ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Light Orlando and Sleep in Heavenly Peace came together to build beds on Saturday for kids who would otherwise sleep on the floor.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace builds beds for kids who would otherwise sleep on the floor and they said they currently have a backlog of 1,800 applications for a bed.
Light Orlando teamed up with the organization to chip away at that number on Saturday with a goal of building 60 beds for kids in need.
Johana Lopez spent her Saturday volunteering with Light Orlando and Sleep in Heavenly Peace. She said it was great to see so many people come together for one cause.
“I’ve always had a bed to sleep in so I can’t imagine not having one,” Lopez said. “So the fact that we can come in and help build them for people, especially kids who need beds to sleep on, it’s beautiful.”
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Volunteers created what was essentially an assembly line for building the beds. They cut and measured the wood for the bedframe, sanded it down, drilled it together, branded the wood with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace logo and stained it.
Kurt Scherer was also there on Saturday and said it’s important as members of the Church of Jesus Christ to come together and take care of those in need. He said one of the biggest blessings of the day was the number of kids and teens that came to help.
“As they get used to this, they’ll want to do this in the future as well,” Scherer said. “I think seeing people of many different backgrounds, different school organizations joining together, I think that’s important.”
One of those teenagers was Paisley McCoy, who still came to volunteer despite having a school dance Saturday night. While that makes for a full day, she said it’s all worth it.
“It may seem like a lot of work, but when all of this is coming together, you actually do enjoy it and you benefit from it,” McCoy said. “You just fill up with the most amazing joy and you bond with so many amazing people who would go out of their way to do this for people they don’t even know and probably won’t meet.”
Currently, applications are closed for beds from Sleep in Heavenly Peace due to the backlog, but the organization encourages those in need to apply at a later date.
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