other social media or just a newspaper report or something of something terrible happening to uh a small child, an infant from abandonment issues, you know, such as finding them in trash cans or some other way of unsafely discarding them, I guess. Um and so initially my thought process was if we can prevent something like that from happening, we're going to save our first responders for some mental health. So I approached um in the summer of 2022, I approached the um the current fire chief and basically asked for his blessing to pursue this uh this uh task. Um and uh it was granted uh it took us almost two full years to get it done, but uh, we had some bumps in the roads and so on and so forth. Uh but we were eventually able to get it done. And I I won't sit here and take credit for it. I was the common denominator from beginning to now, uh, but there was so many hands involved in this getting it done from community partners helping us um fund the construction cost and just uh several different administrations um through the city building and at the fire department and volunteers and so on and so forth. Uh so but that's uh where I play in it is I was worried about or focused on um first responders' mental health. And after doing some research into the baby box, I found out that there was a there was a real need for it and it had been used multiple times and it was a growing product and all these sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00:Did did you guys uh did you guys have complete uh community involvement where no tax dollars paid for anything?
SPEAKER_04:Uh I can't say there was none, but it was very minimal.
SPEAKER_00:Very minimal.
SPEAKER_04:Very minimal.
SPEAKER_00:See, that's what I love about this program is we're not asking the city to fork a bill, you know, we're asking the community to come together for the betterment of moms and babies. And, you know, I I have a um a uh a sheriff in Green County, Wisconsin that is coming on my podcast that exactly what you're talking about with the mental health, he had a 16-year-old kid that got a brand new baby, knew the safe haven law, didn't want to go to the fire station for fear that they knew him, took this baby out back and literally shot this baby twice. And this first the this the sheriff is forever changed because of this scene. And this is exactly I mean, that that was probably the most gruesome scene, I think, ever. But when a baby dies, first respond, it's something totally different. It it affects us in a way that we will never let it go. And so having a baby alive in a box for two minutes versus pulling a baby from a dumpster 16 hours after this baby, clinging to life, it's like there's no question. There's no question. And these guys see it every day.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't imagine. Uh, you know, I really highly appraise our first responders, you know, firefighters, medics, paramedics, emts, police officers. Um, you guys see a lot of the bad things that we as normal people, me, I don't see. And I don't know if I could handle seeing something like that.
SPEAKER_03:It's it's the saves that make the difference, right? I mean, when you when you actually save a baby or make that difference, that's how you keep going and putting your uniform on every day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, or you you deliver a baby. That's you know, you get to see life, you know, and that's just an amazing thing too. Uh, which, you know, I'm sure you guys have probably been a part of a few of them.
SPEAKER_03:Got a couple stork pins.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, you have to have those. I mean, that's that's that's like a given, you know, if you're in the fire service and you deliver, you you get some feet. Right.
SPEAKER_02:So are there any volunteer opportunities uh within your organization or promoting?
SPEAKER_00:We are actually working on a website right now. It's called Safe Haven Ed. Um, and it is going to put the ball into the community's court because I can't do this by myself. You know, I mean, we have a team of nine and we have volunteers in multiple cities, but we have so many more people that are like, hey, I want to do something. And so this website is going to be attached to Safe Haven Baby Boxes is going to give them something to do, you know, because we we can't expect these guys to go into the schools. I mean, it'd be great if they had the time, you know, but they don't. Um, but educating the kids, you know, I mean, if you don't tell people in Richmond that this box is here if you need it, we're not telling you to use it, we're just saying, hey, it's here, you know, if you or your friend find yourself in this situation, it's here. Um, if nobody's telling them that, they're never gonna know that it's there. And and so, and that's when bad things happen. And and so we have to get the information into their um into their hands before the crisis occurs. Because when the crisis occurs, they're not thinking clearly. Right. And so we have to get that information in there. And so that information is going to be at the the community level. You know, how much do you want to do? What do you want to do? Do you want to go into the schools? Do you want to educate? Can you drop off stuff at at the counselor's office or you know, whatever it is? Um, but we're we're gonna let the communities take it and and run with it because that's really what needs to happen.
SPEAKER_01:Now you've actually been to a couple of high schools and spoke, correct?
