Sleep in Heavenly Peace Beds for kids - Luke Michelson - 164

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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• CNN Heroes
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• The NBC TODAY Show
• Hallmark Home and Family Show
• Strahan, Sara and Keke –GMA

Chapters

• 1:26 Discovering the Hidden Problem
• 6:53 Building the First Beds
• 13:16 From Family Project to Nonprofit
• 18:40 Community Involvement and Impact
• 28:58 Global Expansion and Future Goals
• 43:51 The Ongoing Mission and Hope

Transcript

Daniela SM: 0:01

Hi, I'm Daniela and welcome to, because Everyone has a Story. This is the place where ordinary people's stories get a chance to be shared and remembered, or stories become the language of connections. Let's enjoy it, connect and relate, because everyone has a story. My guest is Luke Michelson, someone whose heart is truly as big as his mission. Luke is the kind of person who turns compassion into action. What started as simple act of kindness building one bed for a child in need has grown into a movement that now reaches across four countries. Luke couldn't ignore when he saw kids sleeping on floors. You can truly feel his passion, humility and profound love for helping others in this conversation, as well as in everything he does. It is inspiring to see how much he cares about making a difference. This is the story of a man who never set out to start a non-profit. He just saw a problem and stepped up. His story is powerful and a reminder that one person really can make a difference. Let's enjoy Luke's story. Welcome, luke. Thank you so much for being in the program.

Luke Michelson: 1:18

Well, thank you for having me, Daniela.

Daniela SM: 1:20

I'm super excited that you're here. I know you have an amazing story, so tell me why you want to share your story.

Luke Michelson: 1:26

Yeah, I want to share my story because I think it's extremely important for people to know, like I didn't know, the cause of child bedlessness and the fact that child bedlessness, even though it's not a real word, it's a real problem that exists in our country, really all over the world. It was a problem when I first discovered it that really no one was doing anything about, just small pockets here and there across the country, but it's such a problem and such a hidden problem that I think it's so important that we let people know because of the implications, or at least the impacts, that a child that doesn't have a good night's sleep, a comfortable sleep, and other major reasons and effects that happen from not having a simple item like a bed, is important. If people know about it and hear about it and realize that this is happening in their own hometown, I think they'll feel inspired, like I did, to jump in and help.

Daniela SM: 2:22

Yes, that's fascinating, and you're right. I remember doing some charity work, working for a nonprofit, and I had to teach kids on table manners, for example, and then I realized that these kids didn't have tables to have dinner together. You take that for granted when you have it and you're like assume, well, everybody has a table, and one kid says, oh no, my dad had to bring his motorcycle inside the house so we had to remove the table. They didn't have dinner together, which is always important, and so the same, as you said, sleeping is so important.

Luke Michelson: 2:56

Right, well, and you realize like there's things in life that we take for granted, but one of those things like a simple thing, like a bed, should not be a luxury for a child. Unfortunately, in our day and time, in our country, it is a luxury for some of these kids and it shouldn't be that way. So, luke, when does your story start? So I started back in 2012. A little bit of background. I'm just a farm kid from Idaho little small town, actually small Kimberly. Idaho is the original town I lived and it was a town of about 4,000 people, so it wasn't much. And the benefits and pros and cons of living in a small town is you know everybody and then everybody knows you too, right, but the beauty of that is you have this sense of community when you're in such a small community and I know that stemmed, or my passion for helping people and being involved more in the community came from being in such a small town and knowing everybody's business. Like I said, good and bad, but the benefit is you're able to inspire and bring people together because they're like-minded.

Luke Michelson: 4:01

Right when I was serving in my church service, it was a position called the young men's president and the young men's president, basically kind of like a youth pastor. I was over the physical activities of the boys ages 12 to 18, as well as the spiritual growth, and that activity that we do every week was basically Boy Scouts. So I was kind of the leader of the leader of the Boy Scouts. When we were sitting as the leader of the leaders, I'd sit in these meetings and I'd hear about things that the local church was helping other people out with, and the congregation as well as the community, and one of those things was we were helping this family with rent and things of that nature. The mom was like the local school bus driver and the dad had suffered some mental issues, had a hard time holding down a job, and so you can imagine they lived in a part of the town and it was a small town that I didn't even know existed that's how remote and secluded this little apartment complex was and so they were talking about how they were helping this family. Well, they mentioned how these kids didn't have any beds. Uh, you know, just I was like, wait a minute, like what do you mean? Don't have any beds? They don't like literally don't have a mattress, and they're like no, they just sleep on the floor. And I don't know, you know, danielle, that hit me so hard that, um, you know, I had, you know, I got kids of my own right and to think about kids sleeping on the floor, and I've slept on the floor before just one night, and it was terrible, you know, and I just thought, oh my gosh, really Well, two things we got to stop that. And the other thing was what a great opportunity this is going to be, that I can take an Xbox controller out of these Boy Scouts' hands, put a drill and a sander in it. We're going to teach him how to, how to do something Right, cause we're always trying to find activities that didn't involve either sports or didn't involve a screen, and that's that's hard to do nowadays with these kids. And, and this was just a great opportunity, so boom, we, we.

