Safe Haven Baby Box coming to Murfreesboro
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) — It’s funny what you can find on TikTok.
“I happened to come across Monica Kelsey (and) her story, and I just thought why don’t we have this here,” said Holly Estes. “This needs to be here.”
The item Estes is referring to is a baby box.
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“There’s so many people out there that don’t want to hand their child over because of the guilt or the shame,” she said.
With that in mind, Estes researched and worked on a way to bring a Safe Haven Baby Box to Murfreesboro, and after two years, she finally found a place.
“Station 4 was one of the first picks for the location,” said Fire Chief Mark McCluskey.
McCluskey was all for the idea when Estes reached out to the department.
“We want that here in Murfreesboro,” he said. “We’ve had some options like that in the past, but I think the Safe Haven Box is one of the best ideas…or best ways of doing it.”
Station 4’s close proximity to a hospital made it an ideal choice.
“Digging into it a little bit, once we saw a picture of an actual baby in the box, we had to do something,” said John Iaccheri.
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Iaccheri, also known as the “Murfreesboro Guy” to most in the city, learned about this project and soon got involved with Estes to help her raise the money.
“Once we put it out there, the support that community has poured into this has been absolutely incredible,” he said.
Enough money has been raised to purchase not one, but two baby boxes. There’s also additional money left over, so they launched a GoFundMe to continue raising money for a third box.
“It kind of shows how important it is to the people,” said McCluskey. “(It’s) giving somebody a good alternative than maybe choosing the wrong one.”
While it’s been a lot of work, it’s something Estes believes is totally worth it.
“I believe it can save so many lives and just help people out across the world that are having trouble with crisis in general,” she said.
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Estes said they are hoping to have the first box at Station 4 up and ready to use in the next couple of months.
They are looking at possibly placing the second box either in Smyrna or possibly in Bedford County.
If you are interested in making a donation for their third box, you can do so here.
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