SPEAKER_00:I am in high schools, usually every every couple times a month, I would say. At first in Indiana, I was in them like every week, a couple times a week. I mean, I was nailing schools down, but it's like I can't do I wish I had the time, but I can't do that anymore. Um, and it really is a community project, though. You know, I mean, these guys being here today is a direct reflection of the fire department saying, we need to get the word out. We, we, we don't want anything bad to happen, you know? And this is just a tool in their toolbox, you know, along with many other tools that they have. Um, and uh, and so having them out here and educating is critical. We had, and this would be great if you guys, I mean, I know you guys don't have a TikTok channel, but even Facebook or Instagram or whatever, just do little videos, little videos of the box, put it on social media and have your community just share it. You know, that's that's how you're just gonna get the word out. Just simple things like that. Doesn't cost any money. Uh, social media is free. Um, but the little things like that will make the biggest difference.
SPEAKER_03:Um little promo of how it works. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Literally, you can stand in front of the baby box, show how it works, and it'll get million millions of views. I don't know what it is about the baby box, but you just stand in front of it, it will get millions of views. Like, I don't know. I mean, you'll get the negative people too, like, oh, is this an oven? Like, can I put my 14-year-old in it? You know? And I'm at the point now where I'm telling people we're making spouse boxes because, you know, because people want to bring their husbands, and I'm like, no, we don't need any more husbands.
SPEAKER_02:Uh now the baby boxes, they have an age limit, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So every state is different. State of Indiana is 60 days. We went from 30 days to 60 days this year. Um, and I I'm a I I agree with the 30 days. I wasn't really sold on the 60 days, but the Department of Child Services came to us, and there were babies that were being born in the hospital that were going to the NICU. And in the NICU, their parents were leaving and not coming back. And these babies were being discharged from the NICU after 30 days. And so they couldn't put them through the safe haven program if their parents allowed it, you know, if they recommended it. And so they said, Well, what do you think about moving it up to 60 days? And so we decided. You know what? I'm here to save babies. Um, so whatever we need to do. So Indiana, it's 60 days. Um every state is different though. You go to North Dakota, it's a year. Okay. Uh New Mexico, it's 90 days, you know. So you really need to um make sure that you know what state it is. Like I'm sure you probably have listeners outside of the state, probably Ohio. Ohio is 30 days. So um, so yeah. So they would definitely need to make sure what what the age limit is in their state.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And they can just Google that.
SPEAKER_00:They can go to our website. Yeah. SHPB.org. Yep. There's actually a map of the United States. They click on it and it'll tell you. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So uh another thing that we're gonna do today is we're gonna have a demonstration, uh, just to show everybody, which I'm really excited for. Um but really it's you know, just getting the word out about what the safe haven baby boxes your organization does, uh, what are the safety nets for the mothers and being anonymous. And so that's why I really wanted to get everyone on here. I wanted to get the fire department on here and talk about how did it come about enrichment. You know, and you guys are doing a great job training and making sure that, you know, you guys are up to date on what you need to do in in this event. If this event happens here in our town, which you know, we we really push for someone to use this. You know, it's it's so anonymous, you don't have to worry about it, just go and use it and then you can leave. And I believe there's a little care package or a bag for the mother, correct?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there's an orange bag with resources in it. You know, she can get free counseling, she can get free medical care. Um, everything that we do, we we we put it, you know, we we don't just walk the walk or we just we don't just talk the talk, we walk the walk. It almost messed that up, didn't I? And uh, and so everything that we do, we make sure that mom's okay, you know, because we got to make sure mom's okay. Um, that's one of the things that people criticize me on. They're like, oh, you're just caring about the baby. And it's like, no, no, no, no. We care about mom, but we're also meeting mom where she is. You know, most organizations they want to do all this great stuff for moms. Well, what do they need? What do they want? You know, and so we meet them where they are. And some of these moms are exactly where they need to be for themselves, and that is at a baby box.
SPEAKER_02:Can you tell us how this ha this program's evolved over the years from the start of it to now?
SPEAKER_00:So, uh, what box number were you guys? Do you guys remember?
SPEAKER_04:We were talking about that earlier. I think it was 131 or 132.
SPEAKER_00:That last year.
SPEAKER_04:Uh, I'm sorry, in Indiana. Oh, in Indiana. I think we were four something nationwide. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_00:No, you because we're hitting 400 on Friday next week. You were probably one something too. Um, if it was last July. But but you know, going from the first baby box to, you know, Richmond fire from last year, that was what a difference of seven years. Um, the first boxes didn't have the bassinet in it, which it's interesting because the bassinet, the whole purpose we put a bassinet in is for these guys because our babies that we're getting have the placenta still attached. A lot, I mean, like 75% of them. And so you have, you can't pick up a placenta, you have to scoop up a placenta. And so we put a bassinet in there so that all these guys got to do is grab the bassinet and get in the ambulance instead of trying to fumble to get this baby and and everything that's coming with this baby out. And so that's one of the things that we made a change on. Um, and you know, my critics at the beginning, the door didn't lock. And so they were like, oh, somebody's gonna come and steal this baby. This is trafficking at its best, you know? And and I'm like, you know what? That's a good point. And so I went back to the drawing board and I'm like, guys, I looked at my engineers and I'm like, you gotta make this door lock. And they're like, oh, that's simple. And it's like, you know, so we listened to the critics at the beginning, and I think it made our box a lot better than than what I had dreamt up, you know. I mean, I'm just a firefighter and a medic, ex-military, and and it's like, I'm I'm not an engineer. I mean, I hand drew this on a napkin for the for the love of Pete, you know?
