BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lying down in a warm, soft bed after a long, hard day at work seems normal for most people. But for some, it is considered a luxury.
Not everybody has a bed to sleep in, a problem that Berea Community Middle School students hope they can help end. A group of students from the Berea chapter of Jobs for American Graduates participate in the club to support other young people who show promise but face great challenges.
Sleeping on the floor instead of a bed certainly poses a significant challenge, so these middle school students decided to take action.
“We wanted to do something in our community that would help people,” said Riley Cooley, one of the students. “We reached out to Sleep in Heavenly Peace and asked if we could host a bed build at Berea, and they said yes. We asked our community for volunteers and students if they wanted to come in and help and donate stuff. We actually had quite a lot of volunteers, and we got a bunch of things donated, which was really helpful."
The group the students partnered with, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, has chapters nationwide dedicated to building beds for children.
“For the kids in the community, I mean, it’s an opportunity for many of them to have their first bed,” said Kevin Thornsberry, co-president of the Madison County SHP chapter.
The group's original goal was to raise $5,000 and build 20 beds. By the time today’s bed build arose, students had raised enough to build 30 beds.
“I think it’s important to me personally,” said another student, Aadrianna Rodgers, “because it shows how much our small town can be if you really put in the effort and also because it’s the sweet and kind-hearted thing to do.”
Students and volunteers assembled the pieces while donations of pillows and blankets sat collected outside the school cafeteria. The bed build doesn’t end today, either.
Thornsberry said, “Next week, we will have more volunteers come out with us. We’ll take all these bed parts that we created today, we’ll take those parts out to the homes, and we will take them the bed frames we built today, we’ll take them a brand new mattress, and all new bedding, so comforters, pillow, pillow case, and they’ll have everything they need for a great nights sleep.”
Though 30 beds were built, around 80 orders were placed. Sleep in Heavenly Peace continues to look for partners to help make beds for kids. To learn more, visit https://shpbeds.org.
