BGFD Lovers Lane gains infant surrender baby box

Safe Haven boxes blessed and available 24/7

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Bowling Green Fire Department Station #7 off Lovers Lane is now home to the nation’s newest Safe Haven Baby Box.

Blessed with a prayer, the Baby Box is now available 24/7 for women in crisis who need to anonymously and safely surrender newborns.

This is the 15th Baby Box in Kentucky and the 132nd in the nation.

“The Safe Haven baby box is a proactive measure for this community,” said BGFD Fire Chief Justin Brooks. “The Fire Department has gained the respect and trust of this community from its service over the years. We are the place that people show up when they are in need and we’ll still be that place because we are those people who can make it better.”

When a mother places her baby inside the climate-controlled box, a silent alarm notifies first responders who will asses the surrendered child’s wellbeing within minutes.

So far, Twenty-one infants have been placed in a Baby Box since founder & CEO of Safe Haven Baby Box Monica Kelsey introduced the surrender stations in 2017.

“My birth mother abandoned me two hours after I was born,” shared Kelsey. “She didn’t have a legal option of surrendering me safely. So, I want women today to have this option so that these babies can grow up knowing that they were loved, that they were legally and anonymously surrendered because their mother loved them so much that she wanted something better for them.”

Kelsey says expanding to Bowling Green is a milestone but far from her end goal.

“The long-term mission is to end infant abandonment, and if I can do that through these boxes, that would be amazing.”

The Bowling Green Baby Box is the 15th location in Kentucky located at 385 Lovers Lane, Bowling Green KY, 42013.