Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
S3/Ep 16: From One Garage to a Nationwide Movement — Ending Child Bedlessness
12 Plays2 days ago
Child bedlessness is a hidden crisis hiding in plain sight. Research shows that 2 to 3% of children in America don't have their own beds. That means it is likely that kids in your community are sleeping on cold floors because their families simply can't afford one. Luke Mickelson saw it, grabbed a hammer, and built one. Then another. Then he built a movement.
Luke shares the story behind Sleep in Heavenly Peace, what it takes to turn compassion into action, and how everyday people with no special skills are changing children's lives one bed at a time.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Podcast Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to season three of the Guardians of Hope podcast. We are a community of parents, educators, health, legal, and tech experts dedicated to positively impacting children's lives. The thoughts and opinions of my guests are not my own. This is a platform for sharing. Welcome everyone.
00:00:15
Speaker
What would you do if you discovered children in your community were sleeping on the floor, no bed, no mattress, just a blanket on cold, hard ground?
00:00:26
Speaker
Well, for Luke Mickelson, the answer was simple, build them beds. What started as a small project in its garage has grown into Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a national movement that has built and delivered tens of thousands of beds to children across the country who had nowhere safe and comfortable to sleep.
Luke Mickelson's Background and Motivation
00:00:49
Speaker
Luke, welcome. Thanks so much for joining me today. Cynthia, thanks for having me. It's it's great to be on and and it's great that you allowed me to use this, your you know, your platform and audience to share this message.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yes, thank you. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you created your organization? You bet. Well, first of all, and I want everybody to remember, I'm just a farm kid from Idaho. I'm a simple Joe. And I think it's important that people understand that. I've had some people say I shouldn't do that. but But for me, it's like, listen, I'm a common guy. I'm a common Joe. You know you hear people talk on... on the TV or radio. And I think you quickly or have this hesitancy to elevate them, right? and And the problem with that is when you elevate someone past um you know what you think you stand is is then you you think their efforts are beyond what your efforts are, right? Or what you could do. And and nothing could be further from the truth.
Understanding Child Bedlessness
00:01:48
Speaker
you know i'm a
00:01:49
Speaker
I grew up in a small town and in Idaho called Kimberly, which is only about 4,000 people you know back then. I had a small school. and i tell people the beauty the beauty about living in a small town ah is you know everybody and they know you. and The downside of living that in a small town is you know everybody and they know you. You know yeah you just you just get to know everybody's problems and what they're dealing with. and and that's ah To me, it was it was how I was raised. i thought everybody...
00:02:20
Speaker
you know cared about everybody and their problems and when you see problems you just as a community that small you just jumped in you know and and being a farm kid from Idaho you know when you're stuck out in the field with the tractor or or whatever you didn't you didn't have anybody to help you just had to figure it out and that's just just kind of the mentality I grew up in is is you helped everybody someone's pulled off the side of the road you pulled over and see if they need help you know and And I think that developed in me and developed in people in small town. I mean, it could develop anywhere. Don't get me wrong. But but for me, might my small town helped me with that. And, you know, and I grew up in a single parent home, my mom and there was five kids, you know, I had four siblings and and i was the second to the youngest. So I had a lot of older older siblings.
00:03:05
Speaker
And being being in this you know a single parent home, especially a mom that only had, you know, she had one main job, but she worked three jobs altogether. you know, we didn't have much, you know, and we did rely on the community. Right. There's one time I, you know, we got there was a fifteen hundred dollar envelope sitting in our mailbox for Christmas because the community knew we we were we just didn't have much. you know and yeah and that and that And that developed a real earnest, if that's a word, a real desire for me to to always want to give back. Because when people could, they did for me. So when I can, I want to do for them. It was just kind of the mentality I grew up in. right and And I'm really grateful for that.
00:03:46
Speaker
That's wonderful, Luke. Thank you for sharing that. Now, I told you when I first met you, i didn't realize and or had awareness of bedlessness, right? A lot of people don't have the idea that bedlessness is a real issue in their communities. kids sleeping on the floor or, um you know, other areas because they don't have beds, can't afford them. um How did you first discover this problem?
Community Bed-Building Project
00:04:15
Speaker
And what was the moment that you decided, I'm going to do something about this rather than, wow, that's really sad, and then move on with your life?
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah. You know, the the irony of this child bedlessness, when I started using that word, um you know, there's a couple of people in our organization said, Luke, you know, that's not even a real word.
