Beds built with love: Local nonprofit constructs beds for children without one

About 40 volunteers came together Saturday in Poplar Bluff to help build beds for children in the region who may otherwise be sleeping on the floor, couch or somewhere else uncomfortable in their homes.

About 40 volunteers turned out Saturday for Sleep In Heavenly Peace’s build day, where up to 40 children’s beds were to be produced. DAR/Paul Davis

“We’re excited about the opportunity not only to build them, but more importantly to take them out and deliver them to kids all across Southeast Missouri,” said Dave Elledge, president of the local chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Elledge said, is “a national organization that has one purpose, and that is to make it so no kid sleeps on the floor in our town.”

Saturday’s volunteer group set up inside the Bluff Church’s new building north of Poplar Bluff for its “build day.”

“There are small groups from other churches and even women’s groups,” said Doug Morris, who helps organize the periodic build days.

Saturday’s goal, Elledge said, was to build 40 beds, which would top the previous record of 30 made at one time.

Build days, Elledge said, occur as money is available.

The organization purchases all the necessary wood and mattresses, while bedding sets and pillows are donated.

Anthony Curnutt (left) and Tony Curnutt work on the final framing of children’s beds.DAR/Paul Davis

“It costs us about $110 per bed,” said Elledge.

And it’s a labor of love.

“This is the second time I’ve done this, and I can’t think of anything better to do on my Saturday than help other people and bless kids that don’t have beds,” said volunteer Jeannie Wlodarcik. “It’s amazing. We take for granted the fact that some kids don’t have beds. That’s stuff we don’t even realize, and when you see them with that bed and how important it is to them, it’s just priceless.”

Building beds is “a lot of fun,” Elledge said, “but the most fun is delivering them. We love the opportunity to walk into homes and put a bed in. We bring in a bed, a mattress, some sheets, a pillow and a comforter.

“Just seeing the expression on their faces when they know ‘this is my bed, and this is where I get to sleep every night from now on’ … A lot of these kids have been sleeping on the floor or air mattress or couch.”

Morris agreed.

“The good part we see is the joy in kids’ faces. They’re just excited, and they can’t wait to get on those beds. It’s an awesome feeling,” he said.

Gene Gibbs soaks bed frame sections in a staining solution, one of the final steps in Sleep In Heavenly Peace’s process to make beds for children. DAR/Paul Davis

Elledge calls the bed deliveries an “opportunity to speak into their lives, to give them something practical.”

Parents in need of a cost-free bed for their child, Elledge said, can apply on the organization’s national website, www.shpbeds.org.

“As soon as somebody applies in one of our zip codes, it comes to us and we vet that, call them up and talk to them for a few minutes to find out about the situation, and then they go in our que,” Elledge noted.

Currently, the local chapter has about 50 to 60 people on a waiting list.

Once a bed is available, Elledge said, it’s simply a matter of “setting up an appointment, and we have a crew to go out and set up the bed.”

“When we deliver them, they’re a finished product,” Morris added.