SPEAKER_03:That was one of my questions was when you came from South Africa to the very first baby box in 2016, how long was that process?
SPEAKER_00:Uh 2013, I was in South Africa. So three years. Okay. Yeah. And and I had to pass legislation also, you know. And and during that part of passing legislation, the Department of Child Services and Department of Health in Indiana fought me. I mean, I had like$400 in my baby box checking account, and I had to hire a lawyer because they served me with papers, told me to shut the boxes down. They're illegal. And it's like, I had to fight. And that's what I did. And it's it's interesting because I was they recommended that I shut the boxes down until we got the legal part figured out, right? And I said, no, I'm not doing anything illegal. So why am I going to shut them down? And uh, and then we got a baby. And so if I would have shut that box down, where would that baby be today? You know what I mean? And so, and then five months later we got our second baby. And I'm like, you know, you you guys cannot ignore the fact that women are using these boxes now, you know, two in five months, two. Um, you you gotta open up your, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Thinking a little.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's wild that they were trying to shut you down. Yeah. Um, I didn't realize that. So I I've been watching your TikToks. Um, and it was really weird. I was just scrolling on TikTok and you came and I was like, She looks so familiar. And then I saw what you were talking about, and I was like, oh my gosh, I met her back in June when she was here in Richmond. Um, and then we started talking to Kevin, who does our podcast, and so we were like, you know what? This is a great idea to get you on here and let's talk about it again. We really pushed it back in June when it first we first revealed it. Um, and then it kind of just like went off, you know, the radar, and we've got other things we're talking about. And so, no, it's really great to come back around, let's talk about it again, let's educate everyone to know that it's still here, still can be utilized, what it's for. Um, what are your goals for the safe haven baby box in the next five years?
SPEAKER_00:You know, uh, I don't have any goals um because I'm not driving the bus. You know, Christ is driving the bus. So wherever he wants me to go is where I'll go. And I'll tell you it's it's been a ride since I started this. The ride's been bumpy. I've made some turns and some stops that I didn't anticipate. Um, but at the end of the day, I know I'm in the safest vehicle because Christ is in charge. I mean, you look at my life from the very beginning to where I was. I mean, I was I I graduated high school, joined the military. And the military, I got my love for firefighting. Now I'm in, you know, and then I joined the fire service when I got out of the military. Now I'm in fire stations all the time. And it's like it, it's it's a bond. You know, it's it's it's a respect between them and me. And it's I and Christ knew I needed that. He knew I needed that in order for them to be able to trust me to do the work that I do today. And so Christ is in charge. I don't know where I'm gonna be in five years. I hope I'm retired on a beach with a margarita in my hand, to be honest with you. But I don't think that's gonna happen just yet. You know, one one of my one of my personal goals, I'll say this, one of my personal goals is that when I do retire, that one of the babies that have been saved in our box takes my job.
SPEAKER_02:That would be amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Wouldn't that be amazing? Um, because I it's a nonprofit, so I can't take it when I go, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Do you guys follow up with the babies that have been surrendered to see how they're doing?
SPEAKER_00:We do. Um, we have a relationship with a lot of these kids. And that's the fruit of our labor. You know, it's like we don't work to get recognition from them or, you know, to have a relationship with them. That's just kind of like the icing on the cake because we really fight for these moms to keep their babies safe. And the icing on the cake is getting to know these babies and getting to know these moms too. You know, I mean, we have friends with a lot of these birth moms that trust us, even after they put their baby in a box, you know, they'll call us. And uh, I have one mom, and she is on episode nine of my podcast, Beyond the Box. She came to Indiana, she's not from the state, but she came to Indiana and she we had the camera behind her head, so you cannot see her face, but she was willing to not like alter her voice. And so you get to hear her story and why she used our box.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And it's incredible because I would consider her a close friend. I mean, she I would invite her for Christmas dinner, you know, like that's the relationship that that her and I have now, and we text all the time. Um, and I have probably I mean, I have probably 40 of these moms on my phone, um, where probably five I text weekly. You know, and sometimes it's just it's you know, funny jokes, you know, like memes or, you know, like stupid videos of dogs, you know. Yeah, it it's just little things, you know. But um, to me that that means so much to me to be able to walk alongside these moms who trusted me. You know, they they didn't know me, they trusted me, and then they contacted us, and now they're walking with me. It's just it's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:Have you had a mom come and join your team?
