Here’s a number that stuck with us: three years. That’s how long one mom told Woody Harrison she’d been sharing a bed with her two kids. Three years of three people in one bed, every single night.
On Tuesday, October 27th, eleven members of the Rotary Club of Austin teamed up with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to help change that. We split into three groups, grabbed our tools, and headed out to deliver and put together beds right in families’ homes. By the end of the afternoon, six kids had a bed of their very own: an 11-year-old girl and her 9-year-old brother, a 3-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, and two girls ages 13 and 11. A couple of those homes got bunk beds, too.
If you've never done one of these builds, the moment that warms your heart isn't the drilling or the hauling. It's when the beds are finished and the kids see them.
Kyle Pedersen led the full project but also one of the teams, and he said it better than we could: “We arrived to find the living room cleared and ready for two beds. The apartment appeared small, and while we didn’t see the entire home, it seemed the parents and their three children, including a baby, may have been sharing one bedroom. Gabriella Cooper helped bridge the language barrier, but the relief we felt from the mother and her children needed no translation. Once the beds were assembled, the 11-year-old girl and her 9-year-old brother helped make their new beds for the very first time. That simple moment brought tears to my eyes.”
Making your own bed for the first time. Most of us don’t even remember doing that. For these kids, it was a big deal.
Warda Fettah felt it too: “Seeing their happiness after we finished building the beds was incredibly rewarding and warmed our hearts. This experience also reminded me how grateful I am for everything we have and how meaningful it is to give back to others.”
A big thank-you to Ed Petrere from the Rotary Club of Georgetown, and his wife Evelyn - got our crew up to speed and ready to go. Ed was also a driving force in getting the Rotary Club of Bastrop started with this same work, so he knows a thing or two about turning Rotarians into bed builders.
If you’re wondering why this matters: Sleep in Heavenly Peace estimates more than 100,000 kids across the country are still waiting for a bed. Some of them live right here in Austin. A good night’s sleep shapes how a kid shows up at school, how they play, and how they grow. Their motto is simple: “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.” We’d love for that to be true in our town.