Luke Michelson: 5:58

I went home that night and started measuring my my daughter had a little bunk bed and started measuring it and kind of came up with a plan.

Luke Michelson: 6:04

And then I had the boys come over every night for that week as we built this bunk bed for this family, and I was worried that the kids wouldn't be that excited, but I was shocked gratefully shocked, if you will, that they were so excited to help build this bed for these kids, and so we did that. We had a lot of fun and when it came time to deliver it I had to stay back in my garage because that's where we built it and my garage was just a mess. I mean sawdust everywhere and wood and all that. But the kids and their parents and leaders went and delivered this bed and they had such a great experience. They came back at church the next day and told me all about it and I felt I was totally happy and totally sad at the same time, because I wanted to see that, I wanted to be a part of this great opportunity. But I enjoyed myself during the build and I was grateful that we solved this problem for this family.

Daniela SM: 7:02

So you built it, but you didn't bring it all together. So you built it, broke it down again and brought it there, or how did you do it?

Luke Michelson: 7:10

Correct. So we built pieces of the bed. It was a bunk bed, so basically the bottom and the top they're identical ones, just flipped over. These are 12 year old kids, right? So I've never built a piece of furniture in my life at the time, and so I had to make it easy for them, as well as myself, and we put this format together of how we can build this bed in pieces and then we take it into the home and assemble it into the home. And when we took the bed in it was a whole thing mattress, sheets, pillows, pillowcases, the whole nine yards. I didn't get a chance to do that, but I heard the stories of the kids and the parents and their reaction and I was really grateful that we were able to provide that. But then I came home right and sitting at home a day or two later and sitting on the couch it was about Christmas time and my kids were talking about the presents that they knew I wasn't going to buy them. You know they're crying about wanting another Xbox or whatever. And here I was, sitting there, going. I built and delivered a bed to a family whose kids were sleeping on the floor and you guys want another Xbox.

Luke Michelson: 8:11

You know, it just kind of hit me really weird and in my personal life, you know, I was kind of going through a little bit of a faith crisis, a little bit of identity crisis. Who am I? I know I want to do more for this world. I think we all kind of go through that periods of time. Right, we want to make a difference, we just don't know how. And I know we made a difference in this family's life and I wanted that for my family Selfishly. I wanted it for me as well.

Luke Michelson: 8:37

And that night, when my kids talked about the presence that they wanted, and it just hit me I said you know what I could talk to my kids? I can show them videos and tell them stories about you know helping others and appreciate the things they have. Or you know what I can just teach them, just like I did the boy Scouts. And so I jumped up off the couch and walked out in the garage and everybody's like dad, where are you going? And I said you know what I got leftover wood. I'm going to build another bunk bed and gosh dang it. You're going to come help me.

Luke Michelson: 9:09

So you can imagine it's, it's Idaho, it's winter time, it's not exactly warm out in my garage, um, but we had, you know, danielle, we had the greatest time, just like with the boy Scouts. You know, my, my little six-year-old daughter was out there in her tutu drilling holes with a drill and my son was screwing screws in and hammering things away. I mean, we just had a great time, right and um, it wasn't a fast process but uh, but it was. It was fun with the family, and so, you know, that was kind of goal.

Luke Michelson: 9:36

Number one was I wanted my kids to enjoy the feelings that come from serving others, because I always tell people look, if you want true joy in your life, my experience has been, look to see how you can help other people. Your problems they don't magically go away, but they just don't feel as heavy. And I wanted my kids to learn that process, to learn how to do that as well as I wanted them to appreciate the things that they have, like a luxury of a bed at this point, how to do that as well as I wanted them to appreciate the things that they have, like a luxury of a bed at this point. And so when we were done finishing the bed, I didn't know what to do with it. I mean, goal number one was achieved.