00:04:35
Speaker
Right. you And you type it out in emails and, then you know, you get the red line under it all the time. That's the irony is even bedlessness doesn't even know it's real. Right. and and And the fact of the matter is, it's not a real word, but it is a major, real, real problem in our community.
00:04:53
Speaker
And back in 2012, you know, in my small community, I was the same. I didn't know. you know, I had a full time job. I had, you know, a family, three kids. I was coaching. i was doing everything right. I was serving in my church.
00:05:09
Speaker
And and yet I this was all happening under my nose, like everybody. And where I came across child bedlessness was pretty pretty unique in specific way.
00:05:22
Speaker
I was ah in my church calling or service. They called it, it was it was what was called a young men's president, right? So kind of like a youth pastor, if you will. um So i was responsible for the spiritual and physical growth of the kids, the boys ages 12 17.
00:05:39
Speaker
Well, the church had adopted Boy Scouts as the activity arm of the church. And so basically I was the leader of the leader of the Boy Scouts. Right. I wasn't the Boy Scout Scoutmaster, but, you know, i I had a small segment of the boys, older boys that I did, but I i oversaw the whole program.
00:05:56
Speaker
Well, in this position, you know, about every other week we'd meet with other leaders in the church in meetings and we'd talk about the community events. We'd talk about, you know, the our our individual responsibilities. And then we'd talk about people that we're helping in the community.
00:06:13
Speaker
Well, one family came up that was kind of caught my ear first because they lived in a part of town that this little six, nine, ten year old kid that rode his bike all over this town, you know, didn't even know that this apartment complex existed.
00:06:29
Speaker
That's how kind of remote it was. So at first I was like, wait a minute, where where is this place? i don't How do I not know about this? Right. Well, then one of the leaders that had went into the home and and kind of was evaluating the things that you need, she started list listing off the things that she saw and and how how we as a church ah congregation can help them. And she talked about, you know, the the mom was the local school bus driver. You know, she might need some help going, driving to school. The dad suffered from mental health issues, so they didn't have a lot of money. They might need food and clothing and the kids didn't have any beds and they needed this, that, and the other. And I was like, wait a minute, what did what did you just say? You know, was like, did you just say the kids don't have any beds?
00:07:08
Speaker
She says, yes. And I'm like, well, they've got like mattresses, right? And she looked at me She says, no, no, they they have blankets and they're sleeping sleeping on the hard floor. And I don't know, Cynthia, that just was like,
00:07:20
Speaker
it was unacceptable. Let's just say that, right? You know, I i almost got mad about the situation. And and and then i thought I mean, I thought about my own kids. I thought like, what what would it be like for them to be on the floor day in and day out? I just, it really hit me hard. And then and then i thought,
00:07:36
Speaker
And every leader over teenage kids nowadays has the same thought I do. What in the heck can I do for an activity that doesn't involve a screen, a controller, you know, a video game? These are hard things for us to do to keep these kids excited and engaged when it doesn't involve these. You know what I'm saying? Even as a parent, that's a problem.
00:07:56
Speaker
And so I got really excited that, okay, here is a great opportunity, right, that I can get an Xbox controller out of these boys' hands and put a drill in it. We're gonna teach them something. and you know And I wasn't afraid of of building stuff. I mean, I knew my what my way around a drill and a saw.
00:08:13
Speaker
And although I'd never built furniture before, I wasn't afraid. i wasn't afraid to figure it out. you know And so that that night I got pretty excited. I went home after that meeting and grabbed a you know tape measure and some paper and pencils and and went down to my daughter's room. She had a bunk bed down there. And I started measuring and marking and scheming and you know figuring out how I was going to build this bunk bed. and uh and then that wednesday thursday friday the boy scouts would come over at night and we we started building this bed right and the cool thing that happened was not only were the boys excited about the project you know and and who and who doesn't love working with power tools i mean it's just fun drilling into wood and hammering away right who but i also could tell that they were excited about the cause
00:09:00
Speaker
you know they They recognize that this is a child in their community, might even be you know a fellow classmate right that that is sleeping on the floor that doesn't have a bed like they do.
