Volunteer To Build Beds For Local Kids In Need: June 12th Build A Bed Inaugural Event

THE WOODLANDS, TX - The Woodlands and Montgomery County is home to many nonprofit organizations. We have met with and interviewed most of them over the years. Each organization is unique and targets a specific area of need in our community. God’s Garage for instance provides free vehicles to single moms and spouses of military service men and women. Compassion United helps the homeless. The Montgomery County Women’s Center provides shelter and help for women in dire domestic situations. The Community Assistance Center, among scores of other services, also help homeless people regain personal IDs to help them get back into the system, find a job and improve their life. We could write a hundred articles on the subject and still wouldn’t be able to fully explain the many ways that caring and loving organizations, along with the volunteers and community help people in need. It is something you see around the country and world, but it seems to be offered more freely and with more passion in and around The Woodlands area. Dosey Doe participates and supports Raising A Hand For Rett, a way to raise awareness for Rett syndrome. Their concert to benefit Rett syndrome is July 30th. And June 10th the 5th Annual 'Shelter for Shelter’ will take place. This event is presented by Richmond Realty Group – RE/MAX The Woodlands & Spring. Another great organization that just started in the area is called Sleep in Heavenly Peace. They provide beds for needy children.

Click here to view their June 12 Build A Bed event.

Yesterday, we were given a chance to sit down and talk with Mike Fortner, Co-President of the Montgomery County chapter of Sleep In Heavenly Peace. This organization focuses their efforts on building beds for needy kids and their approach to how this is accomplished is rather remarkable. It seems like a small thing to you or me, but to a kid, it means the world to have their own bed. They may have been sleeping on a couch or floor or maybe even their parent’s bed. For whatever reason, their family isn’t able to provide them one. Kids are pretty resilient. They seem to be able to withstand things that we as adults find hard to understand. Kids are used to the way they live and not having a bed is just part of their daily life, but kids really need their own beds and Sleep In Heavenly Peace stepped up and provide communities a unique opportunity to do just that.

How Does The Process of Building Beds For Kids Work?

Mike has a goal of building 40 beds each month and delivering them to needy kids each week. Mike works as an insurance agent and manages the Montgomery chapter of Sleep In Heavenly Peace from his work office. He doesn’t have a physical location to build or store the beds and so the organization he represents setup a way across the country for communities to be the hands and feet of Christ in helping kids. There are three main areas that Mike needs help with to complete these beds. The efforts are managed as monthly events. Beds are not built at their offices. They require the help of caring companies to give them a place to work on these beds. So the first need Mike pointed out is a place to build 40 beds each month. Mike’s group provides the materials and tools to build the beds. The facility needs to be able to allow people to build beds and stain them onsite. They are looking for facilities that have power and restrooms to accommodate the need for staining and for the volunteers that come out. June 12 is Mike’s first official build a bed event since they launched their Montgomery County chapter. They started the chapter in March of 2021. Amy Milstead at Milstead Auto has graciously provided her facility for the June 12 event.

So need #1 is for local businesses to set up and provide a facility for the once a month event.

Click here if you would like to volunteer your company’s facility for a build a bed event.

Need #2 is volunteers. Mike said that they require about 50 people each month to help build the beds. They are guided by trained organization leaders and they said that the events that they have participated with in the past are awesome. The community coming together, building things with your hands and then seeing the joy of the kids when delivering the beds. It is something you have to experience, even if only one time. The build is for a short period of time. On the day of the event, you will work 4 hours from start to finish. The purpose of the event is to just build and stain the beds. The delivery of the beds are scheduled after the beds are complete and are done throughout the following weeks. They will need volunteers to help them with that as well. One interesting bit of info that I learned while interviewing Mike is how they stain the beds. They actually fill a tub with vinegar and place steel wool in the tubs. The vinegar rusts the steel wool and creates a dark dye in the tub. They then dip the wood in the tubs, remove them and let them dry. The stain darkens the wood like normal stains do.

So need #2 is for people in the area to volunteer. Only 4 hours of your time, setup on a Saturday each month. Great fellowship and friends. You get to work with your hands. No delivery on that day, just show up, help build the beds and in no more than 4 hours, you will have completed the build tasks for that month.

Click here if you would like to volunteer with for building the beds or helping deliver the beds.