Luke Michelson: 10:15

Now I was like, okay, I don't know another family, I don't know, child bedlessness is a real problem. And so it was recommended to me to throw it on Facebook. And I don't know, you throw something free on Facebook, one of those market places buy, sell, trade groups and you're hearing the stories of some of these kids and the conditions that the family is in, as well as the conditions that kids are sleeping on. One of them was really shocking. It was eight people in this family six kids, two parents. They were living in a van, living in a van, and the dad just got a job, they just got this house and they, of course, didn't have any beds for these six kids, and I just thought, oh my gosh, really, wow, child bedlessness is a problem.

Luke Michelson: 11:14

And so a friend of mine sent me an email and said hey, listen, I know of this family. They've been homeless their whole life. Their daughter I call her Haley, she's six years old and been sleeping in the backseat of her mom's car since she's been born. And so it just hit me and I thought you know what? This is exactly the situation that I A want to help out with. I wanted to help a child out. I wanted to help a child out and I wanted my kids to understand and see and hear and feel the impact that their service can make for someone else, especially their age. And so, yeah, I said this is the 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 worker that actually helped them get their first house right. It was a government assisted house and when we walked into the house you can imagine I mean, I'd seen the homelessness before. But to see it through the eyes of a child because that's what we were there for is just the child or at least that's what we thought right Is I'm just delivering a bed to a child that can get a good night's sleep. That's the thought process. And so we walked into this home and my gosh, I mean it was. There was nothing in the house. There was no couch, there was no table, there was a milk crate you know carton crate that had a hot plate on it with a can of soup, and that was the only thing in the house. It just, it just kind of shocked me.

Luke Michelson: 12:44

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 new room. She had this room right, not a car, she had a room. And so she took us back to her room and when you walked into a room, if I can picture it for you, there's tears in the carpet and holes in the wall and the closet doesn't have a door on it. You know there's used toys in there, you can imagine, right. But what I did not expect was in the corner was a pile of clothes, and that's what Haley slept 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 school clothes. It just was almost overwhelming to see that. So you're both really sad, sick inside for her, but you're also excited because you're bringing her her first bed ever, six years old.

Luke Michelson: 13:36

And so we start bringing in this bed and you know, at first she was kind of a little because it's just pieces of wood, right. And then all of a sudden she realizes what it is and she just erupts, right, just just cheers and smiles and comes up and hugs us, hugs the bed, starts to kiss the bed. I mean you ever seen a child kiss a bed before? Cause I hadn't. I mean it was just a beautiful, right, um, and my heart was just feeling this, this hole that I had in my heart, this, this crisis I was going through, was gone instantly, just just my I was the Grinch that had his heart swell three times that day. And and then I look up at the mom and this is probably the biggest thing.

Luke Michelson: 14:16

I did not expect this single mom and I was raised by a single mom too Six years of tears just pouring down this lady's face, right, a young lady trying to take care of her family, trying to provide. You know, she had a couple of jobs, I think, and just was really trying to work and just couldn'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 could see it in every tear that dropped off her cheek. I mean it just. And it was so overwhelming for me and my buddy.

Luke Michelson: 14:50

You know, on the way home we had about a half hour drive home. We really didn't say much to each other. I don't remember even talking much, but I do remember thinking. You know I spent a couple of hours, a couple of days this week with my kids and we built a bunk bed to solve that problem. That's well worth my time.

Luke Michelson: 15:11

I'm from Idaho, so I love to hunt and fish and sports and college football on Saturdays and all this stuff, just like that. It didn't matter. None of it mattered anymore when I knew that some effort, just a little bit of effort, a fun effort too, can go to help solve a problem like that. And when we got home I looked at my buddy and he felt the same 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 the floor 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 the floor in my town. And so we just started building beds that year and how many people are in your town?

Luke Michelson: 15:51

So at that time it's a small town next to a larger town but combined was only about 40,000 gathered. 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 and had no clue that child bedlessness was such a big deal. We started building beds and that first Christmas season we wanted to build as many bunk beds as we could before Santa showed up and delivered them right. And so we built 11 bunk beds well, 10 and a half. We built 21 beds altogether that first season and delivered them all before Santa showed up.

