No Child Sleeps On The Floor: Volunteers build beds for local children in need

“No child sleeps on the floor in our town.”

For Sleep in Heavenly Peace, that’s the motto and the mission.

On Saturday afternoon at Gadsden Technical College in Quincy, many volunteers sported blue t-shirts with that slogan stamped on the back.

But for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, it’s not just a slogan, it’s a community effort to get children off the floor and into beds to sleep at night.

John Cousins, president of the Tallahassee chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, said nearly 3% of children in the United States don’t have beds at home.

According to the 2020 United States Census, Gadsden County has almost 44,000 residents.

About 22 percent of those residents are children.

If Gadsden County reflects the national average, then it’s possible nearly 300 children in Gadsden don’t have beds.

“We’re building 25 bunk beds today,” Cousin said. “That’s 50 beds.”

In addition to that 50, the organization also brought 13 more beds with them that day.

“That’s 63 kids that will be off the floor in Gadsden County soon,” Cousins added.

The only question…is there a need?

Cousins said they have seen situations where children were sleeping on a bare floor, where children were sleeping on piles of clothes, on an air mattress with holes, where children were having to sleep in the bed with grandpa, or sometimes four children in one bed.

He encouraged the volunteers to spread the word that they have beds available for children.

“It’s been a struggle to get beds into Gadsden County,” Cousins expressed. “We can’t get kids off the floor unless we deliver the beds.”

This year, Quincy native Kerwyn Jones-Wilson made getting the beds to local children easier for the organization.

Jones-Wilson, who own Jones Construction in Quincy, serves as Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s community liaison.

She’s also the president of the National Association of Women in Construction Tallahassee Chapter and the charter founder of Future Builders of America Gadsden County Chapter.

Jones-Wilson said the Women in Construction Gadsden Chapter partnered with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to kick off this year’s Women in Construction week.

She said in the past Tallahassee’s excess beds were given to Gadsden.

“Every bed we make, we will be able to keep here,” Jones-Wilson said.

Not only are children given beds, Sleep in Heavenly Peace also provides the mattress, comforter, sheets, a pillow and stuffed animal to go along with the bed.

And for Saturday’s event, they threw in handmade quilts.

“We go and put the bed up,” Jones-Wilson says. “Sometimes the kids are not there so when they get home they’re completely set up.”

Commissioner Angela Grant Sapp, who is the career and technical education coordinator at Gadsden Tech, said Wilson-Jones is also the occupational advisor for the school’s carpentry program.

“She goes out of her way to make sure we are involved,” Grant Sapp said.

Grant Sapp, who volunteered alongside her daughter Meagan, also said on behalf of Gadsden Tech and Superintendent of Schools Elijah Key, she wanted to thank all of the volunteers who came out to help.

All ages are welcomed to volunteer with Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Saturday morning and up into the afternoon, volunteers cheerfully fulfilled their role in the bunk bed production.

It was an assembly line process.

Volunteers cut, sanded, drilled holes, hammered and screwed, all before treating the wood in a vinegar and steel wool solution and finally branding the letters “SHP” in the head and footboards.

It takes about two-and-a-half hours to build 25 bunk beds.

“It took us two-and-a-half hours to build the first two,” Cousins said with a chuckle as he recalled the

Tallahassee chapter’s first bunk bed build back in November 2018.

Cousins said they originally planned to have their build the second weekend in October that year, but Hurricane Michael hit, causing them to push the event back a month.

Since then, the events have grown.

They attract more volunteers with each build.

“We can have a six-year-old, or someone in their 90s,” Cousins said. “There’s something for everyone to do.

Cousin said Sleep in Heavenly Peace does not receive any government funding.

He said the goal is to have communities help themselves.

Erin Hill - erin@gadsdencountytimes.com

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No Child Sleeps On The Floor: Volunteers build beds for local children in need

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