The Umpqua Valley Chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace will be building and delivering bunk beds to children in Oregon on Saturday, June 9th. This event will mark the chapter’s first build, and it will take place at MANcrafts in the heart of Roseburg.
Led by JP Wilson, the Umpqua Chapter will work with MANcrafts owner Justin Troxel, along with other local contributors, donors, and volunteers to provide kids with new bunk-beds as well as new sheets and pillows. Wilson confirmed in an interview with Sleepopolis that the goal for this weekend is to build 20 bunk beds for families with children who don’t have beds of their own. Monetary donations from local Umpqua Valley businesses and residents make the bed-build possible, but according to Wilson, contributions come from “miles around.”
More: Read about the group of grad students who donated 50 beds to a women’s shelter in Florida!
To provide a little background, Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a non-profit organization that began in 2012 and has since built and delivered over 1800 beds to kids all over the US. Their mission is to ensure that “no kid sleeps on the floor in [their] town” and they’ve had help from over 2,000 volunteers to try to make that happen. The Umpqua Valley Chapter is the first operational chapter in Oregon, but more are developing in neighboring cities.
Wilson told Sleepopolis that after he retired from his job as an engineer, he was “looking for a way to serve… to maintain spiritual momentum” when he was inspired to start an SHP chapter in Umpqua Valley:
We all know the benefits of a good night’s sleep. I’m not a psychologist, but we know that kids who have a comfortable place to sleep… it gives them something of their own. It’s theirs. It gives them a sense of security and worth — a sense of independence. It gives them a place to study, read, and just feel better in general. It’s not going to solve everything, but it sure is leg up.
A BEDROOM OF ONE’S OWN
So who’s building 20 bunk-beds on a Saturday? Under the supervision of SHP employees, local volunteers handle all of the assembly that goes into making these beds, working together to form a sort of assembly line they call a “build train”. According to Wilson, one build train can make about 15 beds in two to three hours. Once the beds are finished, the whole crew goes outside to start a bonfire which is then used to brand the SHP logo into the bed frames.
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Sleepopolis was also able to speak with Justin Troxel and he said he’s happy that MANcrafts was selected to be the venue, explaining, “I think the event will be great, it’s for a great cause. I’ve never hosted a bed-build before!” The entire event is scheduled to take place from 10am to 2pm and, according to Wilson, the builders “definitely” plan to reach their goal of 20 beds within that time frame.
After an afternoon of measuring, sanding, cutting, and building, Wilson says the volunteers don’t stop until the bunk-beds are “sleep-ready”. Folks who don’t have the time to partake in the manual labor will often donate sheets, pillows, blankets, and any sleep accessories they think might add to the comfort and personalization of each bed. When the beds are ready to go, they are delivered to foster cares or similar charitable organizations that have requested the bunk-beds via the SHP website. Wilson told me that as the beds are delivered and the kids climb into their new sleep space, it’s “hard for anyone to keep a dry eye.”
We at Sleepopolis are very familiar with the restorative effects of a good night’s sleep, and we’ve noticed a rising trend in charitable mattress companies. More chapters of Sleep in Heavenly Peace are started every year, and it will be interesting to see if these kinds of sleep donations become increasingly popular.
Featured image courtesy of Sleep in Heavenly Peace – OR, Umpqua Valley Facebook.