- West Point Junior High students will build 40 beds for children in need.
- The project, supported by local businesses, partners with Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
- Around 200 volunteers will assemble beds April 18 at the school in Utah.
WEST POINT — A student-led service project aims to help ensure that no kid in northern Utah has to sleep on the floor.
West Point Junior High students in grades seven through nine, along with staff, families and community volunteers, will come together outside of the school on Saturday to build about 40 beds.
Lyndsi Drysdale, student government adviser at West Point, said the bed build follows the school's "Warriors Are Wonderful" fundraiser last December, where students raised more than $22,000 in efforts to help kids get a good night's rest — in their own bed.
"This experience helps students see the direct impact of service and allows them to turn their fundraising efforts into meaningful action that benefits children in their own community," Drysdale said.
West Point partnered with the Syracuse chapter of the national nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace for the fundraiser to give back to local communities.
Each school year, the student body chooses an organization to support for a fundraising event and Sleep in Heavenly Peace was one of two recipients selected, according to Josh Bertagnolli, delivery manager for the Syracuse chapter.
During Saturday's event, students and community volunteers will sand, drill and assemble bed frames that will later be paired with mattresses, bedding and pillows to be delivered to local families.
Around 200 people are expected to participate in Saturday's event, according to Drysdale; though she said if other volunteers show up and want to help, they likely won't be turned away.
"We have had an amazing response by our students and our community. Our volunteer list filled up pretty quickly, and then we actually opened up more spots for volunteers and expanded it because they were so excited," she told KSL.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace started in 2012 as a small local charity by a southern Idaho man who wanted to help provide beds to kids who were sleeping on the floor. Since then, the organization has expanded to 47 states, with more than 300 chapters and over 250,000 beds delivered across the country.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace has six chapters in Utah, spanning from Logan to St. George.
Bertagnolli said he's already been impressed with West Point students who participated in their two-week fundraising event back in December, where they assembled and delivered 22 beds to families.
"The kids were absolutely fantastic, they showed compassion and empathy while displaying great work ethic," he said.
West Point students gathered support from local businesses that donated proceeds from various purchases towards Saturday's bed build, according to Bertagnolli — in addition to the Lowe's stores in Clinton and Riverdale that donated enough lumber to build 40 beds.
Multiple Walmart locations in northern Utah also teamed up to provide more than enough bedding needed for the 40 beds to be built on Saturday, Bertagnolli said.
Drysdale said the upcoming event provides students with the opportunity to actively participate in community service and see how their collective efforts can make a real difference for local families.
"It's inspiring to watch the entire school community come together twice — first to raise the funds and then to serve side-by-side building beds for children who need them," she said.
