- January 20, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Palm Coast’s Knights of Columbus Notre Dame Council #10514 is donating over $41,000 to install a Safe Haven Baby Box at Palm Coast Fire Station 25.
“It has been a wide-range community that is behind this project,” Knights of Columbus Deputy Grand Knight Bryant Perszyk said.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes is a national nonprofit that builds and maintains these boxes. The box is installed in the wall of a first responder facility, with a door on the outside and inside. A person on the outside can place a baby safely inside the box, which then alerts first responders to come retrieve the child.
The nonprofit also provides a 24-hour hotline for mothers in crisis. Palm Coast Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said that when the box is installed, Safe Haven Baby Boxes will provide training on how the box works.
“This would be, essentially, a 911 call that would be generated by this box for a child,” Berryhill
Perszyk said the box would include a packet for the parent that describes what rights the parent is giving up by placing their child in the box.
This would be the fourth location in Florida to have a Safe Haven baby box installed, according to the nonprofit’s website. The other three Safe Haven boxes are located in Crystal River, Newberry and Ocala, Florida.
The Baby Box is meant to be a last resort, Berryhill said. The Knights of Columbus suggested Fire Station 25, located at 1250 Belle Terre Parkway, is it is considered to be the most centrally located in Palm Coast, he said.
Florida passed its own Safe Haven law in 2000, which was expanded by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2024.
Except where there is actual or suspected abuse, the law allows any parent to anonymously leave a newborn infant, no older than 30 days old, with any firefighter, EMT or paramedic at any fire station or emergency medical services station. The parent can also do so at any emergency room.
A Safe Haven Baby Box removes the face-to-face aspect of these drop-off requirements, Berryhill said.
The total cost of the purchase and installation of the box is $40,956, with an annual fee of $500. Purchasing and shipping the box to Palm Coast will cost $16,306 while constructing and installing the box will cost $24,650.
Upon Berryhill’s recommendation, the council agreed to let the Knights of Columbus organize the purchase and installation of the Safe Haven Baby Box.
“If this saves even one life, it’s worth it,” council member Ty Miller said.
Though the box’s lease will have to be through Palm Coast and Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Perszyk said, the Knights of Columbus intends to pay the annual $500 maintenance fee for the box.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri did ask about the potential liability of having the box installed.
“The last thing that I would want is to see us, in our efforts to do a good deed, wrapped up in any litigation with a parent that maybe puts their child in one of these situations and then comes back and tries to reclaim the child,” she said.
Berryhill said the PCFD has run the proposal by City Attorney Marcus Duffy already. As the fire stations are already Safe Havens under Florida’s law, the stations have signage informing people of the law. Berryhill said it wouldn’t be an issue to install such signage next to the box when installed.
“We believe that we are within the same risk profile that we are in as a Safe Haven based on the 2000 law with this box,” he said.
Perszyk said that the Knights of Columbus has worked with organizations across the city to fundraise for the box — not only has his and Palm Coast’s other Knights of Columbus groups donated toward the box, but so has the Kiwanis Club and the Belle Terre Elementary School’s Kiwanis K-Kids have fundraised for and donated to making the box a possibility.
“This has been a total community event,” he said.
