Nearly 25 Rotarians and their friends and family volunteered to build beds for Houston area children who don't have a bed of their own at the Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) facility in north Houston on Saturday, January 29th. The Rotary Club of Lake Houston Area also donated $8,000 towards the effort. SHP's motto is "No kid sleeps on the floor in our town."
Lake Houston Rotary answered a call for help on Saturday, January 29th by sending nearly 25 volunteers and an $8,000 donation to the non-profit Sleep in Heavenly Peace of Northwest Houston (SHP) to build 40 hand-made children’s beds to distribute to Houston area children who have no bed of their own.
Last August, Gary Akin, co-president of SHP, told Lake Houston Rotarians at their weekly luncheon meeting there are thousands of children in the United States who don’t have a bed at home in which to sleep. “Our mission is getting children off the floor,” he said.
There are hundreds of children in the Houston metro area that don’t have their own bed. SHP volunteers had built and delivered 1,591 beds at that time but was still backlogged with 500 requests for beds and had to stop taking new requests.
The Rotary Club of Lake Houston Area decided to help by sponsoring a bed building day. The sponsorship included an $8,000 donation and scheduling a build day where Rotary members, family and friends would volunteer to help build the beds.
SHP arranges to have the materials and equipment on hand as well as regular volunteers to show newcomers how their bed building process works. This is not “fine” furniture but it is functional furniture. (Lowes Home Improvement Centers is a major sponsor.)
Beds are built simply in an assembly line fashion so no previous construction experience is necessary to volunteer. The construction of the beds is broken down into several steps and volunteers just work at the step they are comfortable doing.
Finished beds are delivered during a separate day by other volunteers who make the final assembly of the bed at the children’s homes. Each bed comes complete with mattress, pillow and age-appropriate bedding. Beds are built to be single beds or bunk-beds depending on the family’s needs.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace, founded in 2012, is growing to meet the needs of children and is has 240 chapters in 44 states and four countries. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. SHP is still in need of volunteers.
Additional photos of Rotary's build day may be found on the club's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/LakeHoustonAreaRotary.
Additional photos of Rotary's build day may be found on the club's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/LakeHoustonAreaRotary.
Learn more about Lake Houston Rotary and Sleep in Heavenly Peace here: