The Man Who Spent All of His Christmas Savings Building Beds for Needy Children

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Our words, by the way, not his. Take it away, Luke. You know, I'm from a small town, Kimberly, Idaho. 3,700 people. I went to school there, graduated there, and built my family up. And I had my whole career lined out.

I worked for a local water treatment company and was going to be buying it and had my retirement set. I mean, it was, I was all planned out. And in 2012, personally, I was kind of going through this this life crisis, this both faith and personal crisis, you know, where you just, you just don't know what your mark is on this world. You don't know if this is the job you need to be in, if this is the faith you should believe in. Am I being a good dad?

Am I, you know, am I providing everything for my family? And at the time, in my church service, I was what was called the Young Men's President, like a youth pastor. And the Young Men's President is responsible for the spiritual growth and the activity of the Young Men's Program, which was boys ages 12 to, you know, 16, 17. At that time, the church's activity program we followed was the Boy Scouts. So I was kind of the leader over the Boy Scout leaders.

And one day, we were sitting with the other church auxiliary leaders and talking about the needs of not just the congregation, but other people within the community. And there was one family particular that that was talked about. They were the local school bus driver, she drove bus, the father suffered a little bit from some mental health, so had a hard time holding down a job and they were just trying to make it. And what was unique about them too, they were just right downtown, Kimberly, they were in some apartment complexes I didn't even know existed. But what shocked me the most was they had kids and they were all sleeping on the floor. Now, I'd never heard of that before. You know, I always thought certainly, kids have beds and places to sleep. But when I heard about this, it just something struck me wrong.

I just said this is wrong. And, and I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to get my scouts involved.

I wanted them to get an Xbox controller out of their hands and, and get a drill and a sander in it and teach them skills, but also the value of giving back and giving back to maybe even one of their peers in school. And so I went home after that meeting and measured this, we had this bunk bed my daughter was sleeping on at the time, and I measured it and looked at it and said, you know, I think I could do this. I didn't have any tools, I had to borrow my wife's tools. But it was fun. You know, we took these boys and put them to work in my garage. And, you know, after three or four days, lo and behold, we had a finished bunk bed. And it was so, so much fun. I never saw in all the time I was serving as a young man's president, I never saw the boys so engaged in an activity.

I mean, it was hard, it's hard enough to get teenage boys off their screens. And they really took after it. And so did I, we just had a great time. But then it came to the night that we were going to deliver this bed to this family, this bunk bed. And I, I couldn't go, I had to stay back and clean my garage.

And, but all the, all the kids and their parents went and the other church leaders went to this family. And the next day I just heard how amazing it was. The, the family was so appreciative, the kids loved it. And what was shocking to me and great was how my Boy Scouts loved it. It was just such a great moment. I felt a little cheated because I didn't get to go.

But, but I got to see the results from the, the Happy Scouts. Well, that night sitting on the couch, you know, you have one of these moments and it was, it was first week of December, planning for Christmas, figuring out how we're going to pay for things. And I don't know, it just, I had this moment of just despair and you know, what, what, what is, what is this all about?

My kids are here complaining about the presents they're not going to get because I told them not. And, you know, as a father, I should be providing for him, but I want to teach himself. I don't know, you know, what, where's my mark in life? And this all just seemed to be stirring around in my brain. And then I thought, I felt so much joy and happiness when I was building that bunk bed with my Scouts. And I want that with my family.

I want these, these kids of mine to appreciate what they have, but also learn the joy of giving back. And so I remember I just got up off the couch, walked out to the garage. Everybody's going, where's dad going? And I said, you know what? I've got some leftover wood. We're going to build another bed and you're going to come help me. I had no clue who to give it to. I just, I remember thinking, okay, I, does anybody know anybody that has a child sleeping on the floor?

Cause I sure didn't. And it was suggested to me to put it on Facebook and one of these little buy, sell, trade groups. And so that's what I did. I was a little hesitant at first, cause I'm pretty sure, you know, you put something on one of those sites is free. It doesn't matter what it is. You're going to get also all sorts of people that want it.

But what happened was quite different than what I expected. Although we did get some people's requests, I got more people that wanted to help out and I labeled it as, you know, Hey, this is a family Christmas project. We just wanted to help a family out with the bed. So if you know of any kids that are sleeping on the floor, let us know. But I got more people saying, Oh my gosh, that's great.

How can I help? Can I bring some quilts and some pillows? And it was just really neat to see the community come alive. That was shocking to me. But what hit me the most is I did end up talking to a good friend of mine, Tenille Clarage, who's working with, was working with a homeless transition type agency.

And she had this family. When we come back, more of Luke Michelson's story and the ministry he started here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American Stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on JumbaCasino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing? They were also playing Jumba Casino. Coincidence?

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Haley was six years old, never had a bed, been sleeping in the backseat of her mom's car. And they just got a home. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is perfect.

This is exactly what I wanted for this Christmas gift. And so me and a buddy went out to this house to deliver this first bed. And as we walked in the door, I'd seen poverty before, but I hadn't seen it through the eyes of a child.

And this child, you wouldn't have been able to tell that she's this destitute. She was so happy she had a house. But the only thing in the house was a can of soup sitting on a hot plate that was resting on a milk carton, one of those crates. And that was it. That was the only thing in the house.

But she was so excited. I met the mom and met her and I said, show me where your bedroom is. And she pulled me back into her bedroom, never had one before. And when I walked into this room, boy, there's a room that I'm sure you could probably see in your mind, holes in the carpet and wallpaper ripped. But what was the most shocking thing to me, and to this day, it'll stick with me forever, is this pile of clothes that were sitting in the corner. And that's where little Haley slept.