SPEAKER_00:She she has. So uh episode nine, she um she is working now with birth moms. Wow. Yeah. So um we do have another one that volunteers uh for us. So you'll see uh some of the blessings that we have across the country. Um when she's available, she'll go. And you won't know who she is. You'll never know who she is. And she looks like everybody else, you know, but um, but that's her way of giving back, you know, and it's it's a blessing for us because we get to know her heart and we get to know some of the reasons why, you know, which is I think is important for us to know.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because then you can kind of change how you might operate the safe haven baby boxes if you know the reason why.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, and in this podcast on episode nine, uh, it's interesting she talks about the orange bag. And she said, when it hit her feet, she opened the baby box door, and when it hit her feet is when she realized, okay, we're doing this because she's seen the orange bag video on TikTok so many times. And she said, it hit my feet. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm really gonna do this now. There's that orange bag that I've seen on, you know, it's and it's just it's it's the education on TikTok is incredible. Um, even just doing a silly little video. Um, it's reaching these moms and it's showing them that we don't care about their names. We don't care about who they are. Um, we know their heart, especially if they're choosing a box because they're choosing something safe for their child. Um, and they're and they're also basically saying, I want what's best for my child, and it's not me. And that's pretty heroic, to be honest with you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So, Monica, the the last question I have for you, and then I'll let them ask any questions, is what do you hope listeners will take away from learning about Safe Haven Baby Box today?
SPEAKER_00:Um, that we are an organization that is um out there just trying to save moms and babies and and in a moment of crisis, we want them to turn to us so that we can help them. Um, and I and I hope that the the listeners understand um that there is boxes all over Indiana. So if there is a mom out there that needs to utilize this or knows a friend or a friend's friend, you know, or there's conversation in the back room or whatever, um, that they know that this is a safe place for them to come, that these guys will take care of this baby here locally, um, that they've got it from there. Um, that's whole that's what I hope people take away from it. That's great.
SPEAKER_02:Do you guys have any questions for Monica?
SPEAKER_03:You want to go first? Oh, go ahead. Okay. Um, so if like a fire department or somebody's interested in getting a baby box installed, is it on your website on how to go about the process of getting it, kind of cost and all that stuff too?
SPEAKER_00:Or yeah, so they can go to the website shbb.org um and they fill out a form of you know what state, because every state's different, you know, again, um, and we email them a um, it's like a PDF uh that my team has put together. Um and it's a literally a roadmap, you know, showing them how to get from point. I think you probably seen it.
SPEAKER_04:It'll tell you every step to take.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and you can't go to the next step until you finish this step, you know, and so we've made it pretty easy. I mean, but um, but a community has to do it. We we have a community that we're struggling with right now. And uh, I'm not gonna name the community, obviously, but the fire department really didn't want to do the program, but the community members push them to do it. And when a fire department doesn't want to do something, they're going to bucket. They're they they they just are. They're just not gonna handle, I mean, they're gonna handle any baby that comes through there like like anybody else that would come through there. Um, but it's always it's sometimes it's just a a challenge to get them to, you know, buy in. Do yeah, they gotta buy in. Yeah. And so it's a struggle. So if there's a community out there, the fire department has to buy in. They they have they have to want to do it. Um, and this is a volunteer program, you know, you don't have to do it if you don't want to do it. That's okay, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Um, so I forgot the question now on that, the the buy-in from the fire department and stuff like that. When we started this program, there's always a few jokes about, you know, what is this thing? Why is it here? Some people agree with it, some people disagree with it. Um, but obviously we had already made the decision. We were moving forward with it. Once it was installed, training started happening, education started happening. I'm pretty sure we have a hundred percent buy-in on this at this point. Whereas before I would say it was maybe 70% or so.
SPEAKER_00:Wait till you get your first baby.
