October 21st, 2025

Today, our club members had the privilege of meeting Jeanette Koechner, a proud member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of Columbus for 36 years, and learning about their “ Safe Haven Baby Boxes” Project.

Monica Kelly started the Safe Haven Baby Boxes initiative because, many years ago, she was the baby who was dropped in a box on the church doorstep and later adopted by the family.

Our speaker

A Baby Box is a wooden crate installed in a Fire Hall where a mother or another close relative can drop off babies under 10 weeks old if the family cannot care for them. A baby box contains a packet of legal documents that inform the mother of her legal rights. A baby box needs to face a street with no surveillance cameras to give a person dropping off a baby anonymity. After the baby is placed in a Baby Box, the alarm will go off only 1 minute later, giving the mother time to leave without being noticed. The Fire Hall always has someone on duty to ensure the infant dropped off receives immediate care. After the baby is placed in a Baby Box, he is immediately transported to the closest hospital for a checkup and later handed over to Children’s Services to find a family to adopt him. There are about 380 Baby Boxes around the Midwest.

A year ago, a Fire Hall in O’Fallon approached the Ladies Auxiliary with a proposition to participate in the Haven Baby Box project. The Ladies’ group agreed to take part. It took several Trivia Nights fundraisers (the group set aside a certain amount from each event until they had accumulated the required $15,000 for that project) to reach the goal. The Baby Box was installed and inspected at the O’Fallon Fire Hall, and the ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on July 17, 2025, with Monica Kelly herself in attendance.  

Jeanette mentioned that most of the time, healthy babies are placed in Baby Boxes, but once a dead infant was found, the Haven Baby Boxes organization took on all the funeral expenses.

    Installed Baby Box in O’Fallon, MO   

    Jeanette and the Club’s President

Jeanette emphasized that saving lives is a vital mission, and she was so glad to be part of it.

Our members thanked Janette Koechner for her informative presentation, and the Club President presented her with the Certificate of Appreciation.

To learn more about the “Safe Haven Baby Boxes” initiative, please visit https://www.shbb.org/

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