Need #3 is obvious and I am sure you were thinking about this as you were reading this article. All nonprofits operate on the generous contributions of the community in which they serve. Lumber prices are through the roof now-a-days. This is a great need for them, but it is even more critical to secure money today to purchase materials to make the beds. The bed includes lumber and metal materials to build the frames. They also purchase mattresses to finish out a bed. It is a unique ministry to the community, but even with the free facilities and free labor, building beds are nothing without the materials to build them with.

So need #3 is for us to help build beds by giving something to this organization. They have sponsorship opportunities as well as accept individual one time contributions.

Click here if you would like to donate something to help further this ministry of helping needy kids get new beds to sleep on. It would mean a great deal to this ministry if you would help in these areas, but if would mean the world to the kid that received this gift.

Think about helping this group and click on the links above to provide a place to build the beds, volunteer to build the beds or donate to help other people build the beds.

One last thing that I guess is need #4. If they build extra beds and need to store them somewhere, they are also going to need a generous person or business to give them some greatly needed space to store queued up beds that will need to be temporarily stored as they prepared to send them out to needed kids.

How does this organization find kids to give the beds to

When this organization was started, they were sent leads to needy kids via Facebook comments. People reached out to them to tell them of people they knew that needed help. Sleep In Heavenly Peace works with various group and still relies on people identifying needs and sending those needs to them. They currently have 16 needy kids that they are scheduled to build beds for.If you know of a person that needs a bed, you can submit their name to them through an online contact form.

Click here to submit a name to this group to build a bed for.

Click here to view their June 12 Build A Bed event.

Click here to view the SHP Facebook Page


About Sleep In Heavenly Peace

Sleep in Heavenly Peace had its start like many other charities, in a garage. It was Christmas time, a time of joy and happiness, a time of giving and love, but also a time of bitter, cold weather and snowstorms. A project, that was started with the build of one bed for a single family developed into something a whole lot more. With wood left over from the first bunk, another idea was created. “Who else could benefit from this bunk”?

A simple post on Facebook sparked an unexpected response. What was thought would be a litter of requests from needy families, turned into a litany of local people eager to help and volunteer. The generosity of these volunteers was so surprising that it was no longer a search for one who needed a bed, but a question of how many beds we could provide. From there, the idea grew into reality. We can make a difference.

They continue to grow and with that growth They’ve expanded to Canada. SHP Canada began with providing beds to a single mom they found on Kijiji in November 2018. She had just fled an abusive relationship and had nothing with which to set up her new home. She and her three daughters were all sleeping on the floor. One of their contacts heard about the help they were giving this family and suggested they check out Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an American charity that builds and provides beds to children who don’t have a bed of their own. Their mission aligned with Sleep In Heavenly Peace and they applied to attend the Chapter President Training in March 2019 in Twin Falls, Idaho. With support from SHP founder, Luke Mickelson, and his team, they were able to start building their first beds in May 2019. Their team of dedicated community of volunteers and donors, which includes individuals, school shop classes, and many local businesses, has now built hundreds of beds and is sharing joy by giving Canadian children safe, warm beds.

SHP is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Their federal ID is 46-4346568 in the United States.

So many great charities provide clothing, meals, and toys to families in need. But as wonderful as this aid is, few organizations offer suitable beds and bedding to the kids in these families.

At SHP, they fully believe that a bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support that a child needs. When it was brought to their attention that the need for beds went far beyond our own neighborhoods, they stepped up and took initiative.

They’re a national organization answering the call to a national problem.
If a child needs a bed, they want to make sure they get one. 

No kid sleeps on the floor in our town®.


About Milstead Auto

Automotive Service that combines Old-Fashioned values with the very latest in auto repair technology, that’s Milstead Automotive. Our Team of expert professionals are committed to providing you with exceptional customer care and on time service.

The Woodlands Auto Repair Specialists

In most cases, we offer same day service, convenient hours and for our valued customers we provide pickup and drop off service with in a 15 mile radius. Call today to schedule your service and reserve a spot on our complimentary shuttle.

At Milstead we take pride in ensuring that each customer is 100% satisfied. We do the job right the first time. After all, doing the same job twice is not our idea of repeat business!

Click here to view more information about Milstead Auto