Post by lace on Sept 13, 2006 23:20:54 GMT -5
Article Launched: 09/11/2006
[glow=red,2,300]Woman committed to 'angels' [/glow]
Michel Nolan, Staff Writer
Audio: One Voice Q&A with Debi Faris-Cefelli
For Debi Faris-Cifelli, the children are a full-time passion.
"That really is my heart's goal - no matter what age the child - they just need to be loved, nurtured and protected," she said.
The 50-year-old children's advocate marked the 10th anniversary last month of the Garden of Angels, the Calimesa cemetery she founded to memorialize abandoned babies.
The cemetery is a final resting place for 75 tiny souls known only to God.
White granite crosses engraved with children's names - Matthew, Dora, Nathan, Angelica Rose - line the small plot of land.
Police officers named some of the newborns thrown away in trash bins or along the sides of roads.
"Most of the time, the officers who work on the case will come with their families to the burial service," Faris-Cifelli said. "They think it is a wonderful thing to be part of some kindness. It's a comfort knowing a child will never be forgotten."
Faris-Cifelli organized a remembrance service Aug. 26 to mark the date in 1996 when she created the garden on a plot of land donated by Desert Lawn Cemetery.
"The service is to remember the children," she said. "Everyone with the same heart comes together to remember them."
The garden's anniversary coincides with the five-year anniversary of the Safe Haven Law, legislation that Faris-Cifelli lobbied for. It allows a mother to safely surrender infants younger than three days old at any hospital emergency room or fire station without prosecution.
The garden was created when Faris-Cifelli heard about a baby boy who had been tossed from a speeding vehicle and left to die on the side of the freeway. Evening television news coverage showed a young woman from a coroner's office coming up an embankment carrying a duffel bag.
"I thought, 'There's a child in that bag. What was that mother thinking? Why did she think that killing this child was her only option? That child was a gift that you don't just throw away.' I had to listen to my heart and made a phone call, and the Garden of Angels was created."
That baby boy, whom she later named Matthew; along with Nathan who was found in the trash; and Dora, who washed up on the beach, were all buried Aug. 26, 1996.
Since then, Faris-Cifelli said she sees things she was once too busy to recognize - "like tapping on the heart." Faris-Cifelli, who has seven children with her husband, Steve Cifelli, said she's learned about unconditional love and forgiveness.
"It's about caring for children. We can choose to stop something we think is wrong. It's an option that can be out of our comfort zone. I've grown so much on the inside because I've gotten out of my comfort zone. It's important to do that."
From her perspective as a protector of children, Faris-Cifelli offers this insight:
Q: What is the Safe Haven Law?
A: The law was established on Jan. 1, 2001, in the state of California. It allows the parent of a newborn child 72 hours old or younger to safely, legally and confidentially surrender their newborn baby at any hospital emergency room or fire station in the state. They also have a two-week cooling-off period after they surrender their child to think about their decision and if they decide in their hearts they want to raise their child, they can go back and work to reclaim their baby and raise their baby.
Q: Has it made a difference?
A: The Safe Haven Law in the last couple years is really starting to make a tremendous difference, especially in the burials we've seen at the Garden of Angels and the number of babies that have been found thrown away or washed up on the beach - so we've seen it make a difference. In the state of California alone, we know in the last five years there have been 153 babies safely surrendered. These are children who this law has made a difference for.
Q: Is the number of newborn babies' deaths increasing or decreasing compared to a decade ago?
A: Ten years ago, I never thought that this could happen to one child - that a child could be thrown away. As I got involved with caring for these little children, there were so many. As we buried them in the Garden of Angels and every time we had to put a cross in the ground with a child's name on it, we could look out there and visually we could see how many children this was happening to - and this was just Southern California. For us, we could see this was an issue and it became more and more of an issue until people started to hear about it and see the headstones and they wanted to be part of changing it. People were asking, 'How do we change this? How do we keep these children alive?'
Q: Do you see the deaths of these innocent babies as the most brutal evidence of a troubled town?
A: For me it goes beyond a troubled town. It really is a problem in society. For the work that I do, I'm in contact with people all over the state of California and all across the United States who want to start safe havens - there's now a Safe Haven Law in 47 states. Every day, I get word about this happening all over - in the whole world. It's an issue that has to be recognized. We need to do something - to step in for these little children who don't have a voice. They need someone to be their voice. It's a sad commentary on society because we've become a society that doesn't value what we have. We think that things are expendable. We don't even value human life in a way the generation before us did. With the crime statistics, it's like people don't think about the impact of taking just one life out of this world - and what a difference that one life makes to so many people.
For more information about the Garden of Angels, call (909) 446-0535.
Michel Nolan is a Sun columnist. She may be reached at (909) 386-3859 or via e-mail at michel.nolan@sbsun.com.
