Three youth organizations provided much of the manpower Saturday when Sleep in Heavenly Peace built 26 beds for children who otherwise would not have a bed to sleep.
President Kevin Rakers says the need in the multi-county area they now serve never seems to end.
“We are at 1,320 beds built. And we have delivered the 1,173 and I can remember back in 2021 we were still building in the horse farm and we built our 200th bed and we thought this will be great, we will build these, put them in the tack room, and we are just gonna leave them there until the kids need one and we will take em, and we never got to that point. They go out almost as fast as we can build them.”
The local chapter is now helping in Jefferson, Washington, and Fayette Counties as well as the City of Centralia and Salem.
Rakers was pleased to see the youth involved in the bed building.
Salem High School Basketball Coach Pete Colclasure brought a few of his players.
“It is just something that gets us involved in the community and gets some of our kids serving others and ultimately serve at leadership. It’s a good opportunity for us to help kids, and kids helping kids.”
The Salem High School Bible Club had ten members joining the build effort according to Sponsor Trina Green.
“We had a few members that were also in FBLA and they got to do a fundraiser and go on a bed delivery and they really enjoyed it. So they asked if we could do that as one of our community projects we do throughout the year. I thought it was a great idea so we signed up.”
The Leadership Group at Christ Our Rock High School was also helping to build for the first time. Sponsor Julie Cole says they will be back.
“I think it’s really important to find ways that our kids can give back to our local communities and to see how taking a few hours out of their day can really do a lot to help others.”
The build Saturday was held at the Orchard Shopping Center where Box Drop was holding a sale with a portion of the proceeds going to the purchase of mattresses for the beds.
Bed build volunteers work various stations to put the beds together. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
