There was a big milestone for the Sleep in Heavenly Peace campaign over the weekend. The Tallahassee chapter of the effort to build beds for children who'd otherwise sleep on the floor turned out its 3,000th bed.
Chapter President John Cousins said more beds were under construction.
"Is there a need? Absolutely! Every day! And we're going to have a third of these beds that we're building today - 30 bunks, 60 beds, will be in homes tonight. Kids will be sleeping in these beds tonight!"
Still, Cousins said the demand far outstrips the supply. He noted there is a 2-year backlog of applications for the organization's largesse.
"You look at Leon County -350,000 people - the national average is 3% of kids sleeping on the floor. That's 10,000 kids! And then we've got the poorest zip code in the state of Florida.
More than 100 volunteers turned the Prime Meridian Bank parking lot off Timberlane Road into a bed-building factory on Saturday. Cousins said the organization is still looking for a permanent place for its efforts.