[glow=red,2,300]Woman committed to 'angels' [/glow]
Michel Nolan, Staff Writer
Audio: One Voice Q&A with Debi Faris-Cefelli
For Debi Faris-Cifelli, the children are a full-time passion.
"That really is my heart's goal - no matter what age the child - they just need to be loved, nurtured and protected," she said.
The 50-year-old children's advocate marked the 10th anniversary last month of the Garden of Angels, the Calimesa cemetery she founded to memorialize abandoned babies.
The cemetery is a final resting place for 75 tiny souls known only to God.
White granite crosses engraved with children's names - Matthew, Dora, Nathan, Angelica Rose - line the small plot of land.
Police officers named some of the newborns thrown away in trash bins or along the sides of roads.
"Most of the time, the officers who work on the case will come with their families to the burial service," Faris-Cifelli said. "They think it is a wonderful thing to be part of some kindness. It's a comfort knowing a child will never be forgotten."
Faris-Cifelli organized a remembrance service Aug. 26 to mark the date in 1996 when she created the garden on a plot of land donated by Desert Lawn Cemetery.
"The service is to remember the children," she said. "Everyone with the same heart comes together to remember them."
The garden's anniversary coincides with the five-year anniversary of the Safe Haven Law, legislation that Faris-Cifelli lobbied for. It allows a mother to safely surrender infants younger than three days old at any hospital emergency room or fire station without prosecution.
The garden was created when Faris-Cifelli heard about a baby boy who had been tossed from a speeding vehicle and left to die on the side of the freeway. Evening television news coverage showed a young woman from a coroner's office coming up an embankment carrying a duffel bag.
"I thought, 'There's a child in that bag. What was that mother thinking? Why did she think that killing this child was her only option? That child was a gift that you don't just throw away.' I had to listen to my heart and made a phone call, and the Garden of Angels was created."
That baby boy, whom she later named Matthew; along with Nathan who was found in the trash; and Dora, who washed up on the beach, were all buried Aug. 26, 1996.
Since then, Faris-Cifelli said she sees things she was once too busy to recognize - "like tapping on the heart." Faris-Cifelli, who has seven children with her husband, Steve Cifelli, said she's learned about unconditional love and forgiveness.
"It's about caring for children. We can choose to stop something we think is wrong. It's an option that can be out of our comfort zone. I've grown so much on the inside because I've gotten out of my comfort zone. It's important to do that."
From her perspective as a protector of children, Faris-Cifelli offers this insight:
Q: What is the Safe Haven Law?
A: The law was established on Jan. 1, 2001, in the state of California. It allows the parent of a newborn child 72 hours old or younger to safely, legally and confidentially surrender their newborn baby at any hospital emergency room or fire station in the state. They also have a two-week cooling-off period after they surrender their child to think about their decision and if they decide in their hearts they want to raise their child, they can go back and work to reclaim their baby and raise their baby.
Q: Has it made a difference?
A: The Safe Haven Law in the last couple years is really starting to make a tremendous difference, especially in the burials we've seen at the Garden of Angels and the number of babies that have been found thrown away or washed up on the beach - so we've seen it make a difference. In the state of California alone, we know in the last five years there have been 153 babies safely surrendered. These are children who this law has made a difference for.
Q: Is the number of newborn babies' deaths increasing or decreasing compared to a decade ago?
A: Ten years ago, I never thought that this could happen to one child - that a child could be thrown away. As I got involved with caring for these little children, there were so many. As we buried them in the Garden of Angels and every time we had to put a cross in the ground with a child's name on it, we could look out there and visually we could see how many children this was happening to - and this was just Southern California. For us, we could see this was an issue and it became more and more of an issue until people started to hear about it and see the headstones and they wanted to be part of changing it. People were asking, 'How do we change this? How do we keep these children alive?'
Q: Do you see the deaths of these innocent babies as the most brutal evidence of a troubled town?
A: For me it goes beyond a troubled town. It really is a problem in society. For the work that I do, I'm in contact with people all over the state of California and all across the United States who want to start safe havens - there's now a Safe Haven Law in 47 states. Every day, I get word about this happening all over - in the whole world. It's an issue that has to be recognized. We need to do something - to step in for these little children who don't have a voice. They need someone to be their voice. It's a sad commentary on society because we've become a society that doesn't value what we have. We think that things are expendable. We don't even value human life in a way the generation before us did. With the crime statistics, it's like people don't think about the impact of taking just one life out of this world - and what a difference that one life makes to so many people.
For more information about the Garden of Angels, call (909) 446-0535.
Michel Nolan is a Sun columnist. She may be reached at (909) 386-3859 or via e-mail at michel.nolan@sbsun.com.