Catholics lead efforts in Mooresville, New Castle to install baby boxes
Members of Knights of Columbus Council 7431 in Mooresville join Father Francis Kalapurackal and Monica Kelsey on Sept. 1 outside a fire station in Mooresville for the dedication of a new Safe Haven baby box. Father Kalapurackal is pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Mooresville. Kelsey is the founder of Safe Haven Baby Boxes. (Submitted photo)
By Sean Gallagher
On Oct. 9, a newborn baby was safely and legally surrendered in a Safe Haven baby box at a fire station on the southwest side of Indianapolis.
Such saving of life could soon take place in Mooresville and New Castle. Thanks to the help of the Knights of Columbus and others, Safe Haven baby boxes were recently installed in fire stations in those towns, in Mooresville on Sept. 1 and in New Castle on Oct. 1.
Father John Hall, pastor of St. Anne Parish in New Castle, praised the Knights for helping to “provide a means for a mother who feels overwhelmed in caring for her newborn baby to preserve the life of the child.
“Her child can continue to have a fulfilling life,” he said.
The Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization has designed the lifesaving devices and has them made for locations that raise the approximately $15,000 for their construction and installation. It also provides first responders with instruction on Safe Haven baby box laws and how to best handle the surrendering of a baby.
“Leaders in communities are seeing this as a pro-active measure to avoid any situation that might lead to an abandonment,” said Chanel Cunningham, director of programs and administration of the Woodburn, Ind.-based Safe Haven Baby Boxes. “Instead of having their first responders finding a baby abandoned in an illegal location, they’re able to provide a safe and legal option that doesn’t require a face-to-face interaction.”
The organization works closely with community members who want to bring a baby box to their city or town.
This anonymous and legal way of surrendering babies was made possible in Indiana through a law passed by the General Assembly in 2015, with some adjustments made in subsequent years.
The baby box in New Castle is the 41st such Safe Have baby box installed in Indiana, with 23 being installed since the start of 2020. There are now 13 in the archdiocese. As this newspaper went to press, three more were scheduled to become operational in the state, including one in Clarksville.
The Oct. 9 baby surrendering was the fifth in Indiana in 2020 and the ninth since Safe Haven baby boxes began to be installed in state fire stations and hospitals in 2016.
Members of Knights of Columbus Council 7431 in Mooresville worked hard in 2019 to raise funds in the broader community for a baby box in their town.
“It’s been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had as a member of the Knights of Columbus,” said Larry Janaczek, a member of the council and of St. Thomas More Parish in Mooresville. “It’s one of the most pro-life things that you could do.”
The Knights worked with other organizations in Mooresville and with Dustin Stanley, a member of Mooresville’s town council, who was pleased to see such collaboration between local government and faith-based and civic organizations.
“Those bridges should already be there,” said Stanley. “A lot of times they’re not. We’re all working for a much larger picture.”
Satisfaction in seeing a community come together to promote the common good through the installation of a baby box was also experienced by William Huber, grand knight of Knights of Columbus Council 1755 in New Castle.
“It demonstrates that we have a community that cares about each other,” said Huber, a member of St. Anne Parish in New Castle. “It’s not us versus them. We work with the government in partnership. It was an opportunity to bring the community together. It brought everybody together.”
“Mayor Greg York of New Castle mentioned at the dedication that the city of New Castle cares,” said Father Hall. “And the Knights of Columbus is paving a path to help New Castle to care for all people, especially the little ones and families that are going through tough times.”
Father Francis Kalapurackal, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish, was similarly proud of his parishioners who put their pro-life principles into action in making a baby box available for their community.
“I pray that a Safe Haven baby box comes in every town in the country,” he said, “because every life is precious and therefore to be respected, nurtured and protected from conception to natural death.”
Cunningham expects many more boxes to be installed in the coming months, and has seen interest in states across the country beyond Arkansas and Ohio, where four Safe Haven baby boxes have been installed.
“We’re looking forward,” she said. “We’re looking at this and hoping we can be nationwide in the short term.”
Cunningham reflected on the satisfaction of seeing the boxes achieve the pro-life goal for which they were made.
“It’s mind-blowing,” she said. “Having nine babies placed in baby boxes allows us to see the fruits of our labor. There’s a lot of work involved in getting a baby box installed in a community. We do so much more work in raising awareness, educating and training our first responders. And it continues to grow.”
(For more information about Safe Haven Baby Boxes, visit shbb.org. Safe Haven Baby Boxes also has a phone number for mothers in crisis pregnancies. It is 866-992-2291.) †