Luke Michelson: 16:30

And you know, oh my gosh, the stories that came from that. We delivered beds to the family that had the kids sleeping in the van. You know we delivered beds Christmas Eve to a family, the van. You know we. We delivered beds Christmas Eve to a family. The mom looked at me with tears in her eyes and said I hope you realize this is the only present that the kids are going to get this year, cause we can't afford anything else.

Luke Michelson: 16:52

You know it, just I was it, just it was opened my eyes to a world that I didn't know existed and I'd lived in that world, for you know, 35 years and um, and that's why it's so important that I want to share this story and share my story, cause it's again.

Luke Michelson: 17:09

It's not about one dude from Idaho, it's about this epidemic that's that is in existence today in your audiences, hometown right now, of children sleeping on the floor. There's no real statistics right now about this problem other than what Sleep in Heavenly Peace has kind of put together just because of you know this is what we do now and we know it's greater than 3% of the total population of your town. If you live in a town of 100,000 people, there are 3,000 kids that don't have beds. They're sleeping on couches, on crates, on air matches that we all know deflate. You know they're sleeping on couches, on crates, on air matches that we all know deflate. They're sleeping with mom and dad or three or four other brothers and sisters trying to get a good night's sleep, which is just going to not be possible, and that shouldn't be that way, right? So that is what started Sleep and Heavenly Peace.

Daniela SM: 17:59

Yeah, that's beautiful. And I have a question though. So your second bed was with your buddy, but then why building the bed versus buying the bed?

Luke Michelson: 18:08

It's a great question. You know, we built the bed initially with the Boy Scouts because, you know, we wanted to have a good experience with them. And then the second bed, second bunk bed, I built with my kids now because I wanted them to do it and it was just such a fun experience, you know, and as I posted, and my friend saw what I was doing, he lived about two hours away and he says, hey, let me come down, I'll help you. So he came down, we started building more and more beds. He helped build at least half of those beds that we built that Christmas season. And it's a great question.

Luke Michelson: 18:40

Thank you for asking, because we also found our second mission it's kind of a side mission and that is we live in a country, we live in a community of millions of people that want to help. They really do. I was no different. I want to help, I want to make a difference in the lives of people around me and people I don't even know Right, of people around me and people I don't even know Right and and ever. You know we there was millions of people out there that are like that and we, unfortunately, we live in this media world where you know it's doom and gloom and it's so polarized and people are left and right and up and down, you know. But but the the actual and the factual situation we live in is, we actually do live in a, in a community and a country where people want to help. They just don't know how. And so building beds for kids brought people together.

Luke Michelson: 19:33

That post and the more we posted about delivering beds to kids and building, I had people I'd never met, strangers, show up at my garage and I put them to work. I said, hey, yeah, great, sam, whoever you are, you know, here here's a brush. Why don't you start um staying in this bed and here's a sander for his wife. You can start sanding this. And there was, there was high school buddies that I hadn't seen for 20 years, where they're helping out. And and I'm just, I'm one of these guys that did. I love doing things together with a bunch of people. I'm a you know, I don't want to call me a party guy, that sounds like that's a bad connotation. No, I just love. I just love getting together and have fun with friends, and that's what we did we.

Luke Michelson: 20:14

We crank up Buck, but rock 80 songs and listen to Bon Jovi and sand and stain and and do all this stuff and and little did we know that this was actually solving a problem in our own community, which is bringing people together and bringing community together, and it's God directed or somehow something's directing it, because that was not the initial intent. But we found that and we understand, and I understand more now than ever. If you want a problem solved, you know we can't rely on someone else to solve it for us. You know we are surrounded by so many people in our own community that have strong hands and 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.

Luke Michelson: 21:05

And so when we realized how big child bedlessness really was not just in our own hometown, across the country, as friends that lived in other states saw what we were doing would call us up and say, hey, can you come and do that over here? And I said, better, yet, we'll come and we'll show you how to do it Right and and and we have this charity that we started now called sleep in heavenly peace and you can be a chapter of it. And so that's kind of how we started. You know, that's kind of how we started. You know, started in 2012.

Luke Michelson: 21:35

And by 2017, we had about five or six you know seven chapters that were in the various stages of running running their own chapter and doing their own builds and deliveries that we realized that we're starting to bring people from other areas and helping them bring their own communities together. And since then now we have over 400 chapters. We're in four countries and now we've built over 300,000 beds. Our goal this year is 90,000 beds, so we're really knocking out as many of these rough situations for these kids as we can. We're the largest bed building charity in the world Lots, because there's not very many charities that are doing it, but it's because we have so many great chapter presidents surrounded by so many great volunteers in their own communities that want to help out, 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 people get in beds.

