Newton nonprofit holds fundraiser to install safe haven baby box
NEWTON, Iowa — A nonprofit in Newton is halfway to its fundraising goal for a safe haven baby box to be installed at the community's hospital.
The plan was first presented in 2024 when Jasper County Attorney General Scott Nicholson brought the idea to the Open Arms Foundation of Jasper County, a nonprofit that provides support for children facing crisis or are in the foster care system.
Open Arms was founded last year and provides backpacks with necessary supplies and comfort items to children who were removed from their biological families. So far, the nonprofit has helped 200 children and families, according to founder and director Nick Pietrack.
At the beginning of 2025, Open Arms started fundraising for a baby box in Newton. Their goal is $30,000.
Pietrack says the box is estimated to cost $20,000, plus $500 in annual fees for maintenance, training, certification, and other expenses. His goal is to raise enough that the cost is covered for many years.
Sen. Joni Ernst responds to backlash from her sarcastic comments on Medicaid
Around $15,000 has been raised so far, but the organization plans on fundraising for the rest of the year.
Pietrack said the baby box will be installed in Newton even if the fundraising goal isn't met, but he commends the community's ability to come together in support of this cause.
'I've seen a tremendous ability in Jasper County for us to gather our community for positive things. So, it's very heartwarming and wonderful to see the support and we're excited about it,' he said.
The baby box will be located at the MercyOne Newton Medical Center. Pietrack said the current plan is to have the box located outside the emergency room and near the ambulance bays, however the hospital will be remodeling soon, so the exact location in the hospital is subject to change.
'We want to be proactive, not reactive. So, the reason for some of the baby boxes being installed in other communities are reactive towards horrible incidences that have happened, tragic deaths of infant children,' he said.
Newton is now the fourth Iowa community to start the process of installing a baby box.
The Iowa Safe Haven Act went into effect in 2002, and it provides parents in crisis an option to safely surrender an infant up to 90-days-old. The law was expanded in 2023, allowing communities to implement their own safe haven baby boxes.
Since then, baby boxes were installed at the Fort Dodge Fire Department and the MercyOne Medical Center in Des Moines. The Norwalk Fire Department announced last year that they are in the process of installing a baby box as a result of a baby's death in 2023.
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that a baby girl was recently surrendered safely through the Safe Haven Law. She is the third infant to be surrendered this year and the 77th since the law was put into effect, according to the department's press release.
Iowa News:
Iowa veteran passes halfway point on Appalachian Trail
Newton nonprofit holds fundraiser to install safe haven baby box
Storms move in, along with cooler air
Miguel Angel Jimenez wins playoff in Iowa for 3rd PGA Tour Champions victory of the year
Forecast: Smoke exits, storms move in
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
6 hours ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump's ‘Big, Beautiful' Bill Gets Slimmed Down in Senate
WASHINGTON—President Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill is getting smaller just as Republicans head into a crucial week, after the Senate's rules arbiter decided several controversial provisions don't qualify for the special procedure the GOP is using to bypass Democratic opposition. The tax-and-spending megabill centers on extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts, delivering on the spirit of his campaign promises to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime, and providing big lump sums of money for border security and defense. Those new costs are partially offset by spending cuts, in particular to Medicaid.
New York Post
12 hours ago
- New York Post
Don't fall for the lies about the GOP's plan for Medicaid: We're actually STRENGTHENING it
President Donald Trump has asked Congress to follow through on his domestic-policy agenda by extending tax cuts for Americans, investing in our military and border security and cutting waste, fraud and abuse in entitlement spending, which threatens the solvency our nation's safety-net programs. For my House Committee on Energy and Commerce, this meant hitting a 10-year savings target of $880 billion across our jurisdiction — energy, environment, telecommunications and health care — which I knew could only be reached through careful consideration and resolve. Advertisement The committee came through, and then some: The most recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office found that our efforts will save nearly $1.1 trillion. More than a quarter of this amount, $344 billion, comes from new community-engagement rules (i.e., work requirements) for able-bodied adults who receive Medicaid benefits but choose not to work. The rules will promote greater accountability and refocus Medicaid to better serve the most vulnerable. Advertisement What exactly do these community-engagement requirements consist of? If you're an able-bodied, unemployed adult who receives Medicaid, they ask that you demonstrate that you are either working, volunteering, in job training or in school for an average of 80 hours per month. Health care and work are inextricably linked in this country: Nearly half of all Americans get their health insurance through their jobs, seniors get Medicare after years of contributing payroll taxes and members of our military and our veterans get their coverage through their service to our country. To require Medicaid recipients who are able-bodied and unemployed to either work, go to school or volunteer in their communities in order to continue receiving subsidized health insurance should be a no brainer. Advertisement You may have heard misinformation that work requirements are