July 8, 2025 • 51 mins
Luke shares the journey from that first bed build with his church youth group to leading an international movement powered by volunteers, local chapters, and companies eager to make a difference. More than just building beds, they are a community working together to restore dignity, comfort, and hope, one child at a time.
If you've ever wondered how a single act of kindness can create a wave of positive change for so many, Luke's conversation will beautifully demonstrate this.
Luke Mickelson transformed a simple family project into Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an international organization that has provided over 300,000 beds to children who were previously sleeping on floors. What began as a bunk bed built with Boy Scouts in his Idaho garage has evolved into over 400 chapters across four countries, addressing the hidden crisis of "child bedlessness" that affects approximately 3% of children in every community.
Let's enjoy his story.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Daniela SM (00:01):
Hi, I'm Daniela and welcome to, because Everyone has
a Story.
This is the place whereordinary people's stories get a
chance to be shared andremembered, or stories become
the language of connections.
Let's enjoy it, connect andrelate, because everyone has a
story.
My guest is Luke Michelson,someone whose heart is truly as
(00:25):
big as his mission.
Luke is the kind of person whoturns compassion into action.
What started as simple act ofkindness building one bed for a
child in need has grown into amovement that now reaches across
four countries.
Luke couldn't ignore when hesaw kids sleeping on floors.
You can truly feel his passion,humility and profound love for
(00:49):
helping others in thisconversation, as well as in
everything he does.
It is inspiring to see how muchhe cares about making a
difference.
This is the story of a man whonever set out to start a
non-profit.
He just saw a problem andstepped up.
His story is powerful and areminder that one person really
(01:12):
can make a difference.
Let's enjoy Luke's story.
Welcome, luke.
Thank you so much for being inthe program.
Luke Michelson (01:18):
Well, thank you for having me, Daniela.
Daniela SM (01:20):
I'm super excited that you're here.
I know you have an amazingstory, so tell me why you want
to share your story.
Luke Michelson (01:26):
Yeah, I want to share my story because I think
it's extremely important forpeople to know, like I didn't
know, the cause of childbedlessness and the fact that
child bedlessness, even thoughit's not a real word, it's a
real problem that exists in ourcountry, really all over the
world.
It was a problem when I firstdiscovered it that really no one
(01:47):
was doing anything about, justsmall pockets here and there
across the country, but it'ssuch a problem and such a hidden
problem that I think it's soimportant that we let people
know because of the implications, or at least the impacts, that
a child that doesn't have a goodnight's sleep, a comfortable
sleep, and other major reasonsand effects that happen from not
(02:09):
having a simple item like a bed, is important.
If people know about it andhear about it and realize that
this is happening in their ownhometown, I think they'll feel
inspired, like I did, to jump inand help.
Daniela SM (02:22):
Yes, that's fascinating, and you're right.
I remember doing some charitywork, working for a nonprofit,
and I had to teach kids on tablemanners, for example, and then
I realized that these kidsdidn't have tables to have
dinner together.
You take that for granted whenyou have it and you're like
assume, well, everybody has atable, and one kid says, oh no,
(02:45):
my dad had to bring hismotorcycle inside the house so
we had to remove the table.
They didn't have dinnertogether, which is always
important, and so the same, asyou said, sleeping is so
important.
Luke Michelson (02:56):
Right, well, and you realize like there's things
in life that we take forgranted, but one of those things
like a simple thing, like a bed, should not be a luxury for a
child.
Unfortunately, in our day andtime, in our country, it is a
luxury for some of these kidsand it shouldn't be that way.
So, luke, when does your storystart?
So I started back in 2012.
(03:18):
A little bit of background.
I'm just a farm kid from Idaholittle small town, actually
small Kimberly.
Idaho is the original town Ilived and it was a town of about
4,000 people, so it wasn't much.
And the benefits and pros andcons of living in a small town
is you know everybody and theneverybody knows you too, right,
but the beauty of that is youhave this sense of community
(03:41):
when you're in such a smallcommunity and I know that
stemmed, or my passion forhelping people and being
involved more in the communitycame from being in such a small
town and knowing everybody'sbusiness.
Like I said, good and bad, butthe benefit is you're able to
inspire and bring peopletogether because they're
like-minded.
Right when I was serving in mychurch service, it was a
(04:05):
position called the young men'spresident and the young men's
president, basically kind oflike a youth pastor.
I was over the physicalactivities of the boys ages 12
to 18, as well as the spiritualgrowth, and that activity that
we do every week was basicallyBoy Scouts.
So I was kind of the leader ofthe leader of the Boy Scouts.
When we were sitting as theleader of the leaders, I'd sit
(04:27):
in these meetings and I'd hearabout things that the local
church was helping other peopleout with, and the congregation
as well as the community, andone of those things was we were
helping this family with rentand things of that nature.
The mom was like the localschool bus driver and the dad
had suffered some mental issues,had a hard time holding down a
(04:48):
job, and so you can imagine theylived in a part of the town and
it was a small town that Ididn't even know existed that's
how remote and secluded thislittle apartment complex was and
so they were talking about howthey were helping this family.
Well, they mentioned how thesekids didn't have any beds.
Uh, you know, just I was like,wait a minute, like what do you
(05:13):
mean?
Don't have any beds?
They don't like literally don'thave a mattress, and they're
like no, they just sleep on thefloor.
And I don't know, you know,danielle, that hit me so hard
that, um, you know, I had, youknow, I got kids of my own right
and to think about kidssleeping on the floor, and I've
slept on the floor before justone night, and it was terrible,
you know, and I just thought, ohmy gosh, really Well, two
things we got to stop that.
And the other thing was what agreat opportunity this is going
(05:48):
to be, that I can take an Xboxcontroller out of these Boy
Scouts' hands, put a drill and asander in it.
We're going to teach him how to, how to do something Right,
cause we're always trying tofind activities that didn't
involve either sports or didn'tinvolve a screen, and that's
that's hard to do nowadays withthese kids.
And, and this was just a greatopportunity, so boom, we, we.
I went home that night andstarted measuring my my daughter
had a little bunk bed andstarted measuring it and kind of
came up with a plan.
And then I had the boys comeover every night for that week
(06:09):
as we built this bunk bed forthis family, and I was worried
that the kids wouldn't be thatexcited, but I was shocked
gratefully shocked, if you will,that they were so excited to
help build this bed for thesekids, and so we did that.
We had a lot of fun and when itcame time to deliver it I had
(06:32):
to stay back in my garagebecause that's where we built it
and my garage was just a mess.
I mean sawdust everywhere andwood and all that.
But the kids and their parentsand leaders went and delivered
this bed and they had such agreat experience.
They came back at church thenext day and told me all about
it and I felt I was totallyhappy and totally sad at the
same time, because I wanted tosee that, I wanted to be a part
(06:55):
of this great opportunity.
But I enjoyed myself during thebuild and I was grateful that
we solved this problem for thisfamily.
Daniela SM (07:02):
So you built it, but you didn't bring it all
together.
So you built it, broke it downagain and brought it there, or
how did you do it?
Luke Michelson (07:10):
Correct.
So we built pieces of the bed.
It was a bunk bed, so basicallythe bottom and the top they're
identical ones, just flippedover.
These are 12 year old kids,right?
So I've never built a piece offurniture in my life at the time
, and so I had to make it easyfor them, as well as myself, and
we put this format together ofhow we can build this bed in
pieces and then we take it intothe home and assemble it into
(07:31):
the home.
And when we took the bed in itwas a whole thing mattress,
sheets, pillows, pillowcases,the whole nine yards.
I didn't get a chance to dothat, but I heard the stories of
the kids and the parents andtheir reaction and I was really
grateful that we were able toprovide that.
But then I came home right andsitting at home a day or two
(07:52):
later and sitting on the couchit was about Christmas time and
my kids were talking about thepresents that they knew I wasn't
going to buy them.
You know they're crying aboutwanting another Xbox or whatever
.
And here I was, sitting there,going.
I built and delivered a bed toa family whose kids were
sleeping on the floor and youguys want another Xbox.
You know, it just kind of hit mereally weird and in my personal
(08:14):
life, you know, I was kind ofgoing through a little bit of a
faith crisis, a little bit ofidentity crisis.
Who am I?
I know I want to do more forthis world.
I think we all kind of gothrough that periods of time.
Right, we want to make adifference, we just don't know
how.
And I know we made a differencein this family's life and I
wanted that for my familySelfishly.
(08:35):
I wanted it for me as well.
And that night, when my kidstalked about the presence that
they wanted, and it just hit meI said you know what I could
talk to my kids?
I can show them videos and tellthem stories about you know
helping others and appreciatethe things they have.
Or you know what I can justteach them, just like I did the
(08:57):
boy Scouts.
And so I jumped up off thecouch and walked out in the
garage and everybody's like dad,where are you going?
And I said you know what I gotleftover wood.
I'm going to build another bunkbed and gosh dang it.
You're going to come help me.
So you can imagine it's, it'sIdaho, it's winter time, it's
not exactly warm out in mygarage, um, but we had, you know
(09:18):
, danielle, we had the greatesttime, just like with the boy
Scouts.
You know, my, my littlesix-year-old daughter was out
there in her tutu drilling holeswith a drill and my son was
screwing screws in and hammeringthings away.
I mean, we just had a greattime, right and um, it wasn't a
fast process but uh, but it was.
It was fun with the family, andso, you know, that was kind of
goal.
Number one was I wanted my kidsto enjoy the feelings that come
(09:41):
from serving others, because Ialways tell people look, if you
want true joy in your life, myexperience has been, look to see
how you can help other people.
Your problems they don'tmagically go away, but they just
don't feel as heavy.
And I wanted my kids to learnthat process, to learn how to do
that as well as I wanted themto appreciate the things that
(10:02):
they have, like a luxury of abed at this point, how to do
that as well as I wanted them toappreciate the things that they
have, like a luxury of a bed atthis point.
And so when we were donefinishing the bed, I didn't know
what to do with it.
I mean, goal number one wasachieved.
Now I was like, okay, I don'tknow another family, I don't
know, child bedlessness is areal problem.
And so it was recommended to meto throw it on Facebook.
(10:23):
And I don't know, you throwsomething free on Facebook, one
of those market places buy, sell, trade groups and you're
hearing the stories of some ofthese kids and the conditions
(10:47):
that the family is in, as wellas the conditions that kids are
sleeping on.
One of them was really shocking.
It was eight people in thisfamily six kids, two parents.
They were living in a van,living in a van, and the dad
just got a job, they just gotthis house and they, of course,
didn't have any beds for thesesix kids, and I just thought, oh
(11:09):
my gosh, really, wow, childbedlessness is a problem.
And so a friend of mine sent mean email and said hey, listen, I
know of this family.
They've been homeless theirwhole life.
Their daughter I call her Haley, she's six years old and been
(11:29):
sleeping in the backseat of hermom's car since she's been born.
And so it just hit me and Ithought you know what?
This is exactly the situationthat I A want to help out with.
I wanted to help a child out.
I wanted to help a child outand I wanted my kids to
understand and see and hear andfeel the impact that their
(11:50):
service can make for someoneelse, especially their age.
And so, yeah, I said this isthe family I wanted to deliver
to.
Daniela SM (11:57):
But if they were living in the car, they didn't
have a house.
Luke Michelson (12:00):
Correct.
My friend was a social workerthat actually helped them get
their first house right.
It was a government assistedhouse and when we walked into
the house you can imagine I mean, I'd seen the homelessness
before.