00:09:12
Speaker
And it was a great learning opportunity that I could share with these boys. And so I was excited to see that they were excited. Well, the time came Saturday to deliver this bed. Well, it kind of got out in the community what was going on and what we were doing. It got out certainly got out in the congregation. Well, all of a sudden, you know delivery night came, and there was a ton of people there, right? 20, 30 people showed up to deliver this this one bunk bed to the small two-bedroom apartment. i was like, guys, we can't send an army over here. Come on. you know And so so I volunteered to stay back. I had to clean my garage anyways and a couple others. And so they went. The the boys went and with some leaders and
00:09:50
Speaker
and their parents and stuff. Well, you know, the next day church is when I heard how amazing the experience was, right? they They talked about how the kids were so grateful and, you know, it was shocking to
Impactful Stories from Bed Deliveries
00:10:00
Speaker
them. and it got the boys to think about what would it be like if they were sleeping on the floor. So they shared that with me. I mean, it was just perfect, right? Just exactly what I was hoping was going to happen. But I also felt super jealous.
00:10:14
Speaker
You know, I didn't get to go on this this delivery. I wanted to experience that. And so fast forward to you know ah about a week later, You know, I'm sitting on the couch and and and what what I hadn't shared with you and what no one else knew was in my life internally, right?
00:10:32
Speaker
i was about 35-ish years old um and I was going through what, I don't know if people call what I was going through a midlife crisis. I don't think it was a crisis. To me, it's so much as it was, i was it was a it was a faith crisis. i was I was questioning what I believed in. I was questioning, Am I on the right path? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? What is it as a human being?
00:10:56
Speaker
What is it that we should be doing right now that's right? Right. I wanted to be known for being that guy that wants to help, not the guy that made all the money. or or or valued my existence and success based on dollars. Because I thought that, to me, that had changed in me. That no longer mattered to me. I didn't care, right? I'd live in a shack if if it meant what I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing, you know?
00:11:23
Speaker
And so when I was going through all this and i had just experienced this amazing event of delivering this or building and in this and providing a bed for this family, it filled that that emptiness in me really, really strongly.
00:11:37
Speaker
But now that it was over, I can feel life just kind of creep itself back in. Right. You know, you just kind of fall back down into this rut that. that you know you don't want to be in. So I'm sitting on the couch and kind of going through this mentally and trying to pep talk myself and, you know, ah try to get out of these bad feelings or this this hurt that I had.
00:11:58
Speaker
And me and my kids were watching our our nightly program, Big Bang Theory, back in the day. And and a commercial came on or something and then they talked about this new Xbox or new, I can't remember what it was, but I remember being the fact that it was just before Christmas, you know, it was just the start of December.
00:12:16
Speaker
I knew my kids were going to ask for this dang Xbox. i Just do it. Right. And I wasn't going to give it to them. And they knew that. Right. and And, you know, not any fault to them, but ah I just, I just, it just hit me funny. You know, it just hit me really strongly that I'm going through this internal turmoil.
00:12:34
Speaker
I'm trying to figure out life. I'm trying to figure out what's important. Right. I just delivered a bed to a child that didn't have one. That was awesome. That's what life should be like. Right. And now my kids who have a bed who should appreciate that wants another X, but I mean, you can see as a parent, as a Oh, yeah.
00:12:51
Speaker
I've been there. You've been there, right? We've all been there. And, dude, Cynthia, the next thing I knew, I was standing up and I started walking to the garage door. Didn't say a word to anybody.
00:13:03
Speaker
And finally, my kids turned around and said, Dad, what where are you going? The program's on. And I turned around and I said, you know what? I got leftover wood. I'm going to build another bunk bed and you're going to come help me.
00:13:15
Speaker
but I just wanted them to have the same experience the boys did, right? Of learning the the fruits and the joys and the happiness that comes from thinking about someone else other than yourself, right? And and and supplying service to to people. and And I wanted them to appreciate the things they have. Like,
00:13:34
Speaker
For crying out loud, you have a bed, right? and I mean, these kids these kids don't have that. In fact, you got you got throw pillows for crying out loud, you know? And so um and so I wanted this for them. And and and so we started. we You know, I got pictures of my daughter in her pink tutu out there hammering way. And my son in his Boise State jersey, his favorite shirt, you know, drilling. It was just a great experience for us, you know? A couple of three nights there, we we built this this second bunk bed.