really just a sneaky way to take health care away from hard-working Americans, or even people with disabilities. Let me set the record straight: This policy applies only to able-bodied, unemployed adults who have chosen not to work. Our bill couldn't be clearer about that; it includes a long list of exempted individuals. For instance: If you're pregnant, a member of a federally designated tribe, a caregiver or parent, under 19 or over 65, you're exempt from the requirements. Advertisement You're exempt if you're medically frail, which includes anyone who's blind, disabled, battling a chronic substance-use disorder or living with a serious and complex medical condition like cancer. If you meet work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare), you're also relieved of the requirements. If you're in jail, prison or were released from incarceration within the past 90 days, you're exempt. And if you're a former foster youth under 26, the requirements don't apply. Plainly, the policy is targeting just a subset of fully able adults who are voluntarily choosing not to work or give back to their communities. There are strong grounds for this policy: A new study from the American Enterprise Institute found that able-bodied, unemployed adult Medicaid recipients without dependents average 6.1 hours a day — 184 hours a month — watching television and socializing. That figure is 50% higher than for employed beneficiaries. These individuals spend less than a combined one hour a day looking for work or caring for others. Advertisement And we're only asking that, in return for their Medicaid coverage, they choose from an array of options — work, go to school or volunteer — for just 80 hours per month. That's eminently reasonable, and can help them become more self-reliant and productive. Note, too, that a sizable number — 38% of beneficiaries, per a new White House Council of Economic Advisors study — are able-bodied, working-age adults. There's no good reason for them not to be contributing to their communities or at least on a path to becoming productive. Advertisement Americans are smart enough not to fall for the false narratives, lies and smears against work requirements. They share Republicans' desires to purge government programs of rampant waste, fraud and abuse. Our requirements help do just that, strengthening Medicaid for those who truly need it. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) is chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
CBS News
12 hours ago
- CBS News
Keller: Rep. Katherine Clark shares her thoughts on Trump's "big beautiful bill"
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global. Voters don't always expect their political leaders to act benignly. They are often called on to "fight" for various things, "get tough" on crime or other issues, and so on. But you rarely hear folks clamoring for cruelty from their elected officials. Yet that's exactly what House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Fifth District) said her Republican counterparts are up to with their so-called "big beautiful bill" cutting taxes and budgets. In an interview with WBZ-TV, Clark said "it was very obvious from early on in the President's term that this was the play, huge cuts, historic cuts to health care, especially the Medicaid program. And then they were going to go after food programs, school lunches, Meals on Wheels, Women and Infants food programs, all to pay for tax breaks for the 900 billionaires in this country. And then on top of it, what we've seen is they also are adding almost $3 trillion to our deficit." The bill drew fire from some House GOP members before passing with near-unanimous partisan support and being shipped to the Senate, where a similar process is now underway. But Clark said she finds criticisms from Republican representatives and senators hollow. "We have different members of the House Republican Party saying, 'I can't go along with how big these Medicaid cuts are,' right? Then they vote for it. We have different members who say the cuts aren't large enough, I can't expand the deficit like this, but they fall in line. And this is an established pattern that is so harmful to the American people." Clark said she believes many of her Republican colleagues believe they are vulnerable to political backlash. "I think they are ducking for cover in a lot of these situations. I think the object here is to not focus on the cruelty and not level with the American people. We've seen members of the House write letters to the speaker saying, 'I could never support these cuts to Medicaid,' and now what we're seeing is that's expanded. They're cutting Medicare by half a trillion dollars, Medicaid by $800 billion. That's 16 million people when you add up the cuts to Medicaid, the ACA program, the children's insurance program, 16 million Americans they are kicking off of health care and for what? Not for some common good. But when people are telling us that they're not making it, 60% of American households are struggling to meet the basic needs for their family, how do we create jobs by taking away health care and taking away food programs?" And the second-ranking House Democrat said she believes the Republicans will pay a political price after promising during the campaign to focus on improving the economic status of voters. "They have gone a 180, the exact opposite," said Clark. "They have betrayed their own voters. They said cost of living is what we're going to address on day one. And between this horrendous bill and what we're seeing with tariffs, we are going to see a marked increase in cost of living for the American people. I don't know what their political view of this is, but it is an incredibly cruel bill, and it's saying to the American people that the Republican Party doesn't value them and is not going to work for them." Clark also discussed the state of play on issues of housing and child care, and the ability of her office to engage with the executive branch in the interview. Keller @ Large Part 2: Keller at Large airs every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WBZ-TV.
