Rotary clubs partner to build beds for children

By Harry Loomis

Saturday morning, members of the Southside and Eastside Rotary Clubs met at Habitat for Humanity to build beds for children that don’t have one.

The two clubs raised funds to be able to help out today.

“We’re able to apply for a grant through our district that we can then match the funds,” said Dana Matt, president of the Eastside Rotary Club. “Between the two clubs, we were able to donate $10,000 today towards this event.”

The clubs partnered with an organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace, whose motto is “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.” Kids not having a bed to sleep is a more prominent issue than one may believe.

“When we started this, I had no idea how big of a problem it was because it’s kind of a hidden problem,” said Patrick O’Malley, president of the organization. “If somebody doesn’t have a coat, you can get to see that and help them. But if they don’t have a bed, no one really knows except the family.”

Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national organization with many chapters. This one is based out of Benedictine University, where O’Malley is an engineering professor.

“They just apply on our website,” he said. “We’ve built over a thousand beds since 2018 and currently our waiting list is about 500, and about half of those are in St. Joseph right now.”

The 40-50 beds that were built will be distributed to those on the waitlist in the coming weeks.

“We do about eight builds a year, a lot of them down at Benedictine and then some up here in St. Joseph,” O’Malley said. “We bring the beds up, we deliver them out here and we deliver from St. Joseph, Atchison and Leavenworth.”