Two University of Florida students have created a local chapter of a national organization, to live out its mission of “no kids sleep on the floor in our town.”
Tara Maupins, a mother of six children, was the Gainesville chapter’s first bed recipient.
“One day I got on Facebook and saw that my friend had shared a post about Sleep in Heavenly Peace,” she said. “So, I followed the link to apply for beds, put in my zip code and realized that there was a chapter near me.”
Sleep in Heavenly Peace is an American nonprofit that builds and delivers beds to children who don’t have beds to sleep in.
There are74.4 million children in America according to Child Stats, the government forum on child and family statistics. Of that number, 2-3% of those children are without a bed, according to numbers collected bySleep in Heavenly Peace.
It all started in 2012, in a family’s garage. It was Christmas time in Idaho, a time of joy and love, but also a time of bitter, cold weather. Luke Mickelson and his wife Heidi, decided to build a bed with their kids and later post it for free to Facebook marketplace.
After an overwhelming response, he decided to move forward with the concept and expand across the nation.
With over 270 chapters in 44 states, Canada, Bermuda, and the Bahamas, Chandler Wiggins, a junior studying computer science, decided to start the process in the fall to bring a chapter to Gainesville.
“I officially opened our chapter up for deliveries on January 1,” Wiggins said. “Since then, we have received over 30 applications.”
To qualify as a bed recipient, individuals must be the legal guardian of the child or children ages 3 to 17 years old receiving the bed.
While most requests come from parents themselves, Wiggins said, a substantial number of requests come from family members, friends and teachers.
“We do not look at anything other than the child’s need for a bed,” he said. “Our only criterion is, ‘Does the child have a bed?’ And ‘Is it safe for the volunteers to come in and deliver it?’”
Once they have a set recipient, Wiggins and his team, made up of 22 UF students, get to work building.
All their supplies stay in a garage, in the backyard of a house near campus. It is filled with bed frames, side rails, slats, mattresses and delivery kits to build the beds. There is also a branding fire pit and the brands to put the logo on each bed, stain for the wood, a dip tank, saws, drills and sanders.
Each month, the group holds a build day where they prepare all the pieces for the bed. This includes cutting the wood, sanding it, staining it and branding it.
The idea is that after a build day, all the beds should be able to be assembled with just eight screws.
“My family and I had been living in the homeless shelter,” Maupins said.
After recently moving her family to the Campus Walk Apartments, she said they had to start all over again.
Three weeks after Maupins filled out the form, someone messaged her and asked when they could deliver the beds.
“They provided everything from the bed to the mattress to the bedding,” she said. “They even let the kids be involved in some of the steps, which they were very excited about.”
Three bunk beds later, all six of her children had a bed to sleep in.
Cameron Bradley, a freshman studying finance, is serving as the co-president with Wiggins.
“When we deliver these beds to these kids, they are sleeping in a bed maybe for the first time in their life,” Bradley said. “I think sleeping in a bed is something that we all take for granted and don’t even think about a lot.”
“It was a huge blessing,” Maupins said. “For everything to be provided, it was such a big help for us financially.”
According to Bradley, the difference between the new chapter in Gainesville and other chapters is that they have access to the university population.
“When you start a chapter at a school, you can hand the organization over to the next generation,” he said. “Many of these students will go on to other cities and hopefully the process can keep growing.”
“I love being able to see the impact that we are having on these children and families in real-time,” Wiggins said. “I think that is what I think makes this chapter so special.”
Sleep in Heavenly Peace Gainesville has a goal of building 100 beds this year. As of March 1, they have built 23.