Baby box officially open in Savannah
SAVANNAH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Officials in Andrew County have unveiled a tool that aims to save babies at the Savannah Rural Fire House.
A ribbon-cutting and blessing ceremony was held for a new baby box "to bring a potentially life-saving alternative to parents who need to relinquish custody of a newborn."
The ribbon cutting featured State Rep. Dean Van Schoiack and Sen. Rusty Black along with Monica Kelsey, founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
"I wish everybody could have seen this whole process go down through my eyes," said Sara Chamberlain, co-chair of Andrew County Community Builders. "The people that have come out to meet us, not even from the city and the entire county, I'm talking other parts of the state, other counties neighboring us."
A community effort to raise a goal of $40,000 was achieved to help build and now maintain the baby box located at 107 U.S. Highway 71 in Savannah, Missouri.
Kelsey said all the baby boxes are designed and built the same.
"We are talking to people in Billings, Montana, and Jacksonville, Florida," Kelsey said. "They have to look the same because when someone is looking for a box, we want them to just be able to google it and see the same thing every time."
The box was finished in early December 2024 but training was needed before it could be public. Co-chair of Andrew County Community Builders Steve Smith said the training included making sure everyone was CPR certified (adult and infant), as well as AED certified to be a first responder with the baby box.
"This makes sure that not only our ambulance responders are trained in it, that also means that our firefighters are trained in it," Smith said.
Once the outer door of the box is opened, an alarm system will alert a monitoring company and the recovery process starts.
"It also immediately sends an alarm to a monitoring company who in turn calls Andrew County Sheriff's Office, which is the dispatch for all the agencies," Smith said. "As soon as they receive the alarm, they dispatch out the alarm to the ambulance, then fire, then law enforcement."
All three agencies will respond to the alarm and steps will be taken once on the scene to treat and transport the child.
Across the nation, there are 325 baby boxes and now Savannah's is the sixth in Missouri.
Kelsey said she has met a lot of the babies that have been dropped off and has relationships with the adoptive parents as well as the parents who surrendered the kids.
"For me to be able to walk alongside them and be that safe place for them to fall, just kind of brings a little bit of peace to me, knowing that my birth mom didn't have that so I'm being that for someone else." Kelsey said.
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