The non-profit Sleep in Heavenly Peace was busy on Saturday, cranking out 25 sturdy beds for children who don’t have their own.
More than 100 people turned the back parking lot of Good Shepherd Catholic Church into an assembly line. Some of the volunteers were experienced, some not. Local president John Cousins gathered the newbies around him and explained the procedure.
He says many children have never slept in their own beds.
“They slept on air mattresses that have holes. They slept on mattresses they got off the street. And now they have a place to sleep. They have a bed of their own, which is a place of their own. They’ve never had their own space," he said. "And what happens -- and they tell me in all the schools -- these kids do so much better in school.”
Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national nonprofit that started in 2012. The group estimates that as of the end of 2022, it had more than 300 chapters in 44 states.