Luke Michelson: 22:41

Correct. Yeah, we, we focus. Our mission statement now is no kids sleeps on the floor in our town. The reason why that's a fun mission statement not only is it, is it demanding and it it, it demands growth, it demands community focus, it demands all this stuff, but it's designed as a mission statement, which is odd for a company.

Luke Michelson: 23:02

Normally, mission statements are designed for a company to tell the public what they do, right. Ours is opposite. Ours is designed for the community, or the public, to tell everybody what they're going to do Not in our town, right, and we want our town to be everybody's town. And so no kid sleeps on the floor in our town is meant to be said by the volunteer. And so our main goal and our main mission is to provide beds for kids that don't have any ages 3 to 17, and provide that through the community they live in.

Luke Michelson: 23:40

And when you go in, daniela, when you go into these homes, if you can imagine and I tell people look, you can watch videos, you can listen to testimonials and see pictures, but until you walk into a room and there's a nine-year-old kid over here, or even a six-year-old kid who's hiding behind mom, because there's these strangers bringing in this wood and these blankets in his room and he's just scared or doesn't know what's going on.

Luke Michelson: 24:11

Well, that apprehension, once he realizes, oh, they're bringing in a bed, that apprehension turns to appreciation and then turns to outright joy. And until you see that and feel that in the room with the child you remember this kid's probably never slept on a bed and some of them have never slept on a pillow, if you can imagine they just sleep on their clothes. And so when you provide that to them and we all know the value of sleeping in a good bed, I mean these kids. I mean when you have a hard when I have a hard day at work, some of the greatest moments of the day is crawling into bed that night. And when you can bring that and knowing what that brings to them, oh man, I mean it's just joy 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, but who 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, a regular job.

Luke Michelson: 25:13

Oh, I had a full-time job, absolutely. You know, I was working for a local water treatment company here and we decided that year after our Haley experience that we're going to get toys for our kids, of course, but a majority of our Christmas fund is going to go to this. And luckily, you know, we went to the various DIY stores and we landed at Lowe's and everybody knows Lowe's, I hope they do. Lowe's made it all possible for us to do that many beds. I walked in, told the Lowe's store manager what we was doing and the guy kind of looked at me and he's like, really, is this a problem? I'm like absolutely. And he says 50% off anything you buy, I don't care, we'll take care of it. I just, it just blew me away.

Luke Michelson: 25:53

So we went from doing only you know, it was only going to be seven or eight or nine beds to the 21, because Lowe's jumped in and helped out. And that was another big turning point for me in my mind, going, oh, there's people out there that feel the same, you know, drive and passion and almost anger right To solve this problem for these kids locally. I mean, it was really. It was really motivating, and so so you know, after that first 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 a charity. We started it as a family Christmas project and the next year we're like, hey, let's do it again. Well, after the second year and this is how fast it went the second year Now we had companies, we had other people, other organizations, 4-h clubs and Boy Scouts 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 warehouse right, and so we brought mostly family but some public friends to do the second build, which we built 25 beds in one day which we were really proud of, and that was like kind of our first what we call our first build day, if you will. We found that these companies wanted to give us money, but we weren't a 501c3 at the time, and so we knew we needed to do and become a charity. And the funny thing was we're going to become a charity. You got to call it something, and I remember I looked at my wife and I said I got the perfect name beds for babes and she said no, that's not what it's going to be. It's a bad Google search, by the way. Um, no, it's not beds for babes. And and because it was Christmas time and you know we wanted to, we wanted who doesn't love silent night, right, sleep in heavenly peace just said exactly what we wanted these kids to feel and to experience was sleeping in peace and sleeping in joy, you know. And it brought that kind of Christmas feel too, and so we started the charity and then, when the charity was started, then it was obviously much easier.