SPEAKER_04:I bet. I bet.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, nobody's as good as Carmel is. You know, Carmel's had four babies in their box, you know, they always have to outbeat every fire department in the state, you know. But you're you're absolutely right though. It's you know, when they understand the program, when you understand what's at stake, and that we're not pushing women to it, we're just saying, hey, it's here if you need it. Um, people understand then. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Uh the only other thing I wanted to say was uh once once you have the baby box delivered and it's installed and everything, you're not on your own at that point. They they have a uh annual maintenance schedule. Uh if anything goes wrong with the box in your kit, you're supplied with signs in order to remove it from service. Um during our weekly inspections if we find any problems. Um the I don't know if it's still there now, but the paperwork we had at the time actually had Monica's personal cell phone to call her if there's a lot of it.
SPEAKER_00:It still does. Yeah, it still does.
SPEAKER_04:So it's not just a here's your item. We'll see you later. They they maintain contact. Uh like I said, uh the orange packet uh this year when they came to do the maintenance on it. There was some things that were removed from that and some new things that were added to it. So it's it's constant new information, probably updates with the law, I would assume, that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Well, this year we had an update in the law. So they had to update every orange bag when they went out to do the maintenance on them. And so we just basically bring you new bags and then just kind of circle them through, you know. But you will always have the most updated information. And we will always be the ones that they call if there's anything wrong with the box. Um, and we usually are there if there's a problem, usually within 48 hours because we can't have these boxes down. If a mother needs it and it's down for a week, we might just miss that opportunity to save this baby's life. And so uh we take that very seriously, but our boxes don't go down, so it's not not very often we have any problems with them at all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. No, I I would imagine you guys take really good care maintenance-wise of these boxes. Um yearly, you guys just come and do a check on those then.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, when I started this, I there are some fire stations that, yeah, they're kind of a little rough around the edges. Okay. And then you got some cities like like, you know, like Richmond Fire that, you know, do things by the book. But when I started Safe Haven Baby Boxes, I wanted to have oversight on them just to make sure that they were doing their job. Because if a baby dies in their box, not only is it gonna make them look bad, it's gonna make me look bad. And so we check everybody's logs to make sure that they're doing, they do their tests on Saturdays. And you'll see in their log that every Saturday they log their test, you know, and so, and if they fail that test, they call us, you know, and I don't think we've ever received a call from you guys. So they've probably never failed it. But um, but I wanted to have oversight so that there were more people looking to make sure that everybody was following along on the process. And it's been very successful. There's been a couple of times where we've had to, you know, um push some people back into play, you know, per se. Uh, but um, but for the most part, these guys know what they're doing, you know. We just sit back and wait for them to call us that they got a baby.
SPEAKER_02:I actually do have one more question for you. Do you have a safe haven baby box in every state right now, or is there a few states missing?
SPEAKER_00:We have them in 24 states right now. Okay. Yeah. So we're still working on other states, but I always say I don't know where uh what state I'm gonna open next month or next year. Um, Christ does. I don't. I don't know where I'm gonna be. But I'll tell you what, if it's warm, I'm the one that's going there. Nobody else on my team.
SPEAKER_02:I agree, especially with this weather we've been having.
SPEAKER_00:I know it's been crazy. We'll be in um uh Naples, Florida. We're launching a box in Naples, Florida, uh like five days before Christmas, and I'm like, oh, I am going on that one. Sign me up. I don't care whose name is on it, take their name off and put me on.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I agree. I had an aunt that lived in Naples for a couple years. It's really beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:I can't wait. Yeah. And we have, you know, there's me, there's Mariah, there's Jesse. We have three people doing blessings, you know, from our team. And then we have a couple volunteers. A state senator does them in one state. And um uh we're doing, you know, usually right now it's kind of a slow time because it's holiday season, but usually we're doing three to five a week.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, in in 24 states somewhere in America, we're we're launching boxes, and so it's it's pretty incredible to see the communities come together to do this.
SPEAKER_02:No, that it really is. Um, I'm trying to remember the first story I heard of a baby being surrendered into a box, and I want to say it was in Indiana, probably because I listened to more Indiana news. But um, yeah, it's it's it's amazing what you guys are doing. And I want to thank you personally for, you know, coming up with this to bring this back here and striving and fighting for it.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. I appreciate that. To God be the glory.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. So um next we're going to go over to Fire Station One. Sounds good. This is what I'm excited for. Get everyone to see this baby box and see how it works and uh just show us that you have a safe place to pay play put your baby when you you can't provide for it or you need extra help yourself.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. Yep. So no, I'm let's do it. And I love I that's my second home, it's a firehouse. So let's do this.
SPEAKER_02:Monica, Nick, Chris. Thank you for joining me. That's inside Richmond, the city's pulse. Make sure to join us next time.