But to see it through the eyesof a child because that's what
we were there for is just thechild or at least that's what we
thought right Is I'm justdelivering a bed to a child that
(12:21):
can get a good night's sleep.
That's the thought process.
And so we walked into this homeand my gosh, I mean it was.
There was nothing in the house.
There was no couch, there wasno table, there was a milk crate
you know carton crate that hada hot plate on it with a can of
soup, and that was the onlything in the house.
(12:42):
It just, it just kind ofshocked me.
And that, and this little Haley,six, kind of shocked me, and
this little Haley, six years old, was so excited to see us and
so excited to show off her newroom.
She had this room right, not acar, she had a room.
And so she took us back to herroom and when you walked into a
room, if I can picture it foryou, there's tears in the carpet
and holes in the wall and thecloset doesn't have a door on it
(13:03):
.
You know there's used toys inthere, you can imagine, right.
But what I did not expect wasin the corner was a pile of
clothes, and that's what Haleyslept on.
It was her school clothes,right, she'd wake up, put her
school clothes on, come home,take her school clothes, put her
PJs on and sleep on her schoolclothes.
(13:24):
It just was almost overwhelmingto see that.
So you're both really sad, sickinside for her, but you're also
excited because you're bringingher her first bed ever, six
years old.
And so we start bringing in thisbed and you know, at first she
was kind of a little becauseit's just pieces of wood, right.
And then all of a sudden sherealizes what it is and she just
(13:45):
erupts, right, just just cheersand smiles and comes up and
hugs us, hugs the bed, starts tokiss the bed.
I mean you ever seen a childkiss a bed before?
Cause I hadn't.
I mean it was just a beautiful,right, um, and my heart was
just feeling this, this holethat I had in my heart, this,
this crisis I was going through,was gone instantly, just just
(14:06):
my I was the Grinch that had hisheart swell three times that
day.
And and then I look up at themom and this is probably the
biggest thing.
I did not expect this single momand I was raised by a single
mom too Six years of tears justpouring down this lady's face,
right, a young lady trying totake care of her family, trying
(14:28):
to provide.
You know, she had a couple ofjobs, I think, and just was
really trying to work and justcouldn't get ahead of the
rolling ball called life.
And now her daughter had a bed,a comfortable place, secure,
safe to sleep in, and you couldsee it in every tear that
dropped off her cheek.
I mean it just.
And it was so overwhelming forme and my buddy.
(14:50):
You know, on the way home we hadabout a half hour drive home.
We really didn't say much toeach other.
I don't remember even talkingmuch, but I do remember thinking
.
You know I spent a couple ofhours, a couple of days this
week with my kids and we built abunk bed to solve that problem.
That's well worth my time.
(15:11):
I'm from Idaho, so I love tohunt and fish and sports and
college football on Saturdaysand all this stuff, just like
that.
It didn't matter.
None of it mattered anymorewhen I knew that some effort,
just a little bit of effort, afun effort too, can go to help
solve a problem like that.
And when we got home I lookedat my buddy and he felt the same
(15:32):
way, you know.
He kind of looked at each other, almost tears in our eyes, and
I said, you know what?
No kid is going to sleep on thefloor in my town.
If I had anything to do, I mean, I was almost, I was almost
upset, right, I was almost mad.
No kid is going to sleep on thefloor in my town.
And so we just started buildingbeds that year and how many
people are in your town?
So at that time it's a smalltown next to a larger town but
(15:55):
combined was only about 40,000gathered.
My small town was 4,000.
We served a community of about,oh, about 50 or 60,000.
So it wasn't a huge community.
But I also didn't realize andhad no clue that child
bedlessness was such a big deal.
We started building beds andthat first Christmas season we
(16:20):
wanted to build as many bunkbeds as we could before Santa
showed up and delivered themright.
And so we built 11 bunk bedswell, 10 and a half.
We built 21 beds altogetherthat first season and delivered
them all before Santa showed up.
And you know, oh my gosh, thestories that came from that.
We delivered beds to the familythat had the kids sleeping in
the van.
You know we delivered bedsChristmas Eve to a family, the
(16:45):
van.
You know we.
We delivered beds Christmas Eveto a family.
The mom looked at me with tearsin her eyes and said I hope you
realize this is the onlypresent that the kids are going
to get this year, cause we can'tafford anything else.
You know it, just I was it, justit was opened my eyes to a
world that I didn't know existedand I'd lived in that world,
for you know, 35 years and um,and that's why it's so important
(17:08):
that I want to share this storyand share my story, cause it's
again.
It's not about one dude fromIdaho, it's about this epidemic
that's that is in existencetoday in your audiences,
hometown right now, of childrensleeping on the floor.
There's no real statisticsright now about this problem
other than what Sleep inHeavenly Peace has kind of put
together just because of youknow this is what we do now and
(17:31):
we know it's greater than 3% ofthe total population of your
town.
If you live in a town of100,000 people, there are 3,000
kids that don't have beds.
They're sleeping on couches, oncrates, on air matches that we
all know deflate.
You know they're sleeping oncouches, on crates, on air
matches that we all know deflate.
They're sleeping with mom anddad or three or four other
brothers and sisters trying toget a good night's sleep, which
is just going to not be possible, and that shouldn't be that way
(17:56):
, right?
So that is what started Sleepand Heavenly Peace.
Daniela SM (17:59):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
And I have a question though.
So your second bed was withyour buddy, but then why
building the bed versus buyingthe bed?
Luke Michelson (18:08):
It's a great question.
You know, we built the bedinitially with the Boy Scouts
because, you know, we wanted tohave a good experience with them
.
And then the second bed, secondbunk bed, I built with my kids
now because I wanted them to doit and it was just such a fun
experience, you know, and as Iposted, and my friend saw what I
was doing, he lived about twohours away and he says, hey, let
me come down, I'll help you.
(18:29):
So he came down, we startedbuilding more and more beds.
He helped build at least halfof those beds that we built that
Christmas season.
And it's a great question.
Thank you for asking, because wealso found our second mission
it's kind of a side mission andthat is we live in a country, we
(18:50):
live in a community of millionsof people that want to help.
They really do.
I was no different.
I want to help, I want to makea difference in the lives of
people around me and people Idon't even know Right, of people
around me and people I don'teven know Right and and ever.
You know we there was millionsof people out there that are
like that and we, unfortunately,we live in this media world
where you know it's doom andgloom and it's so polarized and
(19:13):
people are left and right and upand down, you know.
But but the the actual and thefactual situation we live in is,
we actually do live in a, in acommunity and a country where
people want to help.
They just don't know how.
And so building beds for kidsbrought people together.
That post and the more we postedabout delivering beds to kids
(19:37):
and building, I had people I'dnever met, strangers, show up at
my garage and I put them towork.
I said, hey, yeah, great, sam,whoever you are, you know, here
here's a brush.
Why don't you start um stayingin this bed and here's a sander
for his wife.
You can start sanding this.
And there was, there was highschool buddies that I hadn't
seen for 20 years, where they'rehelping out.
(19:59):
And and I'm just, I'm one ofthese guys that did.
I love doing things togetherwith a bunch of people.
I'm a you know, I don't want tocall me a party guy, that
sounds like that's a badconnotation.
No, I just love.
I just love getting togetherand have fun with friends, and
that's what we did we.
We crank up Buck, but rock 80songs and listen to Bon Jovi and
sand and stain and and do allthis stuff and and little did we
(20:26):
know that this was actuallysolving a problem in our own
community, which is bringingpeople together and bringing
community together, and it's Goddirected or somehow something's
directing it, because that wasnot the initial intent.
But we found that and weunderstand, and I understand
more now than ever.
If you want a problem solved,you know we can't rely on
(20:50):
someone else to solve it for us.
You know we are surrounded byso many people in our own
community that have strong handsand willing backs and big
hearts that can jump in and help.
We just need to show them how.
We just need to provide a way.
And so when we realized how bigchild bedlessness really was not
just in our own hometown,across the country, as friends
(21:13):
that lived in other states sawwhat we were doing would call us
up and say, hey, can you comeand do that over here?
And I said, better, yet, we'llcome and we'll show you how to
do it Right and and and we havethis charity that we started now
called sleep in heavenly peaceand you can be a chapter of it.
And so that's kind of how westarted.
You know, that's kind of how westarted.
(21:33):
You know, started in 2012.
And by 2017, we had about fiveor six you know seven chapters
that were in the various stagesof running running their own
chapter and doing their ownbuilds and deliveries that we
realized that we're starting tobring people from other areas
and helping them bring their owncommunities together.
(21:54):
And since then now we have over400 chapters.
We're in four countries and nowwe've built over 300,000 beds.
Our goal this year is 90,000beds, so we're really knocking
out as many of these roughsituations for these kids as we
(22:16):
can.
We're the largest bed buildingcharity in the world Lots,
because there's not very manycharities that are doing it, but
it's because we have so manygreat chapter presidents
surrounded by so many greatvolunteers in their own
communities that want to helpout, you know, and so we solve
that problem as well.
Daniela SM (22:35):
So you have two things getting together as a
community and helping the peopleget in beds.
Luke Michelson (22:41):
Correct.
Yeah, we, we focus.
Our mission statement now is nokids sleeps on the floor in our
town.
The reason why that's a funmission statement not only is it
, is it demanding and it it, itdemands growth, it demands
community focus, it demands allthis stuff, but it's designed as
a mission statement, which isodd for a company.
(23:02):
Normally, mission statements aredesigned for a company to tell
the public what they do, right.
Ours is opposite.
Ours is designed for thecommunity, or the public, to
tell everybody what they'regoing to do Not in our town,
right, and we want our town tobe everybody's town.
And so no kid sleeps on thefloor in our town is meant to be
(23:27):
said by the volunteer.
And so our main goal and ourmain mission is to provide beds
for kids that don't have anyages 3 to 17, and provide that
through the community they livein.
And when you go in, daniela,when you go into these homes, if
you can imagine and I tellpeople look, you can watch
(23:47):
videos, you can listen totestimonials and see pictures,
but until you walk into a roomand there's a nine-year-old kid
over here, or even asix-year-old kid who's hiding
behind mom, because there'sthese strangers bringing in this
wood and these blankets in hisroom and he's just scared or
(24:10):
doesn't know what's going on.
Well, that apprehension, once herealizes, oh, they're bringing
in a bed, that apprehensionturns to appreciation and then
turns to outright joy.
And until you see that and feelthat in the room with the child
you remember this kid'sprobably never slept on a bed
(24:30):
and some of them have neverslept on a pillow, if you can
imagine they just sleep on theirclothes.
And so when you provide that tothem and we all know the value
of sleeping in a good bed, Imean these kids.
I mean when you have a hardwhen I have a hard day at work,
some of the greatest moments ofthe day is crawling into bed
that night.
And when you can bring that andknowing what that brings to
(24:52):
them, oh man, I mean it's justjoy that you can't experience it
.
Daniela SM (24:58):
Until you experience it, yes, I want to know about
the story then.
So people came to help you, butwho was paying for all the
materials?
Luke Michelson (25:07):
Great question.
Daniela SM (25:07):
So the first year we were, and you were working, you
still were having a job, aregular job.
Luke Michelson (25:13):
Oh, I had a full-time job, absolutely.
You know, I was working for alocal water treatment company
here and we decided that yearafter our Haley experience that
we're going to get toys for ourkids, of course, but a majority
of our Christmas fund is goingto go to this.
And luckily, you know, we wentto the various DIY stores and we
(25:33):
landed at Lowe's and everybodyknows Lowe's, I hope they do.
