Helping Kids Sleep in Heavenly Peace

There are many places across the United States where children do not have access to an adequate place to sleep at night and need a bed to sleep in. A surprising fact is some of those children are in smaller, tight-knit communities, including Brookings, South Dakota.

Because of this problem, an organization was formed in Idaho called Sleep In Heavenly Peace (SHP), and since then they have grown into 99 chapters, including a recent chapter in Brookings.

The new SHP chapter in Brookings builds beds to serve children in the community, ensuring they have a bed of their own and can get the adequate sleep children need.

Multiple Daktronics employees have helped build beds at the new SHP chapter, including four from the High Complexity Marketing team who used their corporate sponsorship for their involvement—Misty Prussman, Jennifer Jaske, Vickie Johnson, and Jesa Pace.

The first group to build beds at the SHP workshop in Brookings included a group of Daktronics Marketing employees. The money from the corporate sponsorship was put towards the cost of making beds, which is $150 per bed. With the sponsorships and another donation, the group was able to construct three beds in less than two hours.

Prussman said she initially got involved with the new chapter because she and her husband thought it would be something the whole family could take part in. Now she and her family are actively participating and getting more people to learn about the organization.

“It has been on my heart for a while to find ways to serve more,” Prussman said. “When this opportunity came along, I just knew it was something I could be a part of.”

Building the beds is a relatively quick process, thanks to how the shop is set up. Different stations are set up to build different parts of the bed, and at the stations are molds and jigs to help anyone contribute to building the bed, regardless of their building experience.

“It was an awesome learning experience for many reasons,” Pace said. “Not only did we get to learn how to construct a bed, we also learned about the needs for beds for many children in our community that sleep on the floor every night.”

SHP ensures the bed is built and provides a mattress, bedding, and pillow for when the bed is delivered.

Prussman encourages other people to get involved with the local SHP chapter, and said there are many ways to help.

“We can find a way for anyone to contribute whether it is helping to build or deliver beds, donating items like money, new bedding, new books, and new stuffed animals, or even providing snacks and water for volunteers during the build events,” Prussman said.

Prussman said volunteering with SHP is a great way to give back to the local community and serving with SHP means a lot to her. She is thankful for the corporate sponsorship and wants other employees to use it for the causes they want to help with.

“Improving our communities and encouraging employee growth and leadership is important to Daktronics,” Prussman said. “Daktronics is providing a unique way of doing all that by offering the corporate sponsorship program. They provide the means and now it is up to each individual to take hold of this opportunity and put it to good use.”

Daktronics encourages employees to get involved in their communities. The Corporate Sponsorship Program is available to employees who actively participate in community activities and fundraising awareness events. Over the past three years, we’ve contributed nearly $150,000.00 to the causes our employees care about.

This article is by Spencer Thompson,
in Employee Communications.