00:13:59
Speaker
Well, the funny thing was, is I didn't know what to do with it. Like, i I didn't know child bedlessness was a problem. I solved it, right? But the only child I knew, boom, done, piece of cake. Well,
00:14:11
Speaker
Of course, we had this bed and and it was recommended to me. Well, why don't you throw it on one of those Facebook buy, sell trade groups, right? you right and And I didn't have much experience with Facebook. I'd post some pictures of me catching some sturgeon, but but that's about it. And so um so reluctantly, but you know I went ahead and put it on there.
00:14:31
Speaker
And I had no idea what to expect, right? Again, child bedlessness wasn't an issue because it it wasn't a problem I knew about. Well, a couple of things happened.
00:14:41
Speaker
um Not only did i start seeing and reading a lot of ah comments on this post I put, they were from people I'd never met before. I didn't even know they existed. and and and And as well as friends that I haven't talked to in 20 years, right? They were commenting um you know, thanking me for my efforts, which was nice. But then they would talk about kids that they knew that were sleeping on the floor. And there was a lot of them.
00:15:11
Speaker
That was shocking to me. And even more shocking was the second thing was the conditions that they were sleeping in, right? Sleeping on cement floors. Cold and in December in Idaho is not exactly a tropical place, you know. yeah they They were sleeping on couch cushions that are sprawled out or couches themselves or or two or three of them to the same bed.
00:15:33
Speaker
I mean, none of them had their own bed. they were It was just really uncomfortable situations. And again, I was like, you got to like, really, this is going on in my hometown. Right. in some of the towns around me, I just didn't I just had no clue. But I wanted this bed to go to someone very special. Right. It was a special bed that me and my kids made. and more And so I got a phone call from a friend of mine that I served a mission with.
00:15:59
Speaker
who said um said, Luke, have you found a family for that bed yet? I said, actually, I haven't. And she says, I got the perfect one. And my friend um had been working with, her name was Tenille. She had been working with, and works with the social services, but working with families, helping get stuff, like transitioning from homelessness to homeless yeah having a home and yada, yada.
00:16:20
Speaker
Well, she told me about Haley. And this is my Haley story. So Haley was a six-year-old girl that had never slept on a bed before. the the The only bed she knew was the backseat of her mom's car and maybe occasionally, you know, couch dived on a friend's friend's house once in a while.
00:16:37
Speaker
But she, you know, she's that's the only bed she knew. And now she finally had a house, you know. um And so my friend told about told me about it. and I thought this is perfect. Right. This is what I want.
00:16:48
Speaker
And so we loaded up the bed, me and my buddy Jordan, and we headed out to this to this delivery. Well, I showed up and and and you can imagine what what walking into a house that was you know didn't didn't have anybody living in it and and and didn't have anything, period.
Effects of Bedlessness on Children
00:17:06
Speaker
um But walking into that house with the eyes through the eyes of a six-year-old, that's the first time I had ever done that. You know, and that was a different experience, right? Because you start recognizing, oh, there's no couch here. So they can't watch cartoons. You know, there's no TV for sure. Right. There's no table for them to eat Lucky Charms on. You know, it's just you start seeing like the life of a child and what it would be like. And it was kind of it was hard.
00:17:31
Speaker
I'll just say that. but little But little Haley, you couldn't you couldn't have seen the difference. You couldn't have tell the difference. She was just so happy to have a house, right, for crying out loud. And then I'm like, hey, show me your bedroom. So she she didn't know why we were there, but she was happy to show us this new room, this bedroom. It's not the backseat of a car, you know.
00:17:49
Speaker
And you walk in here, and and yeah, of course it looked exactly what you thought. The holes in the carpet and tears in the wallpaper. The closet door was missing. You know, it wass just this was just kind of a rundown room.
00:17:59
Speaker
But of all of those things, The most shocking thing was when you looked in the corner of the room, there was a pile of clothes. And that's where Haley slept. you know She would come home from school, put her PJs on, sleep on her school clothes, like literally pants as as a blanket and the shirt is ah as a pillow type thing, right? and then put them on and go to school the next day and and i don't know it just that really shocked me it really stirred something inside of me and then and then i got excited because i we had a bed for her and we started bringing in this pieces of bed and putting it together and and i was kind of watching haley and seeing how she reacted and and all of a sudden boom she realized this was a bed that we're bringing for her her first bed she erupted Cynthia I mean I've never seen a little girl just get so excited over something so simple as a bed like we all have that everybody's got a bed right or at least I thought so yeah I mean she came over and hugged these two strange dudes in her in her in her bedroom and and then she did something I'd never seen before she went and hugged and kissed the bed like it was her mom
00:19:07
Speaker
Oh, man, talk about, talk about, kill you, right? You know, you just, you just, it was emotional overload. And if that wasn't enough to just bury it, right? I'm sitting on this couch with Haley talking about her, or not couch, her her bed, talking about her, her new bed and, and how she can play on it and don't jump on it, you know, all that same stuff. But then you look up at mom here and here's here's the single mom, you know, six years of tears just pouring down this poor lady's face. And being raised by a single mom, I knew what that meant.
