North Texas business, Buyers Barricade steps up to help desperate mothers
RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A North Texas business is stepping up to help desperate mothers across the state after seeing an I-Team investigation.
"They saw the news story that you guys ran with the I-Team talking about the increase in abandoned babies," said Marketing Director Danielle Boyd.
Boyd said the Buyers, owners of Buyers Barricade, headquartered in Richland Hills, manufacture, and distribute roadside barricades and construction signs.
The I-Team visited the company days after receiving their email and found crews already producing, printing, and mounting "Baby Safe Site" signs.
"The fact that there's babies out there that are not being dropped off safely, or that there's people out there who don't really know what their options are… they just wanted to try to help with that," said Boyd.
Boyd said the owners of this company saw the I-Team investigation last month into the increasing number of newborn babies found hidden in bags, left out in the cold, and thrown in dumpsters.
The Safe Haven Law allows a mother to legally give up her child at a fire station, hospital, or free-standing emergency room as long as the baby is less than two months old and is not hurt. The mothers walk away, no questions asked.
The I-Team followed-up our original investigation with a story about what happens when the law is implemented and a Baby Moses baby finds a home.
But the I-Team's original investigation highlighted the problem--the 1999 law received no funding for education or promotion.
For years, Dallas resident Patsy Summey, with the non-profit called "Baby Moses Dallas," made sure every fire station had a bright yellow "Safe Baby Site" sign which includes an outline image of mother's arm cradling a baby.
Years ago, the group produced public service announcements explaining the law. Summey even personally tracked every case; however, she eventually retired, and in 2017, Baby Moses Dallas disbanded.
The very next year, the number of babies abandoned in Dallas rose. The I-Team found they continued rising year after year, almost doubling since 2018.
As for those yellow signs, the I-Team searched and found them still hanging at most, but not all, fire stations. The I-Team explained that the seed money, which was used to originally fund the signs, ran out.
Days after the report aired, Buyers Barricades reached out to the I-Team in an email offering to help.
"We do signs here all day long for highways and stuff. We have tons of printers so it's easy for us to print those off. So, we would just like to offer a free sign to any fire department, police department, and hospital that needs one. We can supply that to them for free, no costs," explained Boyd.
"We can either drop it off to them, if they're local, or we can ship it to them if they're a little further away. We have three locations in Texas, and we can service the whole state from those three locations."
Buyers Brigade also placed a special link on its website, under the "CONTACT US" section, for any Baby Safe Site to request a free sign.