She'd come home from school and put her PJs on and sleep on her clothes and then put her school clothes on in the morning and go to school. And it just, to look at this happy child, sorry, and then to see the conditions she was sleeping in, I was overcome with joy that we were bringing her a bed. And so we brought this bed in and, of course, in pieces. And as we started assembling it, you could see her trying to figure it out what we were doing. And then once she realized it was a bed, she just erupted, grabbing us, hugging us, hugging the bed, kissing the bed.

I'd never seen that before. It was just a overwhelming feeling of bringing a child into this room. Of bringing a child something that they love so dear.

It's kind of like Christmas morning when you bring your child their favorite present. That's close to how it felt, but far more emotional for me. And then to look over and see this mom of six years trying to provide for her daughter, tears running down her face. And I was raised by a single mom too, so it really touched me knowing that she struggled mentally and probably physically to try to get this child the best care that she deserves. And, you know, the car was the best she could do at the time.

And now her daughter has a bed, a mattress, a comfortable place to sleep. It was just overwhelming. I remember driving home, it was about a half hour from where I lived, and me and my friend Jordan really didn't say much to each other.

I mean, it was kind of, did that just happen? It was amazing. And I remember about the time we got home, I thought, you know what, for the few hours and a few days that that took me and my family to do and solve a problem like that, that was well worth my time. No kid was going to sleep on the floor in my town if I had anything to do with it.

And that was kind of the motto I lived by, the Saturday afternoon football games or the fishing that I did quite often just didn't seem near as important, near as fun, near as fulfilling as it used to be. I wanted to build beds. And so we decided we were going to build as many beds as we could that Christmas holiday. And I remember my wife said, you know, well, you got to call it something. And I said, well, how about beds for babes?

First of all, she said, no, that's not a very good Google search, by the way. So I said, well, what would we call it then? And she said, well, how about Sleep in Heavenly Peace and, you know, Christmas time and Silent Night. It was just perfect. It was exactly what we wanted to leave the child in was something that they could sleep in peace with. And so so we called it Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a.k.a.

SHP. That year we took our whole Christmas fund, and that's that's what we did. And I landed at Lowe's. The store manager said, you know what, I love this project, what you're doing.

You can have 50 percent off anything you buy. And so, of course, we bought some drills and some hardware and, of course, wood. And we ended up able to build a total of twenty two beds that Christmas and deliver them all before before Christmas came. And and many, many times have I heard that a bed for a child at that time of year was the only Christmas present that they were going to get. We built twenty five beds the next year and then fifty the year after that. And it just doubled every year. But 2015, we became a nonprofit and it was crazy.

We built one hundred and sixty beds, something like that. And it just the more we built, the more people found out and the more people found out, the more they wanted to do it. Then all of a sudden we had friends in other states and people that didn't know us in other states that wanted to do the same thing.

So we we started putting them on as chapters and teaching them how we're doing it. And then we got a I got a call, actually was an email about this agency in New York that wanted to do an article on us and wanted to fly all the way from New York to Twin Falls, Idaho, and do this magazine article on us. And I thought that was kind of weird.

OK, great. Well, lo and behold, I was I didn't know everybody else knew, but I didn't know that it was this this little Facebook Watch series called Returning the Favor, which isn't so little. And the main host was Mike Rowe, Dirty Jobs guy. And so he came out and surprised us with a space that we desperately needed as we were building beds in garages. We needed the space and we they provided a space for us for three years.

But more importantly, that episode was viewed by 10 million plus people. And when this hit me, even work, even that life plan didn't seem as important to me. And so so I quit. I didn't have a job at the time. I didn't know what I was going to do. I took a huge like a huge pay cut, but really it was it was walking to the unknown.

But it didn't matter. Like I I didn't care whether I was going to live in a shed or or really have to go without because my joy did not come from the number of zeros behind my paycheck, but it came from the number of kids that I could help. Looking back at it right now, I just cringe at the thought that that I would have ever considered anything else.

I think year to date, we're probably over 6000 people that have requested to become a chapter for their own area. And now we're in four different countries and we build over 50000 beds a year, built and delivered to kids all across the country. 12 years ago, if you told me I was going to build beds for kids as my as my goal in life and purpose in life, I would have I probably would have laughed.

It wasn't anything on my radar, but it just took one child and one situation and one family to see just how much I could make a difference in their life by just putting something together as simple as a bed. And now it's my whole life. And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to Luke Michaelson for sharing his story of how sleep in heavenly peace was born.

And it all started with that little girl who was sleeping in the backseat of her mother's car. And the joy he felt delivering that bed in that house. She'd finally had an overwhelming feeling. He described the joy he felt. And soon those Saturday football games and fishing weren't as important to him as making more beds and feeling that feeling again. And pretty soon he turned over his entire Christmas fund, build 22 beds, then 25, then the nonprofit forms, then Mike Rowe comes in. And then of course, he gives it all up. And now there is success.

And he's making 50,000 beds a year. A pure and beautiful American dream story. The story of sleep in heavenly peace.

Luke Michaelson's story here on Our American Story. Tis the season of making the perfect wishlist and the perfect playlist with Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds and Headphones. Brings you to the world of music, music and music. And the perfect playlist with Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds and Headphones. Breakthrough immersive audio uses specialized sound to bring your fave holiday classics to life.

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