00:19:38
Speaker
I'd seen those tears before, right? And and right then, Cynthia, I knew – This is way more than just a bed. It's way more than just a good night's sleep. Right. This is providing relief.
00:19:52
Speaker
Right. From guilt, from stress, from worry for for the mom and then for the for the kid, you know, child bedlessness.
Community Involvement in Bed Building
00:20:00
Speaker
And I tell everybody, listen. If you would just stop for a minute, just slow down, put down what you're doing just for 20 seconds with me and listen, what does child bedlessness, what does bed or a good night's sleep do to a child?
00:20:17
Speaker
When you think about it physically, right? There's some obvious answers, right? They're not getting a good night's sleep. They're waking up sore, which means they're waking up cranky and moody. They're going to school in this condition, which is in no good way of being ready to learn anything right you know you're in a bad mood so there's a good chance you're not making very good friends or if any friends at all you know you talk to a teacher they're pretty accurate in pinpointing these kids that possibly don't have beds because because of these situations they get terrible grades right it's just it's horrible and that's just kind of the physical side physical effects right then you talk about mentally
00:20:54
Speaker
you know these kids can't have sleepovers they don't want kids they don't want other friends to come in their room and when they go to their their friends house like i said not only do they have a bed they got throw pillows for crying out loud right you know and you can't help but think there's jealousy which turns into resentment which turns into you know someone loves them who loves me i mean psychologically this is horrible right and then and then you think you know cynthia what happens When you and I have a bad day at work, when you guys when we have a bad day period, or worse yet, when we're sick, you know when you got the flu, can you tell me what what is the one place on the planet, literally on the planet, that you want to go and crawl into?
00:21:37
Speaker
Oh, definitely my bed. Exactly. ah who are We're all that way. I speak all across the country in in nice nice hotels and convention centers. I still to this day haven't found one bed that I would rather sleep in that's not other than mine. right and um And it doesn't really necessarily have to do with comfort and softness and stuff like that. It's just a sanctuary. you know and so and so that and But these kids don't have that.
00:22:04
Speaker
They've got clothes, they've got couch cushions, or they just got a floor. you know Can you imagine having the flu and sleeping on the floor? Oh my gosh. These all the effects of child bedlessness.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you painted a picture and I feel like I'm not going to get through this interview because I'm just going to have to swallow tears throughout most of it. But I want to highlight the amazing things that your organization does. in terms of building community and um and also not only raising awareness of bedlessness, but bringing people together to solve the issue, right? So I think one of the most powerful aspects of your organization is that you're actually, you do team building, you have communities that come together that build for their neighbors, like you and your family and your neighbors have done, know,
00:23:00
Speaker
How does how does someone get involved in this and, um you know, become a part of this ah solution? Yeah. Thanks for asking. and you're right. You know, we started building beds and the more beds we built, the more kids we found out or we heard or we were told that we're in trouble. Right. You know, the list grew, but something else grew that I did not expect. Right.
00:23:23
Speaker
And that was there was millions of people now. I mean, back then, there was hundreds of people. But now there are millions of people in our country, right, in our communities that want to give back. They want to help. They want to feel fulfill. They want a meaning to service. and so They just don't know how, right? They don't know. They haven't found that one. that one niche, that itch that they got to scratch. they haven't found what it is that, that brings fulfillment in and service in their, in, in their life.