Luke Michelson: 27:58

We started getting donations coming in from companies, which is another thing that we realized and really a majority of our funds come from this process, which is a company wants to give back to the community they live in At least they should. They're corporate social responsibility and the problem they have is a company might have 10 or 200 volunteers and sometimes they don't know how many will show up, nor is the activity that they're trying to look for. It might not even be a charity and it might not even be super fun. So these HR reps or these social community liaison type positions in these companies have a hard time trying to find a fun activity that's meaningful for their employees. Well, we hit the sweet spot there because we can take 10 or 200 people at the same event. We are completely mobile, so we can show up in their parking lot and it goes to a charity, so their donated dollars are tax deductible. So it was just a trifecta. And so all these companies now were like oh, it's a fun activity. Everybody that comes, almost every company that comes and builds with us. They want to do it next year and that was a good sign that, oh my gosh, it's not easy work. I mean, you're out sweating and we tell everybody the happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and the dustiest.

Luke Michelson: 29:20

You know, and I learned that lesson a long time ago, when I was helping this, this old man came in and and helped build build beds. Uh, with this and, and my gosh I it was four hours in and I realized I kind of forgot about him. I hope he's alive, you know, and he was over there covered in dust. You know cause I put them on the side and he and I went up to him and I'm like hey, are you okay? You know, thanks for coming. He's like, he's like Luke.

Luke Michelson: 29:44

Let me tell you something. I have volunteered my time, my whole life, in organizations all over. Never have I showed up to an event where someone put me on a job immediately and I didn't move. I was busy for four hours straight and I kind of looked at him and went oh sorry, he says no, he says thank you. He said thank you.

Luke Michelson: 30:07

And that's when I learned when volunteers want to donate their time, they want to feel like they made a difference. Right, we all do, and you're want to feel like they. They made a difference. Right, you know we all do, and you're going to feel like you made a difference, because it's not easy work and and you know the sweatiest and the dustiest are the happiest because you do. They do make a huge difference. You know you touch.

Luke Michelson: 30:28

Every piece of wood that comes through is made into a bed for a child. Not a lot of opportunities and events. You can have that sense of building. Hey, we're playing with power tools who doesn't love that? But you know exactly what this piece of wood's going to. You know what it's going to be transformed into, which is a bed for a child. And the list of benefits and impacts of a child having a bed are endless, are endless. These kids have a safe place to sleep. They get a good night's sleep, which means better grades, better moods, better learning abilities. They can have sleepovers for crying out loud, I mean, these kids can't. They're embarrassed by their rooms. They're embarrassed by having friends 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 they build the beds.

Luke Michelson: 31:21

That's correct. So on a build day the process is we connect with a local business or a foundation or whatnot, and it kind of varies a little bit across the country because wood is a different price. It's a little more expensive in other areas, but we average about $300 for every bed that that organization wants to build. And keep in mind a bed is everything Wood materials, screws, mattresses, which are really expensive sheets. I mean, when we deliver a bed, the kid can sleep in it right then, and they often do by the way. And so when we approach an organization that wants to do a bed, the kid can sleep in it right then, and they often do by the way. And so when we approach an organization that wants to do a bed build, usually the first question is okay, what's your budget? $6,000 will build 20 beds, that's 20 kids Amazing. Okay, what time? Where would you like to do it and how many volunteers? If they have 200 volunteers, a 20-bed build is going to be finished before they even set up. I mean, it'll go pretty quick. We can build these beds pretty fast.

Luke Michelson: 32:21

So there's a little bit of discussion with the local chapter president on exactly what they want to accomplish and some companies will combine with other companies and do like a 100-bed build, and those are super fun when you have 150, 200 people and they're all busy working and that's some of the beauty of it too, is a lot of these, I should say, employees that are now volunteers.

Luke Michelson: 32:46

These employees, some of them, have never met each other or just passed each other in a break room, and now they're actually passing wood back and forth, one's relying on the other while one's marking the wood, the other one's forth, one's relying on the other. While one's one's marking the wood, the other one's waiting to drill it out, while the other one's waiting to sand it, while the other one's waiting to put the headboards together, while the other one's waiting to dip it into the solution, you know, the staining solution. I mean it's really fun, it's really a team building exercise and at the end of the day they could a bunk of wood and four hours later there's 40 beds ready for 40 kids to be delivered to in the next couple of 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 get donated. I mean you can walk through Walmart and buy a pillow for $3, and that's actually super fun. If you're ever a volunteer you want to donate to your local chapter, go to Walmart and buy them out of their standard pillows. You know there's nothing cooler than walking up to the register with like five carts of pillows. You know it might cost you, you know 150 bucks or so, but everybody turns their eye and look and asks you know what are you doing? So it's super fun. Or the $300 that we take money out of that $300 to go and support whatever's left to support 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, I mean, I think we could buy a mattress for like 40 bucks. You know, now it's some, in some places, triple. That aside, we work very hard in trying to find ways to reduce those costs for for all of our chapters, you know, and we've, we've done a good job with that. You know, we, we, we work with local companies, we work with companies across the seas to get these mattresses down, and, and the beauty of it, now, because we're so big, you know, we order 10,000 mattresses at a time instead of a hundred, you know, and so we get big price points breaks there and we order them by ship shipping container now, and, and so all these things have just slowly grown over the last six or seven years, which has just been able to support our chapters. And that's what we want to do is support our chapters with the cheapest materials, inexpensive materials, as much as we can, the simplest way we can get them, how we can market to them, how can we provide materials to help them raise money in their own hometown, help them gather volunteers? And here's the beauty of it too.

