What would you do if you found that about 2% or about 70,000 of kids in Massachusetts has no bed to sleep on? Chris Alphen, Rotarian from Concord Massachusetts started a chapter of Sleep In Heavenly Peace in Littleton, Massachusetts and started building and delivering beds in 2018. Learning about the cause, the Rotary Club of Bedford submitted and was awarded a District 7910 grant, Beds for Kids for 2020-2021, to help build 22 beds (we ended with 20 beds because the price of lumber went up).
We finally started building the beds on May 1st, a spectacular Spring Saturday, at the Dolphin Installation Warehouse.
There were 16 of us from the Rotary Club of Bedford and 3 from the Rotary Club of Concord. The whole Kociubes Family was there with their girls sanding away. Many of us learned how to brand wood, use sanding and drilling equipment and how to make stain from vinegar and steel wool! We were socially distanced in the parking lot and in the specious warehouse.
Most of us has not met in person since last March so this was a great fellowship opportunity beside a worthwhile community service. Thank you to Littleton Sub Shoppe and Littleton Cafe for providing pizza, wraps and Cape Cod potato chips for snacks. Thank you also for help from the Rotary Club of Concord and Sleep In Heavenly Peace to let us help provides beds for some of the kids in Massachusetts.
From Chris Alphen, president of Sleep In Heavenly Peace, Middlesex, Massachusetts:
"Sleep in Heavenly Peace was founded in Kimberly, Idaho in 2012 when Luke Mickelson heard a story about a child in his town who was sleeping on the floor. Feeling compelled to do something, he bought some lumber and made a bed. After delivering the bed, he heard about more kids in his town sleeping on the floor, and thus was the start of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Since 2012, this organization has grown to over 235 chapters across the United States, Canada, and Bermuda. In 2018, I flew out to Idaho to learn how to open a chapter of SHP here in Massachusetts. Since starting the chapter I have had the full support and partnership of the Rotary Club of Concord, as well as several other clubs local to Littleton, the Rotary Club of Littleton, the Rotary Club of Groton-Pepperell and the Rotary Club of Bedford.
In 2018 SHP was awarded the Rotary District Grant of Concord, which allowed us to get our bed building underway. Since then, we have delivered hundreds of beds to kids though out Massachusetts, living up to our motto, “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.” But we can’t stop here. Statistics show that there are approximately 70,000-105,000 kids who are sleeping on the floor in Massachusetts. We have a long way to go in order to eliminate this."
In 2018 SHP was awarded the Rotary District Grant of Concord, which allowed us to get our bed building underway. Since then, we have delivered hundreds of beds to kids though out Massachusetts, living up to our motto, “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.” But we can’t stop here. Statistics show that there are approximately 70,000-105,000 kids who are sleeping on the floor in Massachusetts. We have a long way to go in order to eliminate this."
Photos by Christine Pinney