Lowe's made it all possible forus to do that many beds.
I walked in, told the Lowe'sstore manager what we was doing
and the guy kind of looked at meand he's like, really, is this
a problem?
I'm like absolutely.
And he says 50% off anythingyou buy, I don't care, we'll
take care of it.
I just, it just blew me away.
So we went from doing only youknow, it was only going to be
(25:56):
seven or eight or nine beds tothe 21, because Lowe's jumped in
and helped out.
And that was another bigturning point for me in my mind,
going, oh, there's people outthere that feel the same, you
know, drive and passion andalmost anger right To solve this
problem for these kids locally.
I mean, it was really.
It was really motivating, andso so you know, after that first
(26:19):
two years of doing it ourselves, you got to remember this
wasn't going to be a charity.
We didn't start this to be acharity.
We started it as a familyChristmas project and the next
year we're like, hey, let's doit again.
Well, after the second year andthis is how fast it went the
second year Now we had companies, we had other people, other
organizations, 4-h clubs and BoyScouts and all these people
that wanted to do builds with us.
Daniela SM (26:41):
But this is all in your garage.
Luke Michelson (26:43):
The first year was in my garage, my second year
my company that I worked for.
They had a little warehouse.
They let us use that warehouseright, and so we brought mostly
family but some public friendsto do the second build, which we
built 25 beds in one day whichwe were really proud of, and
that was like kind of our firstwhat we call our first build day
(27:03):
, if you will.
We found that these companieswanted to give us money, but we
weren't a 501c3 at the time, andso we knew we needed to do and
become a charity.
And the funny thing was we'regoing to become a charity.
You got to call it something,and I remember I looked at my
wife and I said I got theperfect name beds for babes and
(27:23):
she said no, that's not whatit's going to be.
It's a bad Google search, bythe way.
Um, no, it's not beds for babes.
And and because it wasChristmas time and you know we
(27:44):
wanted to, we wanted who doesn'tlove silent night, right, sleep
in heavenly peace just saidexactly what we wanted these
kids to feel and to experiencewas sleeping in peace and
sleeping in joy, you know.
And it brought that kind ofChristmas feel too, and so we
started the charity and then,when the charity was started,
then it was obviously mucheasier.
We started getting donationscoming in from companies, which
is another thing that werealized and really a majority
(28:06):
of our funds come from thisprocess, which is a company
wants to give back to thecommunity they live in At least
they should.
They're corporate socialresponsibility and the problem
they have is a company mighthave 10 or 200 volunteers and
sometimes they don't know howmany will show up, nor is the
activity that they're trying tolook for.
(28:28):
It might not even be a charityand it might not even be super
fun.
So these HR reps or thesesocial community liaison type
positions in these companieshave a hard time trying to find
a fun activity that's meaningfulfor their employees.
Well, we hit the sweet spotthere because we can take 10 or
(28:49):
200 people at the same event.
We are completely mobile, so wecan show up in their parking
lot and it goes to a charity, sotheir donated dollars are tax
deductible.
So it was just a trifecta.
And so all these companies nowwere like oh, it's a fun
activity.
Everybody that comes, almostevery company that comes and
builds with us.
They want to do it next yearand that was a good sign that,
(29:12):
oh my gosh, it's not easy work.
I mean, you're out sweating andwe tell everybody the happiest
volunteer is the sweatiest andthe dustiest.
You know, and I learned thatlesson a long time ago, when I
was helping this, this old mancame in and and helped build
build beds.
Uh, with this and, and my goshI it was four hours in and I
realized I kind of forgot abouthim.
(29:33):
I hope he's alive, you know,and he was over there covered in
dust.
You know cause I put them onthe side and he and I went up to
him and I'm like hey, are youokay?
You know, thanks for coming.
He's like, he's like Luke.
Let me tell you something.
I have volunteered my time, mywhole life, in organizations all
over.
Never have I showed up to anevent where someone put me on a
(29:55):
job immediately and I didn'tmove.
I was busy for four hoursstraight and I kind of looked at
him and went oh sorry, he saysno, he says thank you.
He said thank you.
And that's when I learned whenvolunteers want to donate their
time, they want to feel likethey made a difference.
Right, we all do, and you'rewant to feel like they.
(30:15):
They made a difference.
Right, you know we all do, andyou're going to feel like you
made a difference, because it'snot easy work and and you know
the sweatiest and the dustiestare the happiest because you do.
They do make a huge difference.
You know you touch.
Every piece of wood that comesthrough is made into a bed for a
child.
Not a lot of opportunities andevents.
You can have that sense ofbuilding.
(30:38):
Hey, we're playing with powertools who doesn't love that?
But you know exactly what thispiece of wood's going to.
You know what it's going to betransformed into, which is a bed
for a child.
And the list of benefits andimpacts of a child having a bed
are endless, are endless.
These kids have a safe place tosleep.
They get a good night's sleep,which means better grades,
(31:01):
better moods, better learningabilities.
They can have sleepovers forcrying out loud, I mean, these
kids can't.
They're embarrassed by theirrooms.
They're embarrassed by havingfriends over.
So they don't.
And now they can.
Daniela SM (31:16):
You come with a truck and you have the wood to
these companies and then theybuild the beds.
Luke Michelson (31:21):
That's correct.
So on a build day the processis we connect with a local
business or a foundation orwhatnot, and it kind of varies a
little bit across the countrybecause wood is a different
price.
It's a little more expensive inother areas, but we average
about $300 for every bed thatthat organization wants to build
(31:42):
.
And keep in mind a bed iseverything Wood materials,
screws, mattresses, which arereally expensive sheets.
I mean, when we deliver a bed,the kid can sleep in it right
then, and they often do by theway.
And so when we approach anorganization that wants to do a
bed, the kid can sleep in itright then, and they often do by
the way.
And so when we approach anorganization that wants to do a
bed build, usually the firstquestion is okay, what's your
(32:03):
budget?
$6,000 will build 20 beds,that's 20 kids Amazing.
Okay, what time?
Where would you like to do itand how many volunteers?
If they have 200 volunteers, a20-bed build is going to be
finished before they even set up.
I mean, it'll go pretty quick.
We can build these beds prettyfast.
So there's a little bit ofdiscussion with the local
(32:24):
chapter president on exactlywhat they want to accomplish and
some companies will combinewith other companies and do like
a 100-bed build, and those aresuper fun when you have 150, 200
people and they're all busyworking and that's some of the
beauty of it too, is a lot ofthese, I should say, employees
(32:46):
that are now volunteers.
These employees, some of them,have never met each other or
just passed each other in abreak room, and now they're
actually passing wood back andforth, one's relying on the
other while one's marking thewood, the other one's forth,
one's relying on the other.
While one's one's marking thewood, the other one's waiting to
drill it out, while the otherone's waiting to sand it, while
the other one's waiting to putthe headboards together, while
the other one's waiting to dipit into the solution, you know,
(33:06):
the staining solution.
I mean it's really fun, it'sreally a team building exercise
and at the end of the day theycould a bunk of wood and four
hours later there's 40 bedsready for 40 kids to be
delivered to in the next coupleof months.
Daniela SM (33:26):
And the mattress and the pillows and the covers.
Where do you get that?
Luke Michelson (33:30):
The bedding and materials oftentimes are some of
the easiest things to getdonated.
I mean you can walk throughWalmart and buy a pillow for $3,
and that's actually super fun.
If you're ever a volunteer youwant to donate to your local
chapter, go to Walmart and buythem out of their standard
pillows.
(33:50):
You know there's nothing coolerthan walking up to the register
with like five carts of pillows.
You know it might cost you, youknow 150 bucks or so, but
everybody turns their eye andlook and asks you know what are
you doing?
So it's super fun.
Or the $300 that we take moneyout of that $300 to go and
(34:11):
support whatever's left tosupport purchasing materials for
bedding and things like that.
Daniela SM (34:17):
But the mattresses are more expensive than $300.
Luke Michelson (34:20):
Oh yeah, they're terribly expensive and it's
gotten worse.
And when we started in 2012, Imean, I think we could buy a
mattress for like 40 bucks.
You know, now it's some, insome places, triple.
That aside, we work very hardin trying to find ways to reduce
those costs for for all of ourchapters, you know, and we've,
we've done a good job with that.
You know, we, we, we work withlocal companies, we work with
(34:42):
companies across the seas to getthese mattresses down, and, and
the beauty of it, now, becausewe're so big, you know, we order
10,000 mattresses at a timeinstead of a hundred, you know,
and so we get big price pointsbreaks there and we order them
by ship shipping container now,and, and so all these things
have just slowly grown over thelast six or seven years, which
(35:03):
has just been able to supportour chapters.
And that's what we want to dois support our chapters with the
cheapest materials, inexpensivematerials, as much as we can,
the simplest way we can get them, how we can market to them, how
can we provide materials tohelp them raise money in their
own hometown, help them gathervolunteers?
And here's the beauty of it too.
(35:25):
I'm a farm kid from Idaho.
Danielle, I don't know how torun a nonprofit I was a salesman
but when you have such apassion for it, we figure it out
and that's what we've done.
And now, the way that wefinance people working for Sleep
and Heavenly Peace, providingall these materials and stuff,
you know, back in the day whenthere was only, you know, three
(35:47):
or four chapters, it was easy.
But now when you got 400, it'sfull-time job, right.
The way we finance this isevery donation that's made to
Sleep and Emily Peace 10%,that's it.
10% goes to that management fee.
You know, we're still a company, we still have overhead, right,
and I think everybodyunderstands that.
I think the national average is32%.
(36:09):
I mean, there's some companiesthat are way higher than that.
10%, that's it.
Daniela SM (36:12):
Why not buying the beds?
Wouldn't that be cheaper, like,for example, buying them from
Ikea?
Luke Michelson (36:17):
It might be cheaper.
Maybe cheaper In a way, itwouldn't be that much cheaper,
and cheaper In a way it wouldn'tbe that much cheaper.
And the quality of the bed isnot as great.
I mean, yeah, we could go buythese metal beds for I don't
know, 50, 60 bucks, but then yougot to put a mattress and
sheets and all that and then yougot to deliver it.
So now you're already knockingon the door plus 200, if not
more, and that's reallyimportant to understand.
(36:39):
It's about bringing peopletogether.
It solves two major problemsPeople need to feel fulfilled,
they need to feel a part ofsomething and that they made a
difference.
You know, just assembling a bed, yeah, you can get a little bit
of that, but when you know youmade the cut and you made the
drill and you put that screw inthere, that never been there
(37:00):
before.
I also consult nonprofits, andthis is a concept that a lot of
nonprofits just have a hard timewrapping their mind around is.
It's not necessarily alwaysabout the cheapest, it's about
the experience.
That's what generates moredonations, that what generates
power behind the mission, whichallows them to flourish.
(37:20):
I do a lot of public speaking.
I built kind of my story aroundwhat I call the TBF framework,
which is the two by fourframework kind of a little play
on words there, but stands fortransform, build and flourish
and it teaches people, thosethat want to transform.
How do you transform yourselfinto something that you want to
flourish?
(37:40):
Right, whether it's I want tobe a better dad, or I want to be
a better employee or anemployer right, I want to be
more successful in myrelationship with my wife or my
kids.
You know anything?
There's a simple process andwe've heard it said a million
ways.
Daniela SM (37:56):
From the first bed that you made until now, what
have evolved?
Luke Michelson (38:01):
That's a great question.
I tell everybody the process ofmaking the beds has undergone a
lot of changes.