Luke Michelson: 35:25

I'm a farm kid from Idaho. Danielle, I don't know how to run a nonprofit I was a salesman but when you have such a passion for it, we figure it out and that's what we've done. And now, the way that we finance people working for Sleep and Heavenly Peace, providing all these materials and stuff, you know, back in the day when there was only, you know, three or four chapters, it was easy. But now when you got 400, it's full-time job, right. The way we finance this is every 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 everybody understands that. I think the national average is 32%. I mean, there's some companies that 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, it wouldn't be that much cheaper, and cheaper In a way it wouldn't be that much cheaper. And the quality of the bed is not as great. I mean, yeah, we could go buy these metal beds for I don't know, 50, 60 bucks, but then you got to put a mattress and sheets and all that and then you got to deliver it. So now you're already knocking on the door plus 200, if not more, and that's really important to understand. It's about bringing people together. It solves two major problems People need to feel fulfilled, they need to feel a part of something 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 you made the cut and you made the drill and you put that screw in there, that never been there before.

Luke Michelson: 37:01

I also consult nonprofits, and this is a concept that a lot of nonprofits just have a hard time wrapping their mind around is. It's not necessarily always about the cheapest, it's about the experience. That's what generates more donations, that what generates power behind the mission, which allows them to flourish. I do a lot of public speaking. I built kind of my story around what I call the TBF framework, which is the two by four framework kind of a little play on words there, but stands for transform, build and flourish and it teaches people, those that want to transform. How do you transform yourself into something that you want to flourish? Right, whether it's I want to be a better dad, or I want to be a better employee or an employer right, I want to be more successful in my relationship with my wife or my kids. You know anything? There's a simple process and we'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 of making the beds has undergone a lot of changes.

Luke Michelson: 38:08

That's when I know that, if you can imagine, never built a bed before, never built a piece of furniture before. I mean, I wasn't a stranger to tools, I knew how to build stuff. I mean we were on hands and knees. Knee pads were like the most important tool we had, because you're on your hands and knees and you're squaring up wood and trying to get it. You know level and true, and then you're screwing things in and there's a lot of times the beds 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're one like the bottom right. Uh, side rail couldn't be on the top left, it had to be the bottom right, right. You know just because how we drilled them out and now the pieces are all uniform, and so the process of building these have evolved over time, and you understand when you build them one time a year, because we just built 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, the more we did it, I mean I remember there'd be I'd wake up in the middle of the night, three o'clock in the morning, and a lot of chapter presidents will tell you this. Three o'clock in the morning you 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 and I used to use wood stain. 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 this solution of vinegar and steel wool. I mean, it cost $10 to provide the same amount of solution. And then we dipped them in like a little tote, if you will. So the process of staining was 100 times faster, less messy and they dried in 20 minutes, I mean. So it's just these things, as we did more often, just evolved, say, the first bed after my kids, right? So it'd be the third bunk bed we built. I remember me and my buddy he was a local guy that helped me we built it in like two hours. Now, that's not sanding or staining, that was just cutting and assembling into the bunk bed and we were ecstatic Two hours, oh my gosh, that's great. Well, most bed builds in two hours you're going to build 20. And we have some really, really large builds. We did a build this year with Lowe's, close to the corporate office. We did 5,000 beds in 24 hours. It's a bed every 12.6 seconds, wow.

