KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In Garden City, Kansas, there’s a new way to prevent child abandonment – thanks to the efforts of two college students.
A “Safe Haven Baby Box” opened at a Garden City fire station this week. It’s the first baby box in western Kansas.
Liberty family pushes for Safe Haven Boxes in KC to save newborns
It started as a community service project for Kadence Butteris and Ava Wilson, but it turned into something much bigger.
A baby box is a climate controlled box that’s designed to ensure the safe and anonymous surrender of infants. When a newborn is put inside, the exterior door locks automatically and a silent alarm will sound to notify emergency responders.
The goal is to save the lives of newborn babies who might otherwise be abandoned.
“I started Safe Haven Baby Boxes based on my own beginnings of being abandoned as an infant,” said Monica Kelsey, founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
“I didn’t want other children to not have resources.”
Since 2016, she’s worked to install baby boxes in more than 20 states.
“We see these stories all over America of a baby being dumped somewhere in an unsafe place,” she said.
“We’re just giving them (parents) an option, and they can choose it – or they don’t have to choose it.”
This Garden City baby box is the third in the state, behind Hutchinson and Salina. In Kansas, parents have 60 days to legally surrender infants.
“I hope no one ever has to use the baby box, but it makes me very glad to know that it is here for people who are needing it,” Butteris said.
You can learn more about safely surrendering a newborn in Kansas, click here.
A Liberty, Missouri, family has also been pushing for Kansas City to get its own baby box. Currently, there are none in the city.
KSNW contributed to this report.
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