It all started in 2012 when Luke Mickelson of Twin Falls, Idaho, helped a friend build a bunk bed. They gave that one away but had some extra lumber. It was coming up on Christmas season, so Luke directed his kids into the garage, and together they built another bed. They posted the bed on Facebook and asked, “Who needs a bunk bed?” They got almost a hundred responses.
Mickelson was humbled; he had no idea so many kids needed a bed. He determined, “No kid is going to sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to say about it.” He started crafting beds out of his garage, and in 2012, Luke and Heidi Mickelson founded Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), a nonprofit organization that builds and delivers beds to children who don’t have a bed to sleep in.
In 2018, Mickelson and Sleep in Heavenly Peace were featured on Mike Rowe’s “Returning the Favor” series, a program on Facebook Watch that featured people giving back to their communities. From this exposure, SHP experienced exponential growth. It grew from 12 chapters to currently more than 360 chapters across the U.S., Canada, and the Bahamas, answering the call to a national problem by focusing on local communities.
When Zella Bracy watched the “Returning the Favor” episode featuring Luke Mickelson, she said it laid on her heart. She recalls telling her husband, Leon, “You have to watch this!” When COVID hit in 2020, she had the opportunity to retire. She says, “I literally retired and we started our chapter of the nonprofit on the same day during the global pandemic.”
In the fall of 2020, Zella and Leon started a chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace in Fuquay-Varina with a mission to serve the children here and in surrounding towns. Dedicated to the mission, which is actually the SHP tagline—“No Kid Sleeps on the Floor in Our Town”—the chapter’s first build was in September 2020.
Zella and Leon (co-presidents of the Fuquay-Varina chapter of SHP) believe “all children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads.” Zella explains the problem: “Across the U.S., too many boys and girls go without a bed—or even a pillow—to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. A disturbing new trend seems to be sleeping on pallets. We fully believe that a bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support of children.”
In the short time since September 2020, the Fuquay-Varina chapter has delivered beds to more than 500 kids in their area of concentration, which includes Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Angier, Willow Spring, Buies Creek, Kipling, Lillington, Dunn, Erwin, Coats, and Sanford as well.
Using grassroots methodology to get the word out about their mission, they put up fliers and work with school counselors and DSS social workers across all the counties they serve. Many times, when a delivery is made to an apartment complex, people see the SHP delivery van, which has their motto and contact info on the truck; if anyone has a need for a bed, they will contact them. People can also go online to request a bed for a child.
The vetting process is simple: Are the children over 3 years old and under age 18? Are they in the chapter’s delivery area? Do they currently have a bed? Zella explains, “We don’t get into financial limitations. There are very few people who are trying to game the system. If a kid needs a bed, we will deliver a bed. We can deliver beds immediately if there is an emergency, as there are some beds in storage.” In the last two months, they delivered 120 beds; usually, 30-40 of those beds go to Sanford.
Zella describes three simple components of how Sleep in Heavenly Peace works:
First, they share information that there is a problem. While “bedlessness” is not a word, it is a problem. Statistically, in each community, 2-3 percent of the children sleep without a bed. When you consider the population of Fuquay-Varina is approximately 40,000, that means 800 kids are sleeping without a bed. So, one of SHP’s tenets is to talk about the fact that the problem does actually exist, something most of us don’t think about much.
Second, they enable volunteers to build and deliver beds. Zella describes the process: “We have a methodology to start with raw lumber at the beginning of the day, and by the end of the day, we have built as many beds as we set out to build–usually between 20-25 at each build.” There are usually between 30 to 50 volunteers at a build. Even kids can help build. A community build is performed once a month, and delivery is once a month. Building is not done in a building, but is done outside in parking lots (Kohls and Lowes Home Improvement have offered their lots), backyards, neighborhoods, and in areas near neighborhood pools. They’ve even had a build in Ting Park.
Third, they have a core team made up of volunteers; everything done is by volunteers. When money is raised for a bed, it goes towards a bed and support of making and delivering beds. The core team is fairly large with some team members who specialize. For example, they have a social media manager, a bedding manager, a build manager, and a core team member who takes over all the deliveries in Sanford. Team members show up in red shirts with the SHP logo, and their role is to fill in as necessary. For the most part, they keep everything running smoothly, making sure that everybody is safe and everybody has something to do.
The building process goes like this: They start with raw lumber. Someone cuts it, then moves it to an area where it is staged. Someone dimples the wood to mark where the holes go. Someone drills holes. Someone sands the wood. Someone builds the headboards and footboards. Then at the next staging area, the beds are dipped in a mixture of vinegar and 0000 steel wool which produces a brownish-golden color and also discourages bedbugs. The beds are then branded. Zella adds, “And we have lots of fun along the way.”
When the bed is delivered, it is delivered ready to sleep in on the day of delivery with a new mattress, new sheets, new comforter, and new pillow. The materials cost to build one single bed is $250, or $500 for a bunk (lumber, mattress, and bedding). Sleep in Heavenly Peace depends on donations. Donations come in the form of both monetary and bedding offerings. Different businesses will do a bedding drive. The Chamber of Commerce, The Mill, and the Garden Hut usually have a box out for donations. Because Lowes is a corporate sponsor, SHP buys its lumber from Lowes at a discount. Individuals also make financial donations and have donated lumber as well.
Builds often have a sponsor who wishes to build a predetermined number of beds, and they sponsor all the parts and pieces that go into those beds. For example, if they sponsor 20 beds, the cost would be $5,000. They may keep the fundraiser within their organization or open it up to the community.
There is no construction in the months of July and August because of the heat, especially on the blacktop parking lots during these summer months. Ideally, the chapter would like to have a facility; this would help to keep all their materials in one place. Zella adds, “Space is needed. With space, so many more beds could be built because things could be left set up.”
SHP also has a need for persons who are bilingual, have a passion for helping, and have the gift of being able to talk to strangers about something that is fairly personal. They always need monetary donations and bedding. But Zella stresses, what they really want is a location, a building.
If you are interested in participating in a build, learning about volunteer opportunities, donating, or finding out more about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, check the chapter website and Facebook page: https://shpbeds.org/chapter/nc-fuquay-varina/ and https://linktr.ee/shpfuquayvarina. Applications for a bed can be submitted at shpbeds.org by entering your zip code.
At Sleep in Heavenly Peace, according to Zella, “We are just humans helping humans; they just happen to be little humans.”
