Shawn was on a roll today next introducing speaker Joe Genovese Chapter President of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) whose motto/mission is “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town!”  What followed was an amazing and passionate presentation about how Joe became involved in this 501(c)3 organization that was founded in Idaho in 2012.

 

The organization provides hand-made bunk beds to children who don’t have beds of their own. Joe shared that children are innocent and don’t choose to be poor and he looked at the opportunity to help after several “aha” moments—the first being a situation where a group he was working with helped re-hang a door that had fallen off in an apartment—when kids said, “Do you want to see our room?”  He saw no furniture but everything on the floor that was the first aha moment. Another time when a group working with Santa gift giving and a child asked for a bed and finally through his work with Habitat for Humanity he learned that families could swing an interest-free mortgage, but could not afford to put furniture in the house. He finally put these experiences together and contacted Luke Nicholson in Twin Falls, ID and received training on how to build beds for children in need.  

 

Joe indicated that there are many great charities that provide clothing, meals and toys to families in need but SHP targets a very specific and basic need of the kids in these families—giving them safe and suitable beds to sleep in at night.

 

 

Joe explained how the bunk beds are built from scratch by volunteers just like us and then delivered and assembled in the home of a child/children in need including mattress, pillows and bedding. 

 

He targeted 100 people to donate $25 each to fund the program planning to build 10-20 beds each time. Recently he worked with 120 volunteers to built 551 beds in three hours. To date over 400 beds have been delivered but demand is outstripping supply. They have 101 in inventory in donated warehouse space but there are 300 requests out there. The cost is $350 per bunk bed—$175 for lumber and $175 for two mattresses, pillows blankets and sheets. He is seeking sponsors who would donate $3,500 to build a minimum of 10 beds. The process itself is an assembly line from securing the lumber, to measuring, cutting and sanding, to staining the wood.

 

Lowes is the national sponsor providing wood at cost and also donating a 16’ covered trailer for transporting materials and beds. 

The next open build day is Friday December 13 and again on Saturday  January 25. Joe recommends working on one of these build days to really find out about the project up close and personal. Our thanks to Joe for sharing this amazing project with us.