Alyssa B. Martin news-herald.net

After over a year of effort and collaboration between local officials, advocates and county commissioners, the city of Loudon is unveiling its first Safe Haven Baby Box — providing a secure, anonymous option for parents in crisis to surrender their newborns.

Scheduled for its blessing on the Jan. 16, the box will be located at the fire department — offering temperature control, rapid response systems and utmost privacy … underscoring the community’s commitment to protecting vulnerable lives.

According to the Safe Haven Baby Boxes website, there are only 17 Baby Boxes in Tennessee, not including Loudon County’s new one, and only 20 states have Baby Boxes in the United States.

While the new addition may sound unconventional to those who haven’t heard of it before, it allows parents a safe alternative that hasn’t been an option until now.

The box is built into the Loudon Fire and Police headquarters, facing Cedar Street in Downtown Loudon. Mike Brubaker, director of public safety for Loudon City, said the box is temperature controlled and under surveillance to ensure the child’s safety; however, the process is 100 percent anonymous for the parents.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s 30 below outside or 100 degrees outside. That baby is going to be in a controlled-temperature environment,” Brubaker said. “It cannot be penetrated. So once the box is closed from the outside, there’s no getting into the box unless it’s from the inside of the building.”

Once the box is closed, it allows 10 seconds for the parent to walk away and an alarm will sound, alerting Loudon City officials a child is in the box.

This was initially Mayor Jeff Harris’ idea to bring to Loudon; but in the beginning stages, funding was a problem. Along the way Court Appointed Special Advocates agreed to help with the finances and Commissioners Chase Randolph and Bill Geames allocated a portion of their ARPA money to the cause.

“CASA of the Tennessee Valley reached out to me. They were interested in it and wanted to know if there’s some way we could partner with the city to make this happen,” Harris said. “It’s a great alternative to the worst — I think the worst thing that could happen is somebody just dropping it off and nobody even knows it’s out there.

“You hear of worst cases of that … Our hope is just that we can provide something that would stop them from thinking of doing something worse.”

The morning of the Baby Box Blessing ceremony, Safe Haven will do a three hour training for everyone who will work with it, according to Brubaker.

Anyone is welcome to attend the Baby Box Blessing Ceremony at noon on Jan. 16 at the Loudon Fire and Police Headquarters.