Building bridges by building beds

St. James-Assiniboia

Winnipeg

A little hard work can go a long way.

Volunteers with Sleep in Heavenly Peace Winnipeg and local Knights of Columbus are seeing that maxim pay off, as 22 beds built in Winnipeg were delivered to children in need in Pukatawagan, Man., last week.

“We know that having a bed helps children’s outcomes —mentally, physically, emotionally — it’s a safe place for the child,” said Bonnie Emerson, co-president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace Winnipeg. “The inequities in health we’re talking about are exponentially higher for remote, northern communities, so this event today, for me, is a powerful act of reconciliation. By partnering with people, we’re making a positive difference, both in Winnipeg and beyond.”

On Feb. 24, 25 Knights of Columbus joined nine volunteers from Sleep in Heavenly Peace Winnipeg to build 25 beds to replenish the organization’s stock, as 22 beds had already been shipped up to The Pas on a semi-truck. From there, the beds were shipped 144 kilometres north via rail to Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, where a team of volunteers from Knights of Columbus travelled to install the beds, as well as deliver 500 winter coats and a few wheelchairs to the community.

“To do this, with all the happy faces of the children who get these beds, it’s super. I’m glad we’re involved,” said Tony Kusiak, a Knights of Columbus volunteer, ahead the trip north to help install the beds. “That’s gonna be great to do that, to see some of those happy faces once those children get their brand new bed, their mattress, their pillows. Something that some of them might never have had. It will be fun. Driving on those ice roads will be interesting, too. I’m looking forward to it.”

The primary mission of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international charity, is to ensure that no child has to sleep on a floor.

“The second is to build community and interconnections, and community resiliency,” Emerson said.

The beds are built of solid wood using a modular system, so that volunteers with little to no experience can help to build them.

“You sand the wood, and you have headboard stations and siderail stations, and it ends at my station, which is the staining station,” Emerson said. “We stain with steel wool dissolved in white vinegar. It’s environmentally friendly and a natural bed bug inhibitor. It stains from the raw lumber to a sort of honey tone.”

The local chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace was founded by Emerson and her husband (and co-president) Jim in 2020. Since then, the group, which is 100-per-cent volunteer-driven, has built and installed over 2,100 beds and counting. Most of those have been in Winnipeg, where the group and volunteers are based, but an increasing number are being donated to remote communities. Those out-of-town builds are made possible by organizations such as the Knights of Columbus taking an active partnership in the endeavour.

“This is a way for us to partner and be able to increase the scope of what we do without taking responsibility for the whole province. We just don’t have the capacity to do that (otherwise),” Emerson said. “When there are organizations who either fund the project or find a private donor who can, we’re able to use this space and make that impact much wider.”

Early on, the group set up builds in parking lots, which took a lot of time to set up and take down for each event. Last year, Manitoba Blue Cross donated the use of warehouse space at 820-D Berry St. for five years. Now the group can build and store beds year-round while keeping costs low.

“It truly is a case study by itself on the power of community,” Emerson said. “We’ve had school builds, bringing youth in. R.B. Russell School did bed-builds during the pandemic. We do newcomer builds, we’ve partnered with Ukrainian Congress to help those people coming in.”

“The experience of doing this is very overwhelming,” Kusiak said. “It really touches me.”

For more information, visit shpbeds.ca/chapter/mb-winnipeg/