The first Saturday morning of November was a chilly one. Real chilly. But it was a perfect day for a “Build Day.” So, build we did – 25 beds to be specific — to be given to kids around here who do not have beds.
This past August a fellow named Bill Thompson opened the eyes of members of the Rotary Club of Farragut to a regional non-profit we knew zero about and had never heard about – Sleep In Heavenly Peace (SIHP). Its motto is “No kid sleeps on the floor in our town.”
Rotarians and their kids were there, and the kids were busy carrying small parts to the assembly line. Everyone had a job.
Anniston Bertini, who turned 6 this week, had fun carrying boards to the assembly line.
Thompson explained about the Build Days, where groups of volunteers come together working side-by-side with SIHP volunteers to put the beds and their parts together. On that aforementioned chilly Saturday, 30 Rotary members and 10 members of the Hardin Valley Academy Interact met Thompson and his crew in a parking lot at Fox Den Country Club. In a little under two hours 25 beds were built. It was one smooth assembly line.
“The name of our organization sounds like we make caskets, but we actually make beds that can be used as single beds or bunk beds,” he says. The kids are between the ages 3 and 17 in Knox, Anderson and Campbell counties, and it’s shocking to learn how many sleep on floors, mats, on a mattress if they’re lucky, and on couches.
They began their mission in September 2018. Each bed costs $250, and that includes bed, mattress and the bedding materials (sheets, pillows, pillowcase, etc.). In less than three years they’ve built and delivered more than 500 beds – 60% in Knox County, 25% in Anderson County and 15% in Campbell County. They have a waiting list.
Donations pay for everything they need, and in that spirit, during this Build Day, Rotary Club of Farragut President David Bluford presented Thompson with a check for $4,500. That pays for 18 beds.
Scott Bertini, the chair of RCF’s Service Projects Committee, pulled the project together and helped manage operations.
“It was a really fun project and certainly a worthy cause!” Bertini said. “I was overwhelmed with the whole project and the turnout. This is a great organization doing something many of us just assume – that all kids have beds, and they don’t.”
The local SIHP chapter is part of a national organization with 250 chapters across the U.S. To learn more about the local chapter go here.
To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, call 865-659-3562. Farragut Rotary meets each Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at Fox Den Country Club. Tom King, a past president of Farragut Rotary, has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.