That's when I know that, if youcan imagine, never built a bed
before, never built a piece offurniture before.
I mean, I wasn't a stranger totools, I knew how to build stuff
.
I mean we were on hands andknees.
Knee pads were like the mostimportant tool we had, because
(38:22):
you're on your hands and kneesand you're squaring up wood and
trying to get it.
You know level and true, andthen you're screwing things in
and there's a lot of times thebeds I mean they didn't.
We didn't have jigs at the time, when we've never done that
before, and so you know they'reone like the bottom right.
Uh, side rail couldn't be onthe top left, it had to be the
bottom right, right.
You know just because how wedrilled them out and now the
(38:43):
pieces are all uniform, and sothe process of building these
have evolved over time, and youunderstand when you build them
one time a year, because we justbuilt at Christmas time the
first couple of years, right,and so you didn't do it enough
to learn.
But I'll tell you what, themore we did it, I mean I
remember there'd be I'd wake upin the middle of the night,
(39:03):
three o'clock in the morning,and a lot of chapter presidents
will tell you this.
Three o'clock in the morningyou wake up and you're like
looking at the ceiling going.
You know what, if I did this,that would be a little bit
quicker.
That'd be we stain the beds andI used to use wood stain.
(39:25):
Well, number one wood stain.
A five-gallon bucket is like$150.
It takes three weeks to dry.
I mean, it's just a pain, right, and you have to spray it.
There's got to be a simpler way.
Well, a friend of mine said hey, take a look at Pinterest, and
on Pinterest there was thissolution of vinegar and steel
wool.
I mean, it cost $10 to providethe same amount of solution.
(39:50):
And then we dipped them in likea little tote, if you will.
So the process of staining was100 times faster, less messy and
they dried in 20 minutes, Imean.
So it's just these things, aswe did more often, just evolved,
say, the first bed after mykids, right?
So it'd be the third bunk bedwe built.
I remember me and my buddy hewas a local guy that helped me
(40:14):
we built it in like two hours.
Now, that's not sanding orstaining, that was just cutting
and assembling into the bunk bedand we were ecstatic Two hours,
oh my gosh, that's great.
Well, most bed builds in twohours you're going to build 20.
And we have some really, reallylarge builds.
We did a build this year withLowe's, close to the corporate
(40:35):
office.
We did 5,000 beds in 24 hours.
It's a bed every 12.6 seconds,wow.
Granted, we had a lot of toolsbut, yeah, the process has
evolved, even the delivery ofthe beds right.
The very first year we wouldonly deliver bunk beds, because
as we delivered these bunk bedswe realized A a lot of these
(40:59):
kids lived in kind of tightquarters right, you know,
they're little small rooms.
We had such a large list ofkids but we only had 10 bunk
beds, right.
So it's like there's 50 kidsout there but there's 10 bunk
beds, and so we would onlydeliver a bunk bed.
Now, most of our deliveries,probably 75% of our deliveries,
(41:19):
are all single the single bed.
So that's kind of evolved too.
And we also dropped the bed byan inch, each bed by an inch and
a half, rather, um, based on,you know, the size of sticks of
woods that we use.
We'd have less waste and thingsof that nature.
So there's been a lot ofdifferent things that have
changed.
Daniela SM (41:37):
Yeah, Interesting.
That's always interesting tosee how you have a picture you
should have in the office.
You probably have the pictureof the first bed versus how it
is and how long it takes.
Luke Michelson (41:46):
Well, really honestly, the bed, the way it
looks, other than it look youcouldn't really tell in a
picture.
It's three inches shorter, butthe bed design is exactly the
same.
We've just learned how toperfect and I would say it's not
the most efficient um way ofbuilding these bits, and we do
(42:07):
that on purpose, you know.
So you'll have.
we get engineers that come inand help out during a build and
they come up afterwards and theyhave all sorts of great ideas
of oh you know you should dothis and you should do that and
this would make this faster andyou can eliminate a lot of this
and that and uh.
And we kind of smile and say,oh yeah, no, you're exactly
right.
But we don't do that because itwould eliminate a volunteer.
We want more people, we wantmore jobs for people to come in
(42:30):
and feel a part of it and so,yeah, we could make these beds a
little more streamlined, alittle more faster, but really
we're more concerned aboutsturdiness and the security of
the bed, Of course, the cost ofit, but really making sure we
don't want to eliminate anyvolunteer opportunities, and so
we build them pretty fast, butyou could probably do it faster,
but we love our process.
Daniela SM (42:50):
Yes, so is it over in that town, kids not having
beds?
Luke Michelson (42:55):
You would think right, we've been here for what
is it?
13 years now.
We still get an applicationabout every three days.
People move and they take theirbeds with them.
People move in.
The population grows almostfaster than what we can handle,
and I live in a small town.
I mean we serve maybe now apopulation of maybe 100,000, 80
(43:16):
to 100,000 people.
But there are, I mean, ourchapters in Phoenix, our chapter
in Houston.
We have two or three chaptersreally close to Phoenix.
Just one of those chaptersbuilds 2,000 beds a year and
they have waiting lists of 5,000kids.
This is the problem.
This is what people don'trealize.
When I started this and I wastelling people I was building
(43:38):
beds for kids, I got twoquestions or two reactions.
The first one was well, I mean,there's not that many.
And and I tell people, look, Iunderstand why you say that
Cause I would have said the samething.
But I'm telling you there isfar more.
It is across the street and youdon't even know it, I promise
you.
And the second one is, as well,not in my town.
I live in a pretty rich townand I'm like hey, I live in
(44:02):
what's called the magic valleyof Idaho A lot of farm process,
a lot of milk processing, notexactly a poor community, and I
still I was getting anapplication every day.
Child bedlessness does not knoweconomics, it doesn't know
geography, all it knows ishardship, all it knows is just
rough situations for some ofthese families.
(44:22):
And that's what you find,Daniela, is these kids are in
these situations not because oftheir choices you know, and
that's unfortunate, it'sheartbreaking and sometimes not
even the choices of the parents.
It's just a bad situation, afire, or you know someone lose
their job or whatnot.
It's just, it's a roughsituation.
(44:45):
And if we can come in andprovide just a speck of relief
worth your time, if you know achild that does not have a bed
and is age three to 17, go toshpbedsorg, shpbedsorg and fill
out an application form.
Now we're trying to reach asmany pockets of the United
(45:07):
States as we can.
We cover quite a bit and if youfeel empowered or inspired or
if this is something that tearsat your heartstrings, you can be
involved.
Find a local chapter.
You can go to shpbedsorg andsee where the closest chapter is
to you, contact them, say, hey,I want to help, they would love
it.
And if there's not a chapterclose to you.
(45:29):
You can start one.
This is something you want todo.
You can go as fast or as slowas you want, but you can make a
difference in your hometown.
Daniela SM (45:39):
And what is the other countries?
You said there are fourcountries.
Luke Michelson (45:42):
So we're in United States, obviously Canada,
bermuda and Bahamas.
Daniela SM (45:45):
Oh wow, that's interesting that you're going to
do that.
Luke Michelson (45:49):
Yeah, we got all the vacation spots.
I don't know.
No, actually Bahamas wascreated because of the tsunami
that hit them.
Oh, I want to say three yearsago or so.
Bermuda a little bit as well.
We get requests all over theworld.
I've been requested in Germany,London, Australia, obviously,
(46:11):
Mexico.
You know what my dream, mydream in 10 years, when all my
kids are gone?
You know, I would love to goout there and get them going.
But we're getting to a pointwhere we're a lot more stable,
we have a lot more support andservices for our chapters that
we then can now invest some timeand energy in other areas.
Daniela SM (46:27):
And how do you find in your municipality where there
is a need?
How do you know?
Luke Michelson (46:32):
So that's probably one of the hardest
things is raising awareness,because there's not a lot of
awareness finding these kids.
It's difficult because it'ssuch an unknown problem.
A good example one of mychapter presidents in Minnesota.
He'd been doing it for a yearand someone in his own
congregation in church came upto him later and said hey, you
(46:53):
know what.
I just want to let you know, mykid hasn't had a bed for a year
.
Daniela SM (46:58):
And he was like astonished.
Luke Michelson (46:59):
He's like why didn't you tell me it really is
that bad, and so that's whywe're relying on you and your
listeners.
The biggest thing I ask reachout, share that child
bedlessness.
A is a problem and B there is away to solve it.
There's help that is availableand there's a process that you
(47:20):
can be involved with in helpingthe kids in your own hometown.
Daniela SM (47:25):
Okay, great, and so now I know that you took a
different role the last time wespoke.
Luke Michelson (47:30):
Many, many years I was the executive director
but as we got bigger and biggerI started doing a lot more of
these podcasts and speakingevents and doing a lot of PR
work kind of be in the face ofsleeping on the peace because
I'm the founder.
It was pulling me away from alot of my managerial duties of
trying to reach out and see waysthat we can help, and my buddy
(47:52):
that went with me, jordan Allen.
He's now the executive directorand doing a fabulous job and I
get to do what I do.
I think best is sharing mystory and raising awareness and
trying to inspire more people.
Daniela SM (48:04):
Excellent, really appreciate the story.
It's amazing and inspiring.
I really want to go and make abed now.
Luke Michelson (48:10):
Yes, you'd be great at it.
Daniela SM (48:12):
Yes, and the community part is true.
You're touching two things, sothat's really important.
Kudos to you for this midlifecrisis, that you had it worked
out really well.
Luke Michelson (48:23):
I think, so I'm so grateful for the bad
decisions and the good decisionsI've made, because I wouldn't
want to change where I'm atright now for the world and
people out there that arestruggling in these crisis modes
.
We all have these tiny momentsin life that just thoughts that
pop in our heads and ideas thatwe come up with, and I mean, how
many times do we excuse themaway?
(48:45):
You know too busy, or I can'tdo that, and you put yourself
down, or you just don't feellike you can do it.
You can't, you can't.
All you have to do is get offthe couch and all you have to do
is try.
And who cares if you fail?
You learn something and youjust never know.
You something and you justnever know.
You never know.
(49:05):
You go out in the garage andyou grab a piece of wood.
13 years later, you've helped300,000 kids and over 600,000
volunteers that have been a partof kids in their own community
came from you, going out in thegarage and grabbing a piece of
wood.
Daniela SM (49:18):
Yes, yes, wonderful.
It would be great one day youget a volunteer.
That was actually one of thekids that you gave them a bed.
Luke Michelson (49:24):
Already happened .
You know one of the coolstories, and I don't, man, I'm
talking a lot.
I'm sorry, dan Yelovit, I'msitting in the dentist office
and nobody likes to sit in thedentist office waiting to go to
see the dentist.
I mean, I just churned into myseat and this mom and little kid
came in and sat down and I hadmy SHP hat on, like I normally
do and and I, you know, kind ofkept looking over and the lady
(49:51):
was kind of giving me two looksand and finally she caught my
eye and she says hey, I justwant to tell you.
You brought my kid a bed lastyear, Thank you, and I just lost
it.
I mean, those are theexperiences that you won't get
until you get off the couch.
They change your life, theychange your.
I mean, I was a hardbusinessman, sports guy, and now
(50:13):
I'm crying in front of Daniela.
I mean it's softy.
I tell you what.
It's.
Just life-changing and it canhappen to anybody.
Just life-changing and it canhappen to anybody.
Daniela SM (50:23):
So thank you so much , luke, for your time, for your
stories, for being so vulnerable, and I really appreciate it.
It's really amazing.
Luke Michelson (50:33):
And thank you for what you're doing.
