On Saturday, September 18th, 2021, over 50 Velentium staff, family, and friends gathered in the office parking lot in Katy, TX, to build and deliver bunk beds to children who don’t have a place to sleep. Together, we built 40 beds and delivered 31 that day (the remaining nine will be delivered over the next few weeks).
We hosted our first Bed Build in 2020 after being made aware of this need through our partner organization for the event, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, whose straightforward motto says it best: “No one sleeps on the floor in our town.” SHP is a group of volunteers dedicated to building, assembling and delivering top-notch bunk beds to children and families in need. They believe, and we agree, that all children deserve a safe, comfortable place to lay their heads. Across the U.S., too many boys and girls go without a bed - or even a pillow - to sleep on. These children end up sleeping on couches, blankets, and even floors. This can affect their happiness and health in a drastic way. A bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support that a child requires.
Those who participated in the delivery of the beds were particularly touched by the response from the recipients of the beds. Tim Carroll, Velentium’s COO, shared a story from the 2020 build when one young boy showed Tim his toys, which were magazine picture cut-outs of cars and trucks and gave one to Tim, who keeps it in his office as a reminder of why we do what we do.
He says, “At Velentium, changing lives for a better world is our passion, and we do that every day by solving complex technical challenges in support of bringing innovative devices to market with our customers to alleviate suffering and improve the quality of people’s lives. The Bed Build is a wonderful experience that brings together the Velentium team outside of the innovative solutions we spend so much time solving, and reminds us that getting our hands dirty and building something together can be so fulfilling, and can change lives for a better world for needy children, literally overnight.”
We encourage everyone reading this to check out Sleep in Heavenly Peace and consider getting their own organization or family involved. The problem exists in neighborhoods nationwide, but thanks to organizations like SHP, so does the solution.
