Safe Haven Baby Box for Spring Hill, TN
Beschermde donatie
UPDATED on 1/30/20:
Tennessee’s Safe Haven law needs to be updated. It was passed in 2001, long before the first baby boxes were installed in the US. As written, the current law requires mothers wishing to surrender their baby to physically deliver the baby to an employee of the safe haven location (fire house, police department, hospital, etc.). The current law allows for anonymity, at least publicly, but lacks the ability to grant absolute anonymity because of the face-to-face handoff required. A small percentage of mothers will balk at such a face-to-face interaction, choosing instead to abandon their baby where it may not be found in time to be saved. Since a Safe Haven Baby Box cannot legally be installed in Tennessee at this time, I’m suspending the donation option of this campaign. The four people who have already donated will be contacted and asked if they would like a refund, or whether they’d prefer their donation go towards changing the Safe Haven law of Tennessee. Please check back to see if this site has been updated with a link to an online petition to have Tennessee’s Safe Haven law changed to include baby boxes as a legal option.
Since Safe Haven Baby Boxes (https://shbb.org) is a non-profit organization, they do not want to be associated with any funds raised for changing legislation. There are restrictions for how a nonprofit is allowed to work on legislation and they do not want to put themselves at risk of losing their nonprofit status. If you would like to donate to them directly please go to their website. Just know that your donations probably won’t be used to change things in Tennessee. They did welcome me to contact them when Tennessee is ready to install baby boxes.
Below are links to a newscast and an article about the need for Tennessee’s Safe Haven law to be updated to allow for baby boxes.
https://www.wkrn.com/news/woman-hopes-to-bring-first-baby-box-to-middle-tennessee/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WKRN-TV_Nashville&fbclid=IwAR090y091mnEyf5z_nuOPjDw6Spj-F0YYkN12cpjNT-tB9ZMRGQ1iOuedTU
https://www.williamsonhomepage.com/community/spring-hill-resident-starts-fundraiser-to-see-safe-haven-baby/article_2267b8b8-42e5-11ea-88bf-8b4974ecb6b3.html?fbclid=IwAR11dBFYCWqWVrxmODxVy0cx5WqPX3rmdcrjImsgvDatX5HyaoH23QLwURM
ORIGINAL campaign wording as posted on 1/25/20:
After reading an article about a newborn surrendered in a Safe Haven Baby Box in Indiana, I wanted to raise funds to cover the cost of having one installed locally. Tennessee does not currently have any Safe Haven Baby Boxes. In April of 2016, Indiana was the first state to install a SHBB. There have been no dead abandoned infants in that state since. Let’s do the same for Tennessee! If the powers that be in Spring Hill aren’t receptive to this idea, then the funds will be used to install a Safe Haven Baby Box somewhere else within Tennessee.
Here’s a link to the Safe Haven Baby Box website (https://shbb.org). The founder of SHBB, Monica Kelsey, was 37 when she found out that she had been abandoned as an infant.
Here’s a link to a newscast about another woman in Indiana who also raised money for a SHBB in her community. https://binged.it/30TVOXz
Tennessee’s Safe Haven law needs to be updated. It was passed in 2001, long before the first baby boxes were installed in the US. As written, the current law requires mothers wishing to surrender their baby to physically deliver the baby to an employee of the safe haven location (fire house, police department, hospital, etc.). The current law allows for anonymity, at least publicly, but lacks the ability to grant absolute anonymity because of the face-to-face handoff required. A small percentage of mothers will balk at such a face-to-face interaction, choosing instead to abandon their baby where it may not be found in time to be saved. Since a Safe Haven Baby Box cannot legally be installed in Tennessee at this time, I’m suspending the donation option of this campaign. The four people who have already donated will be contacted and asked if they would like a refund, or whether they’d prefer their donation go towards changing the Safe Haven law of Tennessee. Please check back to see if this site has been updated with a link to an online petition to have Tennessee’s Safe Haven law changed to include baby boxes as a legal option.
Since Safe Haven Baby Boxes (https://shbb.org) is a non-profit organization, they do not want to be associated with any funds raised for changing legislation. There are restrictions for how a nonprofit is allowed to work on legislation and they do not want to put themselves at risk of losing their nonprofit status. If you would like to donate to them directly please go to their website. Just know that your donations probably won’t be used to change things in Tennessee. They did welcome me to contact them when Tennessee is ready to install baby boxes.
Below are links to a newscast and an article about the need for Tennessee’s Safe Haven law to be updated to allow for baby boxes.
https://www.wkrn.com/news/woman-hopes-to-bring-first-baby-box-to-middle-tennessee/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WKRN-TV_Nashville&fbclid=IwAR090y091mnEyf5z_nuOPjDw6Spj-F0YYkN12cpjNT-tB9ZMRGQ1iOuedTU
https://www.williamsonhomepage.com/community/spring-hill-resident-starts-fundraiser-to-see-safe-haven-baby/article_2267b8b8-42e5-11ea-88bf-8b4974ecb6b3.html?fbclid=IwAR11dBFYCWqWVrxmODxVy0cx5WqPX3rmdcrjImsgvDatX5HyaoH23QLwURM
ORIGINAL campaign wording as posted on 1/25/20:
After reading an article about a newborn surrendered in a Safe Haven Baby Box in Indiana, I wanted to raise funds to cover the cost of having one installed locally. Tennessee does not currently have any Safe Haven Baby Boxes. In April of 2016, Indiana was the first state to install a SHBB. There have been no dead abandoned infants in that state since. Let’s do the same for Tennessee! If the powers that be in Spring Hill aren’t receptive to this idea, then the funds will be used to install a Safe Haven Baby Box somewhere else within Tennessee.
Here’s a link to the Safe Haven Baby Box website (https://shbb.org). The founder of SHBB, Monica Kelsey, was 37 when she found out that she had been abandoned as an infant.
Here’s a link to a newscast about another woman in Indiana who also raised money for a SHBB in her community. https://binged.it/30TVOXz
Organisator
Ginnie Kleinschmidt Sweeney
Organisator
Spring Hill, TN