Daniela SM (50:34):
Thank you for having me.
I hope you enjoy Luke's story Abeautiful reminder that when
compassion meets action, lifecan truly be transformed, and
that community is essential atevery level.
Spread the word and share thisepisode, allowing the ordinary
magic to go further.
Join me next time for anotherstory conversation.
(50:55):
Thank you for listening.
Hasta pronto.
Hi, I'm Daniela and welcome to, because Everyone has
a Story.
This is the place whereordinary people's stories get a
chance to be shared andremembered, or stories become
the language of connections.
Let's enjoy it, connect andrelate, because everyone has a
story.
My guest is Luke Michelson,someone whose heart is truly as
(00:25):
big as his mission.
Luke is the kind of person whoturns compassion into action.
What started as simple act ofkindness building one bed for a
child in need has grown into amovement that now reaches across
four countries.
Luke couldn't ignore when hesaw kids sleeping on floors.
You can truly feel his passion,humility and profound love for
(00:49):
helping others in thisconversation, as well as in
everything he does.
It is inspiring to see how muchhe cares about making a
difference.
This is the story of a man whonever set out to start a
non-profit.
He just saw a problem andstepped up.
His story is powerful and areminder that one person really
(01:12):
can make a difference.
Let's enjoy Luke's story.
Welcome, luke.
Thank you so much for being inthe program.
Luke Michelson (01:18):
Well, thank you for having me, Daniela.
Daniela SM (01:20):
I'm super excited that you're here.
I know you have an amazingstory, so tell me why you want
to share your story.
Luke Michelson (01:26):
Yeah, I want to share my story because I think
it's extremely important forpeople to know, like I didn't
know, the cause of childbedlessness and the fact that
child bedlessness, even thoughit's not a real word, it's a
real problem that exists in ourcountry, really all over the
world.
It was a problem when I firstdiscovered it that really no one
(01:47):
was doing anything about, justsmall pockets here and there
across the country, but it'ssuch a problem and such a hidden
problem that I think it's soimportant that we let people
know because of the implications, or at least the impacts, that
a child that doesn't have a goodnight's sleep, a comfortable
sleep, and other major reasonsand effects that happen from not
(02:09):
having a simple item like a bed, is important.
If people know about it andhear about it and realize that
this is happening in their ownhometown, I think they'll feel
inspired, like I did, to jump inand help.
Daniela SM (02:22):
Yes, that's fascinating, and you're right.
I remember doing some charitywork, working for a nonprofit,
and I had to teach kids on tablemanners, for example, and then
I realized that these kidsdidn't have tables to have
dinner together.
You take that for granted whenyou have it and you're like
assume, well, everybody has atable, and one kid says, oh no,
(02:45):
my dad had to bring hismotorcycle inside the house so
we had to remove the table.
They didn't have dinnertogether, which is always
important, and so the same, asyou said, sleeping is so
important.
Luke Michelson (02:56):
Right, well, and you realize like there's things
in life that we take forgranted, but one of those things
like a simple thing, like a bed, should not be a luxury for a
child.
Unfortunately, in our day andtime, in our country, it is a
luxury for some of these kidsand it shouldn't be that way.
So, luke, when does your storystart?
So I started back in 2012.
(03:18):
A little bit of background.
I'm just a farm kid from Idaholittle small town, actually
small Kimberly.
Idaho is the original town Ilived and it was a town of about
4,000 people, so it wasn't much.
And the benefits and pros andcons of living in a small town
is you know everybody and theneverybody knows you too, right,
but the beauty of that is youhave this sense of community
(03:41):
when you're in such a smallcommunity and I know that
stemmed, or my passion forhelping people and being
involved more in the communitycame from being in such a small
town and knowing everybody'sbusiness.
Like I said, good and bad, butthe benefit is you're able to
inspire and bring peopletogether because they're
like-minded.
Right when I was serving in mychurch service, it was a
(04:05):
position called the young men'spresident and the young men's
president, basically kind oflike a youth pastor.
I was over the physicalactivities of the boys ages 12
to 18, as well as the spiritualgrowth, and that activity that
we do every week was basicallyBoy Scouts.
So I was kind of the leader ofthe leader of the Boy Scouts.
When we were sitting as theleader of the leaders, I'd sit
(04:27):
in these meetings and I'd hearabout things that the local
church was helping other peopleout with, and the congregation
as well as the community, andone of those things was we were
helping this family with rentand things of that nature.
The mom was like the localschool bus driver and the dad
had suffered some mental issues,had a hard time holding down a
(04:48):
job, and so you can imagine theylived in a part of the town and
it was a small town that Ididn't even know existed that's
how remote and secluded thislittle apartment complex was and
so they were talking about howthey were helping this family.
Well, they mentioned how thesekids didn't have any beds.
Uh, you know, just I was like,wait a minute, like what do you
(05:13):
mean?
Don't have any beds?
They don't like literally don'thave a mattress, and they're
like no, they just sleep on thefloor.
And I don't know, you know,danielle, that hit me so hard
that, um, you know, I had, youknow, I got kids of my own right
and to think about kidssleeping on the floor, and I've
slept on the floor before justone night, and it was terrible,
you know, and I just thought, ohmy gosh, really Well, two
things we got to stop that.
And the other thing was what agreat opportunity this is going
(05:48):
to be, that I can take an Xboxcontroller out of these Boy
Scouts' hands, put a drill and asander in it.
We're going to teach him how to, how to do something Right,
cause we're always trying tofind activities that didn't
involve either sports or didn'tinvolve a screen, and that's
that's hard to do nowadays withthese kids.
And, and this was just a greatopportunity, so boom, we, we.
I went home that night andstarted measuring my my daughter
had a little bunk bed andstarted measuring it and kind of
came up with a plan.
And then I had the boys comeover every night for that week
(06:09):
as we built this bunk bed forthis family, and I was worried
that the kids wouldn't be thatexcited, but I was shocked
gratefully shocked, if you will,that they were so excited to
help build this bed for thesekids, and so we did that.
We had a lot of fun and when itcame time to deliver it I had
(06:32):
to stay back in my garagebecause that's where we built it
and my garage was just a mess.
I mean sawdust everywhere andwood and all that.
But the kids and their parentsand leaders went and delivered
this bed and they had such agreat experience.
They came back at church thenext day and told me all about
it and I felt I was totallyhappy and totally sad at the
same time, because I wanted tosee that, I wanted to be a part
(06:55):
of this great opportunity.
But I enjoyed myself during thebuild and I was grateful that
we solved this problem for thisfamily.
Daniela SM (07:02):
So you built it, but you didn't bring it all
together.
So you built it, broke it downagain and brought it there, or
how did you do it?
Luke Michelson (07:10):
Correct.
So we built pieces of the bed.
It was a bunk bed, so basicallythe bottom and the top they're
identical ones, just flippedover.
These are 12 year old kids,right?
So I've never built a piece offurniture in my life at the time
, and so I had to make it easyfor them, as well as myself, and
we put this format together ofhow we can build this bed in
pieces and then we take it intothe home and assemble it into
(07:31):
the home.
And when we took the bed in itwas a whole thing mattress,
sheets, pillows, pillowcases,the whole nine yards.
I didn't get a chance to dothat, but I heard the stories of
the kids and the parents andtheir reaction and I was really
grateful that we were able toprovide that.
But then I came home right andsitting at home a day or two
(07:52):
later and sitting on the couchit was about Christmas time and
my kids were talking about thepresents that they knew I wasn't
going to buy them.
You know they're crying aboutwanting another Xbox or whatever
.
And here I was, sitting there,going.
I built and delivered a bed toa family whose kids were
sleeping on the floor and youguys want another Xbox.
You know, it just kind of hit mereally weird and in my personal
(08:14):
life, you know, I was kind ofgoing through a little bit of a
faith crisis, a little bit ofidentity crisis.
Who am I?
I know I want to do more forthis world.
I think we all kind of gothrough that periods of time.
Right, we want to make adifference, we just don't know
how.
And I know we made a differencein this family's life and I
wanted that for my familySelfishly.
(08:35):
I wanted it for me as well.
And that night, when my kidstalked about the presence that
they wanted, and it just hit meI said you know what I could
talk to my kids?
I can show them videos and tellthem stories about you know
helping others and appreciatethe things they have.
Or you know what I can justteach them, just like I did the
(08:57):
boy Scouts.
And so I jumped up off thecouch and walked out in the
garage and everybody's like dad,where are you going?
And I said you know what I gotleftover wood.
I'm going to build another bunkbed and gosh dang it.
You're going to come help me.
So you can imagine it's, it'sIdaho, it's winter time, it's
not exactly warm out in mygarage, um, but we had, you know
(09:18):
, danielle, we had the greatesttime, just like with the boy
Scouts.
You know, my, my littlesix-year-old daughter was out
there in her tutu drilling holeswith a drill and my son was
screwing screws in and hammeringthings away.
I mean, we just had a greattime, right and um, it wasn't a
fast process but uh, but it was.
It was fun with the family, andso, you know, that was kind of
goal.
Number one was I wanted my kidsto enjoy the feelings that come
(09:41):
from serving others, because Ialways tell people look, if you
want true joy in your life, myexperience has been, look to see
how you can help other people.
Your problems they don'tmagically go away, but they just
don't feel as heavy.
And I wanted my kids to learnthat process, to learn how to do
that as well as I wanted themto appreciate the things that
(10:02):
they have, like a luxury of abed at this point, how to do
that as well as I wanted them toappreciate the things that they
have, like a luxury of a bed atthis point.
And so when we were donefinishing the bed, I didn't know
what to do with it.
I mean, goal number one wasachieved.
Now I was like, okay, I don'tknow another family, I don't
know, child bedlessness is areal problem.
And so it was recommended to meto throw it on Facebook.
(10:23):
And I don't know, you throwsomething free on Facebook, one
of those market places buy, sell, trade groups and you're
hearing the stories of some ofthese kids and the conditions
(10:47):
that the family is in, as wellas the conditions that kids are
sleeping on.
One of them was really shocking.
It was eight people in thisfamily six kids, two parents.
They were living in a van,living in a van, and the dad
just got a job, they just gotthis house and they, of course,
didn't have any beds for thesesix kids, and I just thought, oh
(11:09):
my gosh, really, wow, childbedlessness is a problem.
And so a friend of mine sent mean email and said hey, listen, I
know of this family.
They've been homeless theirwhole life.
Their daughter I call her Haley, she's six years old and been
(11:29):
sleeping in the backseat of hermom's car since she's been born.
And so it just hit me and Ithought you know what?
This is exactly the situationthat I A want to help out with.
I wanted to help a child out.
I wanted to help a child outand I wanted my kids to
understand and see and hear andfeel the impact that their
(11:50):
service can make for someoneelse, especially their age.
And so, yeah, I said this isthe family I wanted to deliver
to.
Daniela SM (11:57):
But if they were living in the car, they didn't
have a house.
Luke Michelson (12:00):
Correct.
My friend was a social workerthat actually helped them get
their first house right.
It was a government assistedhouse and when we walked into
the house you can imagine I mean, I'd seen the homelessness
before.
But to see it through the eyesof a child because that's what
we were there for is just thechild or at least that's what we
thought right Is I'm justdelivering a bed to a child that
(12:21):
can get a good night's sleep.
That's the thought process.
And so we walked into this homeand my gosh, I mean it was.
There was nothing in the house.
There was no couch, there wasno table, there was a milk crate
you know carton crate that hada hot plate on it with a can of
soup, and that was the onlything in the house.
