SONY DSC
SONY DSC
“It was just like Christmas,” says Joel Hammond, the soft-spoken founder of the TX-College Station chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. His eyes light up as he remembers the first time he helped deliver beds to a low-income family. “When we pulled up, the children came out of the house literally doing somersaults to greet us!” he recalls. The volunteers arrived that day with all they needed to assemble four twin beds. They also brought brand new mattresses and sheets, blankets, and pillows loaded in bins in the back of the truck.
“The children were so excited, and they wanted to help carry the materials in the house,” Joel says. “They wanted to help while we were putting the beds together, and the girls were opening the packaging just like it was Christmas presents!” When the volunteers left a few hours later, they felt assured that those children would have a comfortable place to sleep that night and that SHP’s donation had made a difference.
“Even in adults, [we’re] learning more and more about how important good sleep is,” Joel says. “It affects every cell in your body when you lose sleep.” He lists how children can suffer when they don’t have enough good quality, deep sleep for long periods of time: lack of concentration, behavioral issues, low self-esteem. “And then there’s just the kindness,” he says. “What it would be like sleeping on the floor during the winter freeze that we had, or trying to get comfortable on the couch when a lot of us didn't have a lot of
good heating?”
Joel helped start the local chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace last February, with Andy York, executive director of BCS Habitat for Humanity, who offered its warehouse for builds, and HOH board member, George Nelson, who now serves as a chapter co-president alongside Joel. The three men became the chapter’s core team and trained in San Antonio last March. They learned all aspects of how to run the chapter and came back home ready to build beds. They were almost immediately inundated with requests, usually from households that needed two. To date, the chapter has built approximately 60 beds and aims to construct 16 beds a month to meet the demand, Joel says. “The only requirement [to qualify] is that [recipients] be age 3 through 17 and not have a bed,” he explains.
The TX-College Station chapter got off the ground quickly, and the demand for beds grew faster than its ability to make them. A number of individuals and organizations stepped up to help, including I Heart to Help — a recent subset of the year-old nonprofit, I Heart Bryan. I Heart to Help brought 15 volunteers for its collaboration with SHP in September, says Mekail Faquir, I Heart Bryan’s director of volunteer services and I Heart to Help’s head of initiatives. “We’re behind the scenes,” according to Mekail, whose organization matches volunteers with partner nonprofits. “We want to be able to get to
the point where people enjoy doing the builds, doing the deliveries, know the system, and want to keep coming back,” he says and adds, “A good night’s sleep goes a long way. It takes a good sturdy bed to be the foundation for that.”
On designated build days, the volunteers, who can be as young as age 12 with adult supervision, start with raw lumber and learn to build beds in an assembly line set-up for sawing, sanding, drilling, and assembling. They are guided by build manager Keith Peters and experienced members of the SHP team. The last step involves staining the bed frame, but not before the headboard is stamped with the SHP logo using a hot branding iron. “It’s kind of a treat for volunteers to do it,” Joel says.
On delivery days, the SHP crew loads up a trailer with everything needed to put together the beds at recipients’ homes, arranged by delivery coordinator, Edie Hammond. Terry Sheeley is the point person for bedding, and her husband Gary helps with the builds as well as deliveries. It takes approximately an hour to assemble each bed, which can be stacked into bunk beds; this allows for more space in small bedrooms.
“The volunteer aspect of this organization, I think, is important,” Joel says. “When you come inside someone’s home, they know you care.”
Prior to moving to their upstairs Bryan apartment, Gloria Knight and her children, Brooklynn, age 12, and Kingston, age 10, were living in a trailer that suffered water damage. In addition to forcing them to move, it ruined Brooklyn’s bed, so she slept on an air mattress that had been given to her.
“She slept on it for about six months,” Gloria says. “My daughter always would say the air bed hurts her back, and she didn’t sleep well,” she remembers. “That would worry me because I knew she would have school the next day, and she can’t give it her all if she’s restless.”
Meanwhile, Kingston’s bed took up the dining room of the tiny, two-bedroom flat. During that time, Gloria heard about Sleep in Heavenly Peace and requested bunk beds from the organization, then waited until their beds were ready.
The volunteers arrive at the Knights’ home on a Saturday morning in October. The children re quiet as the beds re put together but are all smiles once the beds were assembled, especially when the siblings see their new bedding. “Orange is my favorite color!” Brooklynn exclaims, choosing the coral fleece blanket over the gray plaid. She remarks that the beds are better than those that could be purchased at the store. She initially chooses the top bunk, but eventually she switches with her brother. “He and the
cat have the top bunk,” Gloria says with a chuckle.
The family has more room to move about now with their beds stacked and the air mattress out of the way. The children love their beds, Gloria says, and Brooklynn has decided to paint them. For Gloria, along with the bed came some peace.
“I worry a little bit less now,” she says. IN
Volunteers who want to participate in build days can click on the I Heart to Help section of IHeartBryanEvents.com and look for the SHP sign-up page with upcoming dates and times.
The next build date is on Saturday, November 13 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Habitat for Humanity Warehouse, 509 S. Bryan Avenue, Bryan.
Physical donations of new items can be made by contacting Joel Hammond at joel.hammond@shpbeds.org or by calling or texting (979) 412-3141.
Cash donations can be made through the SHP website.
For more information, visit shpbeds.org/chapter/tx-college-station.
