Women’s build day at ‘Sleep in Heavenly Peace’ | WFRV
SUAMICO, Wis. (WFRV) – Volunteers built 40 beds for girls in need at a women’s build event in Suamico on Wednesday evening.
The De Pere chapter of ‘Sleep in Heavenly Peace’ organized the event. Since the chapter began two years ago, they’ve built over 1,000 beds for Brown County children.
“It’s going to give them some self-esteem because they have their own private bed, it’s also going to give them a good night’s rest so they can perform better in school, that’s the biggest thing,” said chapter co-president Dan Vermeulen when asked why it’s so important for kids to have their own beds.
“About 95 percent of the people we deliver to are single moms in the area and more than half of those are girls that the beds are going to,” Vermeulen added.
The organization and volunteers build the beds from scratch. Girls from a local youth basketball team were among the 65 volunteers on Wednesday night.
“It’s good for the community, seeing the smiles on people’s faces and it makes you feel real good inside,” said Evelyn and Cora.
Evelyn and Cora weren’t the only basketball players volunteering their time with ‘Sleep in Heavenly Peace’ on Wednesday night.
About a dozen players from the women’s basketball team at UW-Green Bay were also there.
“As people who kind of have a face in the community, our team is well known, and seeing our team out here today might inspire others to want to do this (volunteer as well),” said Caelan Givens. “The more people we have, the more beds we can make and kids we can help.”
Givens said that she and several of her teammates are elementary education majors, so helping kids is particularly important to them.
“The community gives a lot to us so we feel like it’s really important to give back to them as well. Something like this is really important to us, we like to invest in our youth,” said Givens.
“It’s been amazing to meet so many different people who want to give back locally and want to help and are looking for a way to do it,” said Vermeulen.
For more information about ‘Sleep in Heavenly Peace,’ click here.