(12:42):
It just, it just kind ofshocked me.
And that, and this little Haley,six, kind of shocked me, and
this little Haley, six years old, was so excited to see us and
so excited to show off her newroom.
She had this room right, not acar, she had a room.
And so she took us back to herroom and when you walked into a
room, if I can picture it foryou, there's tears in the carpet
and holes in the wall and thecloset doesn't have a door on it
(13:03):
.
You know there's used toys inthere, you can imagine, right.
But what I did not expect wasin the corner was a pile of
clothes, and that's what Haleyslept on.
It was her school clothes,right, she'd wake up, put her
school clothes on, come home,take her school clothes, put her
PJs on and sleep on her schoolclothes.
(13:24):
It just was almost overwhelmingto see that.
So you're both really sad, sickinside for her, but you're also
excited because you're bringingher her first bed ever, six
years old.
And so we start bringing in thisbed and you know, at first she
was kind of a little becauseit's just pieces of wood, right.
And then all of a sudden sherealizes what it is and she just
(13:45):
erupts, right, just just cheersand smiles and comes up and
hugs us, hugs the bed, starts tokiss the bed.
I mean you ever seen a childkiss a bed before?
Cause I hadn't.
I mean it was just a beautiful,right, um, and my heart was
just feeling this, this holethat I had in my heart, this,
this crisis I was going through,was gone instantly, just just
(14:06):
my I was the Grinch that had hisheart swell three times that
day.
And and then I look up at themom and this is probably the
biggest thing.
I did not expect this single momand I was raised by a single
mom too Six years of tears justpouring down this lady's face,
right, a young lady trying totake care of her family, trying
(14:28):
to provide.
You know, she had a couple ofjobs, I think, and just was
really trying to work and justcouldn't get ahead of the
rolling ball called life.
And now her daughter had a bed,a comfortable place, secure,
safe to sleep in, and you couldsee it in every tear that
dropped off her cheek.
I mean it just.
And it was so overwhelming forme and my buddy.
(14:50):
You know, on the way home we hadabout a half hour drive home.
We really didn't say much toeach other.
I don't remember even talkingmuch, but I do remember thinking
.
You know I spent a couple ofhours, a couple of days this
week with my kids and we built abunk bed to solve that problem.
That's well worth my time.
(15:11):
I'm from Idaho, so I love tohunt and fish and sports and
college football on Saturdaysand all this stuff, just like
that.
It didn't matter.
None of it mattered anymorewhen I knew that some effort,
just a little bit of effort, afun effort too, can go to help
solve a problem like that.
And when we got home I lookedat my buddy and he felt the same
(15:32):
way, you know.
He kind of looked at each other, almost tears in our eyes, and
I said, you know what?
No kid is going to sleep on thefloor in my town.
If I had anything to do, I mean, I was almost, I was almost
upset, right, I was almost mad.
No kid is going to sleep on thefloor in my town.
And so we just started buildingbeds that year and how many
people are in your town?
So at that time it's a smalltown next to a larger town but
(15:55):
combined was only about 40,000gathered.
My small town was 4,000.
We served a community of about,oh, about 50 or 60,000.
So it wasn't a huge community.
But I also didn't realize andhad no clue that child
bedlessness was such a big deal.
We started building beds andthat first Christmas season we
(16:20):
wanted to build as many bunkbeds as we could before Santa
showed up and delivered themright.
And so we built 11 bunk bedswell, 10 and a half.
We built 21 beds altogetherthat first season and delivered
them all before Santa showed up.
And you know, oh my gosh, thestories that came from that.
We delivered beds to the familythat had the kids sleeping in
the van.
You know we delivered bedsChristmas Eve to a family, the
(16:45):
van.
You know we.
We delivered beds Christmas Eveto a family.
The mom looked at me with tearsin her eyes and said I hope you
realize this is the onlypresent that the kids are going
to get this year, cause we can'tafford anything else.
You know it, just I was it, justit was opened my eyes to a
world that I didn't know existedand I'd lived in that world,
for you know, 35 years and um,and that's why it's so important
(17:08):
that I want to share this storyand share my story, cause it's
again.
It's not about one dude fromIdaho, it's about this epidemic
that's that is in existencetoday in your audiences,
hometown right now, of childrensleeping on the floor.
There's no real statisticsright now about this problem
other than what Sleep inHeavenly Peace has kind of put
together just because of youknow this is what we do now and
(17:31):
we know it's greater than 3% ofthe total population of your
town.
If you live in a town of100,000 people, there are 3,000
kids that don't have beds.
They're sleeping on couches, oncrates, on air matches that we
all know deflate.
You know they're sleeping oncouches, on crates, on air
matches that we all know deflate.
They're sleeping with mom anddad or three or four other
brothers and sisters trying toget a good night's sleep, which
is just going to not be possible, and that shouldn't be that way
(17:56):
, right?
So that is what started Sleepand Heavenly Peace.
Daniela SM (17:59):
Yeah, that's beautiful.
And I have a question though.
So your second bed was withyour buddy, but then why
building the bed versus buyingthe bed?
Luke Michelson (18:08):
It's a great question.
You know, we built the bedinitially with the Boy Scouts
because, you know, we wanted tohave a good experience with them
.
And then the second bed, secondbunk bed, I built with my kids
now because I wanted them to doit and it was just such a fun
experience, you know, and as Iposted, and my friend saw what I
was doing, he lived about twohours away and he says, hey, let
me come down, I'll help you.
(18:29):
So he came down, we startedbuilding more and more beds.
He helped build at least halfof those beds that we built that
Christmas season.
And it's a great question.
Thank you for asking, because wealso found our second mission
it's kind of a side mission andthat is we live in a country, we
(18:50):
live in a community of millionsof people that want to help.
They really do.
I was no different.
I want to help, I want to makea difference in the lives of
people around me and people Idon't even know Right, of people
around me and people I don'teven know Right and and ever.
You know we there was millionsof people out there that are
like that and we, unfortunately,we live in this media world
where you know it's doom andgloom and it's so polarized and
(19:13):
people are left and right and upand down, you know.
But but the the actual and thefactual situation we live in is,
we actually do live in a, in acommunity and a country where
people want to help.
They just don't know how.
And so building beds for kidsbrought people together.
That post and the more we postedabout delivering beds to kids
(19:37):
and building, I had people I'dnever met, strangers, show up at
my garage and I put them towork.
I said, hey, yeah, great, sam,whoever you are, you know, here
here's a brush.
Why don't you start um stayingin this bed and here's a sander
for his wife.
You can start sanding this.
And there was, there was highschool buddies that I hadn't
seen for 20 years, where they'rehelping out.
(19:59):
And and I'm just, I'm one ofthese guys that did.
I love doing things togetherwith a bunch of people.
I'm a you know, I don't want tocall me a party guy, that
sounds like that's a badconnotation.
No, I just love.
I just love getting togetherand have fun with friends, and
that's what we did we.
We crank up Buck, but rock 80songs and listen to Bon Jovi and
sand and stain and and do allthis stuff and and little did we
(20:26):
know that this was actuallysolving a problem in our own
community, which is bringingpeople together and bringing
community together, and it's Goddirected or somehow something's
directing it, because that wasnot the initial intent.
But we found that and weunderstand, and I understand
more now than ever.
If you want a problem solved,you know we can't rely on
(20:50):
someone else to solve it for us.
You know we are surrounded byso many people in our own
community that have strong handsand willing backs and big
hearts that can jump in and help.
We just need to show them how.
We just need to provide a way.
And so when we realized how bigchild bedlessness really was not
just in our own hometown,across the country, as friends
(21:13):
that lived in other states sawwhat we were doing would call us
up and say, hey, can you comeand do that over here?
And I said, better, yet, we'llcome and we'll show you how to
do it Right and and and we havethis charity that we started now
called sleep in heavenly peaceand you can be a chapter of it.
And so that's kind of how westarted.
You know, that's kind of how westarted.
(21:33):
You know, started in 2012.
And by 2017, we had about fiveor six you know seven chapters
that were in the various stagesof running running their own
chapter and doing their ownbuilds and deliveries that we
realized that we're starting tobring people from other areas
and helping them bring their owncommunities together.
(21:54):
And since then now we have over400 chapters.
We're in four countries and nowwe've built over 300,000 beds.
Our goal this year is 90,000beds, so we're really knocking
out as many of these roughsituations for these kids as we
(22:16):
can.
We're the largest bed buildingcharity in the world Lots,
because there's not very manycharities that are doing it, but
it's because we have so manygreat chapter presidents
surrounded by so many greatvolunteers in their own
communities that want to helpout, you know, and so we solve
that problem as well.
Daniela SM (22:35):
So you have two things getting together as a
community and helping the peopleget in beds.
Luke Michelson (22:41):
Correct.
Yeah, we, we focus.
Our mission statement now is nokids sleeps on the floor in our
town.
The reason why that's a funmission statement not only is it
, is it demanding and it it, itdemands growth, it demands
community focus, it demands allthis stuff, but it's designed as
a mission statement, which isodd for a company.
(23:02):
Normally, mission statements aredesigned for a company to tell
the public what they do, right.
Ours is opposite.
Ours is designed for thecommunity, or the public, to
tell everybody what they'regoing to do Not in our town,
right, and we want our town tobe everybody's town.
And so no kid sleeps on thefloor in our town is meant to be
(23:27):
said by the volunteer.
And so our main goal and ourmain mission is to provide beds
for kids that don't have anyages 3 to 17, and provide that
through the community they livein.
And when you go in, daniela,when you go into these homes, if
you can imagine and I tellpeople look, you can watch
(23:47):
videos, you can listen totestimonials and see pictures,
but until you walk into a roomand there's a nine-year-old kid
over here, or even asix-year-old kid who's hiding
behind mom, because there'sthese strangers bringing in this
wood and these blankets in hisroom and he's just scared or
(24:10):
doesn't know what's going on.
Well, that apprehension, once herealizes, oh, they're bringing
in a bed, that apprehensionturns to appreciation and then
turns to outright joy.
And until you see that and feelthat in the room with the child
you remember this kid'sprobably never slept on a bed
(24:30):
and some of them have neverslept on a pillow, if you can
imagine they just sleep on theirclothes.
And so when you provide that tothem and we all know the value
of sleeping in a good bed, Imean these kids.
I mean when you have a hardwhen I have a hard day at work,
some of the greatest moments ofthe day is crawling into bed
that night.
And when you can bring that andknowing what that brings to
(24:52):
them, oh man, I mean it's justjoy that you can't experience it
.
Daniela SM (24:58):
Until you experience it, yes, I want to know about
the story then.
So people came to help you, butwho was paying for all the
materials?
Luke Michelson (25:07):
Great question.
Daniela SM (25:07):
So the first year we were, and you were working, you
still were having a job, aregular job.
Luke Michelson (25:13):
Oh, I had a full-time job, absolutely.
You know, I was working for alocal water treatment company
here and we decided that yearafter our Haley experience that
we're going to get toys for ourkids, of course, but a majority
of our Christmas fund is goingto go to this.
And luckily, you know, we wentto the various DIY stores and we
(25:33):
landed at Lowe's and everybodyknows Lowe's, I hope they do.
Lowe's made it all possible forus to do that many beds.
I walked in, told the Lowe'sstore manager what we was doing
and the guy kind of looked at meand he's like, really, is this
a problem?
I'm like absolutely.
And he says 50% off anythingyou buy, I don't care, we'll
take care of it.
I just, it just blew me away.