00:23:54
Speaker
You know, and that's what I learned that, that Sleep and Emily Peace did. You know, there was other later on down the road, after I found the one charity that was doing this, you know, other charities popped up. Well, this one charity I found, they had stopped building beds and they were just buying beds. And,
00:24:09
Speaker
and And I thought about that, you know, we could just buy beds and and and deliver a bought bed. Well, sometimes those beds are pretty crappy beds, let's be real, right? um But If we did that, we would miss out on the other amazing mission that I think we solve unintentionally. And that's we bring communities together, right? We bring people that sense of fulfillment. If I can share real quick my Hank story. You know, when when we started this a couple of years down the road, we finally became a nonprofit and and more people are hearing about us. Well, I wanted to do a build that was outside of
00:24:43
Speaker
what we call a private build where a corporation donates the 300 per bed they want to build 30 beds or whatever with their employees which is awesome that's that's what mostly what we do probably but i wanted the public to be involved and so i had a public build i put it in the newspaper for the first time hey
Volunteer Fulfillment Stories
00:25:00
Speaker
come down it's saturday morning it's january it's a warehouse it's going to be cold as heck sorry about that you know but i was hoping we'd get a lot of people and we did And so I'm sitting here and greeting people coming in, getting ready for this build. And then in walks Hank.
00:25:15
Speaker
Now, Hank's like a 700-year-old guy. I mean, this guy's old, right? He's walking in. he's you know ah My first thought was like, oh no, man, this is guy. you know I don't want him to die on me, right? He was an old guy. Yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
But he had this grandpa smile. I mean, you looked at and you just you just instantly loved this guy. And he was handing out these little cards to these volunteers that said it said something like, thank you for your service or something like on it.
00:25:41
Speaker
Clearly, this is not his first rodeo of volunteering his time, right? I remember thinking that. and And, well, when we were just about to start, Hank kind of wobbled over to me. and And he said, so you're the guy. And I said, well, um I'm a guy, but sure, yeah.
00:25:56
Speaker
And he said, where do you need me? And my first thought is like, I need you to stay alive, number one. Let's not kill over in my first public build. and And I said, well, tell me, Yank, what'd you do for living?
00:26:06
Speaker
And he says, well, was a carpenter for 40 years. And I'm like, ah, okay. If there's one section of this build we can't screw up as cutting, right? And he probably knows his way around a saw, which he did.
00:26:16
Speaker
So I took him all the way the very, very front of the train, which unfortunately was like the furthest away from the heater, by the way. But, you know, he started and I showed him what cuts we make and stuff. I only had to show the guy once because, I mean, he was on it and he went to town, right?
00:26:31
Speaker
Well, the funny thing, is Cynthia, when you're When you're the only guy in the room that knows what's going on, that knows how to build beds. you know We got people that maybe have never touched a drill before in their life showing up, which is great. You don't need experience, but it does take a little bit of training and a little bit of question answering and all that. well that takes and When you got 60 people like that, it consumes every ounce of thought you have in your brain.
00:26:55
Speaker
So four hours go by and it dawns on me, is is Hank still alive? like you know I was worried about him. and So I, you know, I turned around when I realized that, turned around and started heading back to the beginning of the, of the train here. And, and here was Hank, you know, still at the saw covered in, so I mean, his clothes were as wide as his hair and I couldn't,
00:27:18
Speaker
I couldn't apologize quick enough. Right. I said, Hank, I am so sorry. i forgot about you. I just been busy, blah, blah, blah. And he turned to me and kind of wiped his, wiped his face off. Remember the sawdust coming off his face. And he said, he said, Luke, let me tell you something.
00:27:35
Speaker
And I was like, oh crap. Yeah. yeah He's like, I have donated and volunteered at other organizations my whole life. He says, I have never shown up to an event.
00:27:46
Speaker
And in five minutes, I was put on a project and I was i couldn't leave. It was so important. And people were relying on so much. i couldn't I couldn't even go the bathroom.
00:27:58
Speaker
I couldn't go get a glass of water. And I was like... I said, Hank, I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry. And he looked at me and he says, no, no, thank you. ah you know and And right then, Cynthia, I kind of stepped back and it just it just dawned on me.
00:28:14
Speaker
right I had spent so much effort trying to make the process of what we do easy for our volunteers because I wanted them to come back and I thought that was important. I knew it was hard, but i that's what I loved about it was it made me feel fulfilled. And I'm like, duh, Luke.
00:28:31
Speaker
Certainly how I feel about it's got to be how everybody else does. And Hank taught me that lesson. So we have in SHP is saying the happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and the dustiest, you know, and it's so true. You know, Hank taught me that when you want to take time out of your data to volunteer your time, especially on a cold Saturday morning in Idaho, you know.
