Parents who are unable to care for an infant now have a safe and anonymous option in Foley.
A Safe Haven Baby Box has been installed and is now operational at Foley Fire Station No. 1 on West Verbena Avenue.
Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby said firefighters and city officials worked for several years to bring the project to the community. The city partnered with Safe Haven Baby Boxes, a national nonprofit that works with mothers in crisis and provides secure locations where infants can be safely surrendered if parents have no other option.
Darby said the program offers an important safeguard for both infants and parents.
“In a perfect world, my prayer would be that this box is never used and there is never a need for it,” Darby said. “But we don’t live in a perfect world. The reality is that babies are being surrendered. This gives us an opportunity to change the life of a baby and also help the life of that baby’s parents and the extended community. We take that responsibility very seriously.”
The box is located on the east side of the fire station, away from the main entrance. A parent can open the exterior door and place the infant inside a cushioned compartment. When the door is opened, a silent alarm is triggered inside the station.
Once the alarm activates, the 911 center alerts responders and firefighters can retrieve the infant from inside the building to begin immediate care.
“Our staff has been trained,” Darby said. “Our staff is already in the business of saving lives, but now they’ve been trained specifically for this box. They are fully committed to making sure this program works.”
The infant will then be transported by ambulance to Baldwin Health Hospital. After the required waiting period, the Alabama Department of Human Resources will arrange for the child to be placed for adoption.
The program became possible in Alabama after legislation sponsored by Donna Givens. Givens said she began working on the bill after learning that other states had created programs to prevent infants from being abandoned.
“I thought this is something the state of Alabama needs, because we have babies being abandoned – left in garbage dumps and on creek banks,” Givens said.
She said the law provides an additional option for mothers who cannot care for a child.
“We want these mothers to carry their babies to full term, but we also understand that not everyone will be able to care for that baby,” Givens said. “There needed to be a second step.”
The bipartisan bill establishing the Baby Box program passed both houses of the Alabama Legislature without opposition.
Foley Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the support of Givens and other members of the Baldwin County Legislative Delegation, along with the efforts of Darby, Deputy Fire Chief Chad Brewer, firefighters and community supporters, helped make the project possible.
“Thank you all for coming up with this idea,” Hellmich said. “This is something the community can support. Our community wants to take care of people — children, seniors and everyone in between.”
Sponsors who assisted with the project include Rolin Construction, Hunter Security, Summit Church and 1-800-BoardUp.
The Foley site is the 425th Safe Haven Baby Box in the United States and the 20th in Alabama, according to Caitlin Kelly, area representative for Safe Haven Baby Boxes.
“This fire station is now part of the Safe Haven Baby Box family,” Kelly said. “We’re the only organization in America that gives parents in crisis a completely anonymous option to use their state’s existing safe haven law.”
Safe Haven Baby Boxes also operates a 24-hour national hotline — 866-99BABY1 — which has received more than 9,000 calls nationwide. The organization has assisted with more than 186 in-person surrenders, including 76 infants safely placed through Baby Boxes.
“So that has been beautiful to see,” Kelly said.