So we went from doing only youknow, it was only going to be
(25:56):
seven or eight or nine beds tothe 21, because Lowe's jumped in
and helped out.
And that was another bigturning point for me in my mind,
going, oh, there's people outthere that feel the same, you
know, drive and passion andalmost anger right To solve this
problem for these kids locally.
I mean, it was really.
It was really motivating, andso so you know, after that first
(26:19):
two years of doing it ourselves, you got to remember this
wasn't going to be a charity.
We didn't start this to be acharity.
We started it as a familyChristmas project and the next
year we're like, hey, let's doit again.
Well, after the second year andthis is how fast it went the
second year Now we had companies, we had other people, other
organizations, 4-h clubs and BoyScouts and all these people
that wanted to do builds with us.
Daniela SM (26:41):
But this is all in your garage.
Luke Michelson (26:43):
The first year was in my garage, my second year
my company that I worked for.
They had a little warehouse.
They let us use that warehouseright, and so we brought mostly
family but some public friendsto do the second build, which we
built 25 beds in one day whichwe were really proud of, and
that was like kind of our firstwhat we call our first build day
(27:03):
, if you will.
We found that these companieswanted to give us money, but we
weren't a 501c3 at the time, andso we knew we needed to do and
become a charity.
And the funny thing was we'regoing to become a charity.
You got to call it something,and I remember I looked at my
wife and I said I got theperfect name beds for babes and
(27:23):
she said no, that's not whatit's going to be.
It's a bad Google search, bythe way.
Um, no, it's not beds for babes.
And and because it wasChristmas time and you know we
(27:44):
wanted to, we wanted who doesn'tlove silent night, right, sleep
in heavenly peace just saidexactly what we wanted these
kids to feel and to experiencewas sleeping in peace and
sleeping in joy, you know.
And it brought that kind ofChristmas feel too, and so we
started the charity and then,when the charity was started,
then it was obviously mucheasier.
We started getting donationscoming in from companies, which
is another thing that werealized and really a majority
(28:06):
of our funds come from thisprocess, which is a company
wants to give back to thecommunity they live in At least
they should.
They're corporate socialresponsibility and the problem
they have is a company mighthave 10 or 200 volunteers and
sometimes they don't know howmany will show up, nor is the
activity that they're trying tolook for.
(28:28):
It might not even be a charityand it might not even be super
fun.
So these HR reps or thesesocial community liaison type
positions in these companieshave a hard time trying to find
a fun activity that's meaningfulfor their employees.
Well, we hit the sweet spotthere because we can take 10 or
(28:49):
200 people at the same event.
We are completely mobile, so wecan show up in their parking
lot and it goes to a charity, sotheir donated dollars are tax
deductible.
So it was just a trifecta.
And so all these companies nowwere like oh, it's a fun
activity.
Everybody that comes, almostevery company that comes and
builds with us.
They want to do it next yearand that was a good sign that,
(29:12):
oh my gosh, it's not easy work.
I mean, you're out sweating andwe tell everybody the happiest
volunteer is the sweatiest andthe dustiest.
You know, and I learned thatlesson a long time ago, when I
was helping this, this old mancame in and and helped build
build beds.
Uh, with this and, and my goshI it was four hours in and I
realized I kind of forgot abouthim.
(29:33):
I hope he's alive, you know,and he was over there covered in
dust.
You know cause I put them onthe side and he and I went up to
him and I'm like hey, are youokay?
You know, thanks for coming.
He's like, he's like Luke.
Let me tell you something.
I have volunteered my time, mywhole life, in organizations all
over.
Never have I showed up to anevent where someone put me on a
(29:55):
job immediately and I didn'tmove.
I was busy for four hoursstraight and I kind of looked at
him and went oh sorry, he saysno, he says thank you.
He said thank you.
And that's when I learned whenvolunteers want to donate their
time, they want to feel likethey made a difference.
Right, we all do, and you'rewant to feel like they.
(30:15):
They made a difference.
Right, you know we all do, andyou're going to feel like you
made a difference, because it'snot easy work and and you know
the sweatiest and the dustiestare the happiest because you do.
They do make a huge difference.
You know you touch.
Every piece of wood that comesthrough is made into a bed for a
child.
Not a lot of opportunities andevents.
You can have that sense ofbuilding.
(30:38):
Hey, we're playing with powertools who doesn't love that?
But you know exactly what thispiece of wood's going to.
You know what it's going to betransformed into, which is a bed
for a child.
And the list of benefits andimpacts of a child having a bed
are endless, are endless.
These kids have a safe place tosleep.
They get a good night's sleep,which means better grades,
(31:01):
better moods, better learningabilities.
They can have sleepovers forcrying out loud, I mean, these
kids can't.
They're embarrassed by theirrooms.
They're embarrassed by havingfriends over.
So they don't.
And now they can.
Daniela SM (31:16):
You come with a truck and you have the wood to
these companies and then theybuild the beds.
Luke Michelson (31:21):
That's correct.
So on a build day the processis we connect with a local
business or a foundation orwhatnot, and it kind of varies a
little bit across the countrybecause wood is a different
price.
It's a little more expensive inother areas, but we average
about $300 for every bed thatthat organization wants to build
(31:42):
.
And keep in mind a bed iseverything Wood materials,
screws, mattresses, which arereally expensive sheets.
I mean, when we deliver a bed,the kid can sleep in it right
then, and they often do by theway.
And so when we approach anorganization that wants to do a
bed, the kid can sleep in itright then, and they often do by
the way.
And so when we approach anorganization that wants to do a
bed build, usually the firstquestion is okay, what's your
(32:03):
budget?
$6,000 will build 20 beds,that's 20 kids Amazing.
Okay, what time?
Where would you like to do itand how many volunteers?
If they have 200 volunteers, a20-bed build is going to be
finished before they even set up.
I mean, it'll go pretty quick.
We can build these beds prettyfast.
So there's a little bit ofdiscussion with the local
(32:24):
chapter president on exactlywhat they want to accomplish and
some companies will combinewith other companies and do like
a 100-bed build, and those aresuper fun when you have 150, 200
people and they're all busyworking and that's some of the
beauty of it too, is a lot ofthese, I should say, employees
(32:46):
that are now volunteers.
These employees, some of them,have never met each other or
just passed each other in abreak room, and now they're
actually passing wood back andforth, one's relying on the
other while one's marking thewood, the other one's forth,
one's relying on the other.
While one's one's marking thewood, the other one's waiting to
drill it out, while the otherone's waiting to sand it, while
the other one's waiting to putthe headboards together, while
the other one's waiting to dipit into the solution, you know,
(33:06):
the staining solution.
I mean it's really fun, it'sreally a team building exercise
and at the end of the day theycould a bunk of wood and four
hours later there's 40 bedsready for 40 kids to be
delivered to in the next coupleof months.
Daniela SM (33:26):
And the mattress and the pillows and the covers.
Where do you get that?
Luke Michelson (33:30):
The bedding and materials oftentimes are some of
the easiest things to getdonated.
I mean you can walk throughWalmart and buy a pillow for $3,
and that's actually super fun.
If you're ever a volunteer youwant to donate to your local
chapter, go to Walmart and buythem out of their standard
pillows.
(33:50):
You know there's nothing coolerthan walking up to the register
with like five carts of pillows.
You know it might cost you, youknow 150 bucks or so, but
everybody turns their eye andlook and asks you know what are
you doing?
So it's super fun.
Or the $300 that we take moneyout of that $300 to go and
(34:11):
support whatever's left tosupport purchasing materials for
bedding and things like that.
Daniela SM (34:17):
But the mattresses are more expensive than $300.
Luke Michelson (34:20):
Oh yeah, they're terribly expensive and it's
gotten worse.
And when we started in 2012, Imean, I think we could buy a
mattress for like 40 bucks.
You know, now it's some, insome places, triple.
That aside, we work very hardin trying to find ways to reduce
those costs for for all of ourchapters, you know, and we've,
we've done a good job with that.
You know, we, we, we work withlocal companies, we work with
(34:42):
companies across the seas to getthese mattresses down, and, and
the beauty of it, now, becausewe're so big, you know, we order
10,000 mattresses at a timeinstead of a hundred, you know,
and so we get big price pointsbreaks there and we order them
by ship shipping container now,and, and so all these things
have just slowly grown over thelast six or seven years, which
(35:03):
has just been able to supportour chapters.
And that's what we want to dois support our chapters with the
cheapest materials, inexpensivematerials, as much as we can,
the simplest way we can get them, how we can market to them, how
can we provide materials tohelp them raise money in their
own hometown, help them gathervolunteers?
And here's the beauty of it too.
(35:25):
I'm a farm kid from Idaho.
Danielle, I don't know how torun a nonprofit I was a salesman
but when you have such apassion for it, we figure it out
and that's what we've done.
And now, the way that wefinance people working for Sleep
and Heavenly Peace, providingall these materials and stuff,
you know, back in the day whenthere was only, you know, three
(35:47):
or four chapters, it was easy.
But now when you got 400, it'sfull-time job, right.
The way we finance this isevery donation that's made to
Sleep and Emily Peace 10%,that's it.
10% goes to that management fee.
You know, we're still a company, we still have overhead, right,
and I think everybodyunderstands that.
I think the national average is32%.
(36:09):
I mean, there's some companiesthat are way higher than that.
10%, that's it.
Daniela SM (36:12):
Why not buying the beds?
Wouldn't that be cheaper, like,for example, buying them from
Ikea?
Luke Michelson (36:17):
It might be cheaper.
Maybe cheaper In a way, itwouldn't be that much cheaper,
and cheaper In a way it wouldn'tbe that much cheaper.
And the quality of the bed isnot as great.
I mean, yeah, we could go buythese metal beds for I don't
know, 50, 60 bucks, but then yougot to put a mattress and
sheets and all that and then yougot to deliver it.
So now you're already knockingon the door plus 200, if not
more, and that's reallyimportant to understand.
(36:39):
It's about bringing peopletogether.
It solves two major problemsPeople need to feel fulfilled,
they need to feel a part ofsomething and that they made a
difference.
You know, just assembling a bed, yeah, you can get a little bit
of that, but when you know youmade the cut and you made the
drill and you put that screw inthere, that never been there
(37:00):
before.
I also consult nonprofits, andthis is a concept that a lot of
nonprofits just have a hard timewrapping their mind around is.
It's not necessarily alwaysabout the cheapest, it's about
the experience.
That's what generates moredonations, that what generates
power behind the mission, whichallows them to flourish.
(37:20):
I do a lot of public speaking.
I built kind of my story aroundwhat I call the TBF framework,
which is the two by fourframework kind of a little play
on words there, but stands fortransform, build and flourish
and it teaches people, thosethat want to transform.
How do you transform yourselfinto something that you want to
flourish?
(37:40):
Right, whether it's I want tobe a better dad, or I want to be
a better employee or anemployer right, I want to be
more successful in myrelationship with my wife or my
kids.
You know anything?
There's a simple process andwe've heard it said a million
ways.
Daniela SM (37:56):
From the first bed that you made until now, what
have evolved?
Luke Michelson (38:01):
That's a great question.
I tell everybody the process ofmaking the beds has undergone a
lot of changes.
That's when I know that, if youcan imagine, never built a bed
before, never built a piece offurniture before.
I mean, I wasn't a stranger totools, I knew how to build stuff
.
I mean we were on hands andknees.
Knee pads were like the mostimportant tool we had, because
(38:22):
you're on your hands and kneesand you're squaring up wood and
trying to get it.
You know level and true, andthen you're screwing things in
and there's a lot of times thebeds I mean they didn't.
