MITCHELL – The State of Indiana has currently installed over 100 Safe Haven Baby Boxes to this date, and the City of Mitchell will finally be able to get on that list of locations.
Before leaving Mitchell High School for the North Lawrence Career Center, Amy Redman and her students attended a City Council meeting to discuss the possibility of installing a Safe Haven Box for Mitchell. Funding of the project, and ensuring that a box can be installed at an unmanned fire department were two of the issues for this project to happen.
“We had to wait for the next legislative session for the law to change for us to install the box at the building,” said Mitchell Mayor J.D. England. “Funding was a major concern, but after only two weeks of the class reaching out, over $13,000 was raised. So we had our funding, and we were finally able to secure a location, it was then just a matter of acquiring the materials for the project to be completed.”
The Baby Box was delivered and will be installed on April 26th and 27th. At this point, everything has been donated and members of the community have come together to install the new box at the Mitchell Volunteer Fire Department building at 105 N. Industrial Parkway.
“It truly is amazing how much help the community has been with this project so far. The ability to provide a service like this is truly incredible,” said Mayor England. “We are more than grateful for these donations of time and material. I also, want to thank Amy Redman and her students for their hard work on the project.”
Henry Shetler owner of Five Star Construction and David Hopper owner of Hopper Construction is installing the box, while Rick Butterfield is handling the electrical work. ECS will be setting up the alarm system, and Lowe’s is donating building materials for installation. Kirby Risk is donating electrical supplies.
Safe Haven Baby Box Inc. is a non-profit founded by firefighter/medic Monica Kelsey, who was abandoned as an infant and is committed to installing more Safe Haven Baby Boxes to lower infant abandonment.
The organization offers a Safe Haven National Crisis Hotline at 1-866-99BABY1 and is available 24 hours, 7 days a week, and promotes education of Safe Haven laws as part of their mission to raise awareness in communities across America.
Click here for a full list of Safe Haven Box locations.