00:28:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. You want to feel like you actually did something meaningful. You want to feel fulfilled. That doesn't come from easy work. You know, that comes from knowing and feeling the work that you did. And that's what SHP does. And that's how communities can come together when you feel when when what you're doing brings a level of fulfillment that's hard to find.
00:29:16
Speaker
you know and so that's why when we put on build days and people schedule with us build days that after the build day is done they immediately schedule another one or they can't wait for the next one because not because it's easy work not because the next day you don't feel it because you do right but it's that it's kind of like that feeling after a good workout and you're sore you know you're like i'm sore but boy yeah i know that adrenaline uh The hormone that you release after working out, not adrenaline, but you know what I mean? Well, dopamine and all those things that you feel. It feels good. Yeah. feels But there's something else that happens too. You can get those feelings and those emotions and whatnot.
00:30:00
Speaker
But what it helps you realize, and this is what Hank taught me, that he now gets the same feeling I do of his fingerprints went on every single one of those pieces of wood that, guess what, is now a bed for 20, 30 kids, right? That is a sense of fulfillment that a community wants to feel, that someone in the community wants to feel. And we learned, and I learned, I knew this long, long time ago.
00:30:26
Speaker
If we were going to solve this pandemic called child bedlessness, in our country, it's to be solved by some farm kid from Idaho. You know, it's going to be solved by the community.
00:30:37
Speaker
And if we really going to take this serious and our mission statement is no kid sleeps on the floor in our town. We take that very serious because we want our town to be everybody's town. Right. And so the only way that's going happen is we have to develop some sort of platform for people to be able to do what we're doing, but do it in their own hometown. And it's got to be easy and it's got to be transparent and it's got to be simple and pure and, and,
00:31:04
Speaker
You know, that that is the the the what is the equation, right?
Getting Involved with Sleep in Heavenly Peace
00:31:09
Speaker
That's the formula of bringing communities together and solving problems on a big national scale. And that's why Sleep In Emily Peace now has grown to 440 plus chapters in almost every state in four countries.
00:31:23
Speaker
And we have built more than three hundred and seventy thousand beds for kids. Amazing. Now you helped us paint the picture. We built awareness. Can you give us some information on where my audience can find you, like or your website, um social tags, and we'll be sure to link everything. Yeah.
00:31:44
Speaker
Thank you. Yes. If this is something that really pulls at your heartstrings, right, and something you feel like, hey, you want to learn about, you know go to shpbeds.org. That's our website. And the beauty about our website is we used to have it this way, but it's not this way anymore. You don't you don't go to some big national organization's website.
00:32:03
Speaker
right We did away with that because we knew this was a local thing. What's going to come up is the website of the local chapter. So you're going to see how many kids are in need. You're going see a number there. 50, 60, 4,000, whatever. That's what you're going to see. You're gonna see how many beds that that chapter's built. some Some chapters are big. Some chapters are small. But every chapter needs more help. So going to find ways that you can help, whether it's donating money, 90-plus kids.
00:32:32
Speaker
percent of your dollar goes to whatever chapter you select and stays there for building beds. No one gets paid at the chapter level. So you know, 90 percent of your dollar is going directly to building building beds. You can volunteer at the local chapter. They're always looking for volunteers. come No experience is necessary. You can come down and learn how to use a drill. And then you're teaching other you're teaching kids how to build beds for other kids. How cool is that? Right. yeah and then And then another thing is, is if if there's no chapter close by, right, you can actually start a chapter, you know, with the process of starting a chapter. We train once a quarter.
00:33:11
Speaker
We actually fly you to Salt Lake City, Utah, where you you you learn with other people. Starting chapters, we put on about 50, 60 a year. So there's a lot of people that you kind of bond with and learn. and And, you know, we only lose one or two chapters a year. And that's mostly because they just close or people move or something like that. So we have a very high success rate because we take it very personal that your success is our success. And we want you to be successful. We know how to be successful, right? So you can start a chapter. but But the ultimate ask here, Cynthia, really is
00:33:43
Speaker
Just help us raise awareness because like you and everybody else I talked to, including this guy 12 years ago, well, now 14 years ago, I didn't know child bedlessness was a thing. Well, Luke, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a joy having you on and to talk about this. You're so passionate about what you do So um I appreciate your time. Thank you.
00:34:06
Speaker
Thanks for having me.