Volunteers sought for National Bed Build Day

Published 9:45 am Friday, September 6, 2024

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) of LaGrange is set to participate in the annual Beds Across America National Bed Build Day next weekend.

The event is held each year by SHP, which helps provide beds for children in need. The nonprofit organization builds and delivers beds to children who don’t have their own beds to sleep in every night. The National Build Day was a coordinated effort to build thousands of bunk beds for kids across America by the 200-plus SLP chapters in the United States and Canada.

“Our national build day focuses on raising the awareness of children not having their own bed to sleep in at night,” LaGrange SLP President Greg Watts. “Chapters across the country are encouraged to participate in this special focus build day.”

The National Build Day is held each year on the second Saturday in September.

For this year’s event, volunteers will gather at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sep. 14 at the New Ventures Facility at 150 Lukken Industrial Dr. here in LaGrange for the bed build.

Volunteers can preregister at shpbeds.org or they can sign up the day of the event when they arrive.

“This is a family-friendly event and we encourage families to come and volunteer together to help children in our community,” Watts said.

Watts noted that no tools or carpentry skills are required to volunteer. Older children are also encouraged to participate. The bed-build often has teams of volunteers from local churches, high schools and civic groups.

One new aspect the group is hoping to achieve this year is delivering some of the beds on the day of the build. Watts said if they are finished early enough, volunteers can help deliver the beds to the kids who will be using them and get to see the fruits of their work.

LaGrange SHP has a goal of 100 beds for this year’s build. To do so they are hoping for 150 to 175 volunteers. Watts said they are still looking for more volunteers.

“We just always need volunteers. We always have kids in need. We’ve got 86 kids in the queue right now, waiting, so we never get ahead a lot. That’s just the reality,” Watts said.