Idaho man built one bed in garage; 14 years later, idea delivered 396,000 beds
A grassroots movement called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, started by an Idaho man in 2012, has grown into a national organization that has delivered nearly 400,000 beds to children in need. The project began as a small garage-based woodworking effort and expanded across the U.S. and Canada.
Why it matters
It highlights the impact of individual-led volunteerism in addressing systemic issues like child poverty and lack of basic resources.
A single homemade bunk bed built in an Idaho garage in 2012 has grown into a large volunteer movement focused on one simple goal: making sure children have a proper place to sleep. According to Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), the organisation that grew from founder Luke Mickelson’s first bed-building effort, what began as a small Christmas project has expanded to more than 400 chapters across the United States and Canada. Over the years, volunteers have built and delivered hundreds of thousands of beds to children in need, turning a personal act of service into a wider effort to address what the organisation calls child bedlessness.How one garage project beganThe story started in December 2012, when Mickelson decided to spend part of Christmas building bunk beds for children who did not have beds of their own. The first project took place in his garage in Twin Falls, Idaho.
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