Sleep in Heavenly Peace non-profit delivers 1,900th bed to metro child in need

DES MOINES, Iowa — Kids are back to school, and getting a good night’s sleep is important for their well-being. Making sure those kids are sleeping in a bed is the mission of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Bedtime at Selena Dameron’s house will look and feel different this school year. Her kids have a brand-new bunk bed thanks to the non-profit.

“It means a lot to us,” recipient Dameron said. “Now she’ll be able to get a bed. They were so excited. My son was like ‘let’s go!’ So he was excited about it and we’re just thankful that they gave us a bunk bed.”

The organization is working to end child “bedlessness” by making sure no kid sleeps on the floor.

Tuesday night, volunteers with the Des Moines chapter delivered 19 beds to eight different homes in the metro. That marked a major milestone: serving 1,900 children since its start in 2018.

“I think before I heard about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, as with most people, it wasn’t on my radar that kids didn’t have beds,” Lin VandeBerg, co-president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace IA-Des Moines Chapter. “It makes all the sense in the world, though, when a family is already struggling, that purchasing a bed is a really big-ticket item. So, so many kids are sleeping on the floor and that we’ve been able to get 1900 of them into their own beds is a wonderful feeling.”

But the work isn’t done because the need is great.

“Our waiting list right now is 100 children,” VandeBerg said. “So, we build some beds, and we get them out, and more applications come in. We think, though, in the lack of any real research on it, that any given population, so if Des Moines roughly is 700,000 we think two to 3% of that population would represent the number of children without beds, which for Des Moines would be 14,000 to 21,000, children that don’t have beds of their own.”

VandeBerg says the organization relies on donations from the community. They are always in need of new twin-sized bedding, pillows, and money to buy lumber. Plus, volunteers who want to give back.

“The kids are always very excited when we show up with beds because they know they’re getting a new bed,” volunteer John Lensing said. “And the smile on their face, they’re grinning from ear to ear, and they always love making the bed.”

A bed they can call theirs to “sleep in heavenly peace.”

The organization has bedding drives coming up in September at a couple of Des Moines businesses.

To find more information on how to donate, volunteer, or apply for a bed click here or visit the Des Moines chapter’s Facebook page .

Watch the full interview with Lin VandeBerg, co-president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace IA-Des Moines Chapter, below.

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