Volunteers with Sleep in Heavenly Peace build beds for needy kids in Berkeley County
INWOOD, W.Va. (DC News Now) — In the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, the state’s fastest growing region, there are kids who have nowhere else to sleep but on the floor.
Hearing about those kids in need of beds, volunteers with the Sleep in Heavenly Peace non-profit took action.
“The kids are ecstatic,” Andrea Waddell said. “A lot of the kids like to help us build the beds. We give them to tools and let them drive the bolts into the frames.”
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When Waddell’s friend, Cathy Wenck, heard about the project, she offered to volunteer, even though she said she felt like she could not do much to help.
“This comes from someone with no experience,” Wenck said. “[I] didn’t know how to hold a hammer, how to do a sander. Nothing.”
But Wenck’s learning curve was short. She said the rewards from her volunteer work have no bounds.
“We start with just wood,” Wenc k said. “And we go from the wood until we sand them and we paint them and we stain them and you think this piece of lumber is going to turn into something for a child that is so gratifying.”
As Waddell and Wenck describe it, the kids plop on their new beds beaming with happiness.
“The smiles are just everything,” Waddell said.
The volunteers get together for a “bed build” every few weeks.
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