Do you remember what it felt like as a child, to be tucked into your cozy bed every night? Did you feel safe? Warm? Happy?
Now imagine being a child who didn’t have a bed to sleep in. What if your bed had been a couch? What if it had been the floor every single night?
Unfortunately, that’s the reality for thousands of children throughout the U.S. and in our area.
On February 11, the Kiwanis Club of Fort Walton Beach partnered with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to prepare building materials for beds for children in the local area who do not have a bed to sleep in. Sign up for bed build at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4CABAE28A5FEC61-kiwanis.
In October 2021, the Kiwanis Club of Fort Walton Beach partnered with Kiwanis One Day with Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to building, assembling and delivering bunk beds to children and families in need. Joined by members of the Niceville High School Key Club, the Fort Walton Beach Kiwanians and SHP prepared all the parts needed to build 20 beds.
“All children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads,” says Ruth Sykes, president of the Fort Walton Beach club. “Across the U.S., too many boys and girls go without a bed — or even a pillow — to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health. Child ‘bedlessness’ may not be a real word, but it is a real problem.” In the fall of 2019, Pastor Mickey Hawkins of Cinco Baptist Church started the Fort Walton Beach chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace to serve children in Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties in Florida. As soon as Matt Dixon, then president of the Fort Walton Beach Kiwanis Club, learned about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, he wanted to be involved. His fellow club members agreed, and the relationship between the two organizations blossomed.
“A bed, a place to lay your head at night, is something that most of us take for granted,” Ruth says. “Each time SHP does a bed delivery, it helps to remind us how truly blessed we are each and every day. The Kiwanis Club of Fort Walton Beach members are doing something tangible and worthwhile for kids in our community and will be making bed building one of our continuing service projects.”
The Kiwanis Club of Fort Walton Beach is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization serving the children and community in the greater FWB area. Having served the city of Fort Walton Beach since March 26, 1946, the club meets each Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. at the Jack Burkett Administration Bldg., 205 Shell Ave. in Fort Walton Beach for our lunch meetings. Kiwanis members stage nearly 150,000 service projects, devote more than 6 million hours of service and raise nearly $100 million every year for communities, families and projects. Key Club members pitch in 12 million hours of service each year, and CKI members another 500,000 hours. Aktion Club members donate another 92,000 hours of service every year.
For more information, visit kiwanisfwb.org or www.facebook.com/KiwanisFWB.FL.
