The Safe Haven Baby Boxes organization had reason to celebrate on Friday as one of its boxes located at a Kentucky fire station did exactly what it was designed to do — gave an infant the chance to live a long and fulfilling life.

What Are Safe Haven Baby Boxes?

Safe Haven Baby Boxes is a non-profit organization founded by Monica Kelsey several years ago to give mothers who feel they can not adequately care for their newborn or infant child an opportunity to give them up safely, no questions asked. It's a mission Monica herself knows all too well as her mother abandoned her at a hospital in Ohio two hours after she was born.

Get our free mobile app

How Safe Haven Baby Boxes Work

The boxes are placed in the exterior wall of a hospital, police, or fire station and feature an access door on the outside the parent uses to place the newborn inside the box, as well as another door inside which allows the child to be retrieved by first responders or hospital staff.

Here's a more detailed explanation of how the boxes work by Monica herself.

In the nearly seven years Safe Haven Baby Boxes has existed, it has installed over 135 boxes at locations all around the country, including 16 in Kentucky. The newest of which is located at the Bowling Green Fire Department on Lover's Lane and is the location the non-profit celebrated on Friday.

Less than two months after being installed at the fire station, an infant was willingly surrendered inside by its parent. The surrender is a big deal for two reasons. The first, and biggest, is that this child will now have a chance to live a long life with a family who chooses to adopt it. The second is that this child is the first to be surrendered at a Safe Haven Baby Box anywhere in the Bluegrass State.

I spoke with Monica shortly after she spoke at a press conference at the Bowling Green Fire Department announcing the surrender and asked her where the baby will go from here:

...they go to the hospital, they're evaluated by a physician, and then the Department of Child Services steps in and finds a forever home for them, and so these babies are adopted by loving parents that probably have been praying for, you know, a child for a very long time.

To learn more about Safe Haven Baby Boxes, including how you can make a donation, visit the organization's official website, shbb.org.

KEEP READING: Here are the most popular baby names in every state

Using March 2019 data from the Social Security Administration, Stacker compiled a list of the most popular names in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., according to their 2018 SSA rankings. The top five boy names and top five girl names are listed for each state, as well as the number of babies born in 2018 with that name. Historically common names like Michael only made the top five in three states, while the less common name Harper ranks in the top five for 22 states.

Curious what names are trending in your home state? Keep reading to see if your name made the top five -- or to find inspiration for naming your baby.

More From WKDQ-FM