We didn't have jigs at the time, when we've never done that
before, and so you know they'reone like the bottom right.
Uh, side rail couldn't be onthe top left, it had to be the
bottom right, right.
You know just because how wedrilled them out and now the
(38:43):
pieces are all uniform, and sothe process of building these
have evolved over time, and youunderstand when you build them
one time a year, because we justbuilt at Christmas time the
first couple of years, right,and so you didn't do it enough
to learn.
But I'll tell you what, themore we did it, I mean I
remember there'd be I'd wake upin the middle of the night,
(39:03):
three o'clock in the morning,and a lot of chapter presidents
will tell you this.
Three o'clock in the morningyou wake up and you're like
looking at the ceiling going.
You know what, if I did this,that would be a little bit
quicker.
That'd be we stain the beds andI used to use wood stain.
(39:25):
Well, number one wood stain.
A five-gallon bucket is like$150.
It takes three weeks to dry.
I mean, it's just a pain, right, and you have to spray it.
There's got to be a simpler way.
Well, a friend of mine said hey, take a look at Pinterest, and
on Pinterest there was thissolution of vinegar and steel
wool.
I mean, it cost $10 to providethe same amount of solution.
(39:50):
And then we dipped them in likea little tote, if you will.
So the process of staining was100 times faster, less messy and
they dried in 20 minutes, Imean.
So it's just these things, aswe did more often, just evolved,
say, the first bed after mykids, right?
So it'd be the third bunk bedwe built.
I remember me and my buddy hewas a local guy that helped me
(40:14):
we built it in like two hours.
Now, that's not sanding orstaining, that was just cutting
and assembling into the bunk bedand we were ecstatic Two hours,
oh my gosh, that's great.
Well, most bed builds in twohours you're going to build 20.
And we have some really, reallylarge builds.
We did a build this year withLowe's, close to the corporate
(40:35):
office.
We did 5,000 beds in 24 hours.
It's a bed every 12.6 seconds,wow.
Granted, we had a lot of toolsbut, yeah, the process has
evolved, even the delivery ofthe beds right.
The very first year we wouldonly deliver bunk beds, because
as we delivered these bunk bedswe realized A a lot of these
(40:59):
kids lived in kind of tightquarters right, you know,
they're little small rooms.
We had such a large list ofkids but we only had 10 bunk
beds, right.
So it's like there's 50 kidsout there but there's 10 bunk
beds, and so we would onlydeliver a bunk bed.
Now, most of our deliveries,probably 75% of our deliveries,
(41:19):
are all single the single bed.
So that's kind of evolved too.
And we also dropped the bed byan inch, each bed by an inch and
a half, rather, um, based on,you know, the size of sticks of
woods that we use.
We'd have less waste and thingsof that nature.
So there's been a lot ofdifferent things that have
changed.
Daniela SM (41:37):
Yeah, Interesting.
That's always interesting tosee how you have a picture you
should have in the office.
You probably have the pictureof the first bed versus how it
is and how long it takes.
Luke Michelson (41:46):
Well, really honestly, the bed, the way it
looks, other than it look youcouldn't really tell in a
picture.
It's three inches shorter, butthe bed design is exactly the
same.
We've just learned how toperfect and I would say it's not
the most efficient um way ofbuilding these bits, and we do
(42:07):
that on purpose, you know.
So you'll have.
we get engineers that come inand help out during a build and
they come up afterwards and theyhave all sorts of great ideas
of oh you know you should dothis and you should do that and
this would make this faster andyou can eliminate a lot of this
and that and uh.
And we kind of smile and say,oh yeah, no, you're exactly
right.
But we don't do that because itwould eliminate a volunteer.
We want more people, we wantmore jobs for people to come in
(42:30):
and feel a part of it and so,yeah, we could make these beds a
little more streamlined, alittle more faster, but really
we're more concerned aboutsturdiness and the security of
the bed, Of course, the cost ofit, but really making sure we
don't want to eliminate anyvolunteer opportunities, and so
we build them pretty fast, butyou could probably do it faster,
but we love our process.
Daniela SM (42:50):
Yes, so is it over in that town, kids not having
beds?
Luke Michelson (42:55):
You would think right, we've been here for what
is it?
13 years now.
We still get an applicationabout every three days.
People move and they take theirbeds with them.
People move in.
The population grows almostfaster than what we can handle,
and I live in a small town.
I mean we serve maybe now apopulation of maybe 100,000, 80
(43:16):
to 100,000 people.
But there are, I mean, ourchapters in Phoenix, our chapter
in Houston.
We have two or three chaptersreally close to Phoenix.
Just one of those chaptersbuilds 2,000 beds a year and
they have waiting lists of 5,000kids.
This is the problem.
This is what people don'trealize.
When I started this and I wastelling people I was building
(43:38):
beds for kids, I got twoquestions or two reactions.
The first one was well, I mean,there's not that many.
And and I tell people, look, Iunderstand why you say that
Cause I would have said the samething.
But I'm telling you there isfar more.
It is across the street and youdon't even know it, I promise
you.
And the second one is, as well,not in my town.
I live in a pretty rich townand I'm like hey, I live in
(44:02):
what's called the magic valleyof Idaho A lot of farm process,
a lot of milk processing, notexactly a poor community, and I
still I was getting anapplication every day.
Child bedlessness does not knoweconomics, it doesn't know
geography, all it knows ishardship, all it knows is just
rough situations for some ofthese families.
(44:22):
And that's what you find,Daniela, is these kids are in
these situations not because oftheir choices you know, and
that's unfortunate, it'sheartbreaking and sometimes not
even the choices of the parents.
It's just a bad situation, afire, or you know someone lose
their job or whatnot.
It's just, it's a roughsituation.
(44:45):
And if we can come in andprovide just a speck of relief
worth your time, if you know achild that does not have a bed
and is age three to 17, go toshpbedsorg, shpbedsorg and fill
out an application form.
Now we're trying to reach asmany pockets of the United
(45:07):
States as we can.
We cover quite a bit and if youfeel empowered or inspired or
if this is something that tearsat your heartstrings, you can be
involved.
Find a local chapter.
You can go to shpbedsorg andsee where the closest chapter is
to you, contact them, say, hey,I want to help, they would love
it.
And if there's not a chapterclose to you.
(45:29):
You can start one.
This is something you want todo.
You can go as fast or as slowas you want, but you can make a
difference in your hometown.
Daniela SM (45:39):
And what is the other countries?
You said there are fourcountries.
Luke Michelson (45:42):
So we're in United States, obviously Canada,
bermuda and Bahamas.
Daniela SM (45:45):
Oh wow, that's interesting that you're going to
do that.
Luke Michelson (45:49):
Yeah, we got all the vacation spots.
I don't know.
No, actually Bahamas wascreated because of the tsunami
that hit them.
Oh, I want to say three yearsago or so.
Bermuda a little bit as well.
We get requests all over theworld.
I've been requested in Germany,London, Australia, obviously,
(46:11):
Mexico.
You know what my dream, mydream in 10 years, when all my
kids are gone?
You know, I would love to goout there and get them going.
But we're getting to a pointwhere we're a lot more stable,
we have a lot more support andservices for our chapters that
we then can now invest some timeand energy in other areas.
Daniela SM (46:27):
And how do you find in your municipality where there
is a need?
How do you know?
Luke Michelson (46:32):
So that's probably one of the hardest
things is raising awareness,because there's not a lot of
awareness finding these kids.
It's difficult because it'ssuch an unknown problem.
A good example one of mychapter presidents in Minnesota.
He'd been doing it for a yearand someone in his own
congregation in church came upto him later and said hey, you
(46:53):
know what.
I just want to let you know, mykid hasn't had a bed for a year
.
Daniela SM (46:58):
And he was like astonished.
Luke Michelson (46:59):
He's like why didn't you tell me it really is
that bad, and so that's whywe're relying on you and your
listeners.
The biggest thing I ask reachout, share that child
bedlessness.
A is a problem and B there is away to solve it.
There's help that is availableand there's a process that you
(47:20):
can be involved with in helpingthe kids in your own hometown.
Daniela SM (47:25):
Okay, great, and so now I know that you took a
different role the last time wespoke.
Luke Michelson (47:30):
Many, many years I was the executive director
but as we got bigger and biggerI started doing a lot more of
these podcasts and speakingevents and doing a lot of PR
work kind of be in the face ofsleeping on the peace because
I'm the founder.
It was pulling me away from alot of my managerial duties of
trying to reach out and see waysthat we can help, and my buddy
(47:52):
that went with me, jordan Allen.
He's now the executive directorand doing a fabulous job and I
get to do what I do.
I think best is sharing mystory and raising awareness and
trying to inspire more people.
Daniela SM (48:04):
Excellent, really appreciate the story.
It's amazing and inspiring.
I really want to go and make abed now.
Luke Michelson (48:10):
Yes, you'd be great at it.
Daniela SM (48:12):
Yes, and the community part is true.
You're touching two things, sothat's really important.
Kudos to you for this midlifecrisis, that you had it worked
out really well.
Luke Michelson (48:23):
I think, so I'm so grateful for the bad
decisions and the good decisionsI've made, because I wouldn't
want to change where I'm atright now for the world and
people out there that arestruggling in these crisis modes
.
We all have these tiny momentsin life that just thoughts that
pop in our heads and ideas thatwe come up with, and I mean, how
many times do we excuse themaway?
(48:45):
You know too busy, or I can'tdo that, and you put yourself
down, or you just don't feellike you can do it.
You can't, you can't.
All you have to do is get offthe couch and all you have to do
is try.
And who cares if you fail?
You learn something and youjust never know.
You something and you justnever know.
You never know.
(49:05):
You go out in the garage andyou grab a piece of wood.
13 years later, you've helped300,000 kids and over 600,000
volunteers that have been a partof kids in their own community
came from you, going out in thegarage and grabbing a piece of
wood.
Daniela SM (49:18):
Yes, yes, wonderful.
It would be great one day youget a volunteer.
That was actually one of thekids that you gave them a bed.
Luke Michelson (49:24):
Already happened .
You know one of the coolstories, and I don't, man, I'm
talking a lot.
I'm sorry, dan Yelovit, I'msitting in the dentist office
and nobody likes to sit in thedentist office waiting to go to
see the dentist.
I mean, I just churned into myseat and this mom and little kid
came in and sat down and I hadmy SHP hat on, like I normally
do and and I, you know, kind ofkept looking over and the lady
(49:51):
was kind of giving me two looksand and finally she caught my
eye and she says hey, I justwant to tell you.
You brought my kid a bed lastyear, Thank you, and I just lost
it.
I mean, those are theexperiences that you won't get
until you get off the couch.
They change your life, theychange your.
I mean, I was a hardbusinessman, sports guy, and now
(50:13):
I'm crying in front of Daniela.
I mean it's softy.
I tell you what.
It's.
Just life-changing and it canhappen to anybody.
Just life-changing and it canhappen to anybody.
Daniela SM (50:23):
So thank you so much , luke, for your time, for your
stories, for being so vulnerable, and I really appreciate it.
It's really amazing.
Luke Michelson (50:33):
And thank you for what you're doing.
Daniela SM (50:34):
Thank you for having me.
I hope you enjoy Luke's story Abeautiful reminder that when
compassion meets action, lifecan truly be transformed, and
that community is essential atevery level.
Spread the word and share thisepisode, allowing the ordinary
magic to go further.
Join me next time for anotherstory conversation.
(50:55):
Thank you for listening.
Hasta pronto.
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