Monica Kelsey (left), director of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and her husband, Joe Kelsey, mayor of Woodburn, talk in support of the baby box program Tuesday night before Warsaw City Council. The program was adopted unanimously.

WARSAW – Less than 24 hours after a counselor with Safe Haven Baby Boxes helped coordinate a lawful surrender of a baby in a nearby city, Warsaw City Council formally embraced plans Tuesday, Feb. 19, to install one of the group’s baby boxes at Fire Station No. 2.

While the groundwork for installation of the box had been prepared by Mayor Joe Thallemer over the course of about six months, the unexpected surrender of a baby early Tuesday morning in Columbia City — and confirmation last week of another surrender earlier this month in Kosciusko County — appeared to give the program overwhelming credence as council considered the program.

The agreement came together after a fundraising campaign by a right to life group collected more than $10,000 to pay for the box, firefighters from across Kosciusko County endorsed the program and the city agreed in principle to contribute a few thousand dollars to upgrade security measures at the fire station.

After about 30 minutes of discussion, six council members unanimously signaled their support with an emphatic, louder-than-normal chorus of “ayes.”

“For two reasons, today is a great day,” said Monica Kelsey, founder and director of the non-profit Woodburn-based group.

Warsaw joins a growing list of Indiana communities that are adopting the program after the state passed legislation a year ago that allows fire stations that are staffed 24 hours a day to legally receive unwanted babies.

Boxes have been installed and being used in six cities in the state and others in Ohio. Numerous others, including two other nearby communities, are looking at the same program.

Thallemer said it will take a month or two to install the box and complete testing of the box. 

Kelsey said the baby box program relies foremost on counselors who seek to provide other options to mothers who reach out to them, and that dropping off a newborn in a baby box is viewed as the last good option.

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, she said a counselor received a call from a woman who had just given birth. Within hours, she called 911 and met emergency responders in a Walmart parking lot in Columbia City.

A week ago, the group confirmed a woman in Kosciusko County had handed her baby over to emergency responders.

Kelsey credits an area billboard campaign supporting the group’s hotline for encouraging the women to explore their options. The billboards were paid for by Right To Life Of North Central Indiana.

Above is a copy of a billboard promoting a hotline through Safe Haven Baby Boxes. The director credits the billboards for two recent surrenders.

In both cases, the babies were medically checked out and turned over to the Indiana Department of Child Services, Kelsey said.

“If we don’t have this option available, I’m afraid that one day we might have a baby being pulled out of a dumpster in one of the surrounding towns. We ’ve been very blessed over the last two weeks to be able to assist these two mothers with surrendering safely in Kosciusko County and Whitley County,” Kelsey told city council.

Tuesday’s surrender marks the 45th coordinated with the group, Kelsey said.

Among those expressing support for the program were several council members, Dave Koontz, director of Right To Life of North Central Indiana; Kosciusko County Coroner Tony Ciriello, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Chief Mike Wilson and Kelsey’s husband Joe, who is mayor of Woodburn where one of the boxes is located.

Kosciusko County’s fire association unanimously voted to support the placement of a box in the county last year. Wilson said they are preparing a protocol on how to respond when a baby is surrendered.

“It’s all about the mother, the child and the community,” Wilson said.

The security upgrades at the fire station will involve a monitoring system to detect smoke and monitor the box. The cost will be about $3,200, Wilson said.

Councilman Jack Wilhite asked Kelsey about a person, apparently from the east coast, who has reached out to various officials and extensively criticized the program. Kelsey said he had been harassing her for years before a court established a lifetime injunction preventing him from contacting her. She called the situation “unhealthy.”

The city board of works and safety will also review the plan March 1.

Warsaw-Wayne Fire Chief Mike Wilson speaks in favor of the baby box program Tuesday in Warsaw.