Luke Michelson: 40:43

Granted, we had a lot of tools but, yeah, the process has evolved, even the delivery of the beds right. The very first year we would only deliver bunk beds, because as we delivered these bunk beds we realized A a lot of these kids lived in kind of tight quarters right, you know, they're little small rooms. We had such a large list of kids but we only had 10 bunk beds, right. So it's like there's 50 kids out there but there's 10 bunk beds, and so we would only deliver a bunk bed. Now, most of our deliveries, probably 75% of our deliveries, are all single the single bed. So that's kind of evolved too. And we also dropped the bed by an 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 things of that nature. So there's been a lot of different things that have changed.

Daniela SM: 41:37

Yeah, Interesting. That's always interesting to see how you have a picture you should have in the office. You probably have the picture of 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 you couldn't really tell in a picture. It's three inches shorter, but the bed design is exactly the same. We've just learned how to perfect and I would say it's not the most efficient um way of building these bits, and we do that on purpose, you know. So you'll have.

Luke Michelson: 42:10

we get engineers that come in and help out during a build and they come up afterwards and they have all sorts of great ideas of oh you know you should do this and you should do that and this would make this faster and you 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 it would eliminate a volunteer. We want more people, we want more jobs for people to come in and feel a part of it and so, yeah, we could make these beds a little more streamlined, a little more faster, but really we're more concerned about sturdiness and the security of the bed, Of course, the cost of it, but really making sure we don't want to eliminate any volunteer opportunities, and so we build them pretty fast, but you 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 application about every three days. People move and they take their beds with them. People move in. The population grows almost faster than what we can handle, and I live in a small town. I mean we serve maybe now a population of maybe 100,000, 80 to 100,000 people. But there are, I mean, our chapters in Phoenix, our chapter in Houston. We have two or three chapters really close to Phoenix. Just one of those chapters builds 2,000 beds a year and they have waiting lists of 5,000 kids. This is the problem. This is what people don't realize.

Luke Michelson: 43:35

When I started this and I was telling people I was building beds for kids, I got two questions or two reactions. The first one was well, I mean, there's not that many. And and I tell people, look, I understand why you say that Cause I would have said the same thing. But I'm telling you there is far more. It is across the street and you don't even know it, I promise you. And the second one is, as well, not in my town. I live in a pretty rich town and I'm like hey, I live in what's called the magic valley of Idaho A lot of farm process, a lot of milk processing, not exactly a poor community, and I still I was getting an application every day.

Luke Michelson: 44:13

Child bedlessness does not know economics, it doesn't know geography, all it knows is hardship, all it knows is just rough situations for some of these families. And that's what you find, Daniela, is these kids are in these situations not because of their choices you know, and that's unfortunate, it's heartbreaking and sometimes not even the choices of the parents. It's just a bad situation, a fire, or you know someone lose their job or whatnot. It's just, it's a rough situation. And if we can come in and provide just a speck of relief worth your time, if you know a child that does not have a bed and is age three to 17, go to shpbedsorg, shpbedsorg and fill out an application form.

Luke Michelson: 45:04

Now we're trying to reach as many pockets of the United States as we can. We cover quite a bit and if you feel empowered or inspired or if this is something that tears at your heartstrings, you can be involved. Find a local chapter. You can go to shpbedsorg and see 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 chapter close to you. You can start one. This is something you want to do. You can go as fast or as slow as 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 four countries.

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 was created because of the tsunami that hit them. Oh, I want to say three years ago or so. Bermuda a little bit as well. We get requests all over the world. I've been requested in Germany, London, Australia, obviously, Mexico. You know what my dream, my dream in 10 years, when all my kids are gone? You know, I would love to go out there and get them going. But we're getting to a point where we're a lot more stable, we have a lot more support and services for our chapters that we then can now invest some time and 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's such an unknown problem. A good example one of my chapter presidents in Minnesota. He'd been doing it for a year and someone in his own congregation in church came up to him later and said hey, you know what. I just want to let you know, my kid 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 why we're relying on you and your listeners. The biggest thing I ask reach out, share that child bedlessness. A is a problem and B there is a way to solve it. There's help that is available and there's a process that you can be involved with in helping the 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 we spoke.

Luke Michelson: 47:30

Many, many years I was the executive director but as we got bigger and bigger I started doing a lot more of these podcasts and speaking events and doing a lot of PR work kind of be in the face of sleeping on the peace because I'm the founder. It was pulling me away from a lot of my managerial duties of trying to reach out and see ways that we can help, and my buddy that went with me, jordan Allen. He's now the executive director and doing a fabulous job and I get to do what I do. I think best is sharing my story 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 a bed 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, so that's really important. Kudos to you for this midlife crisis, 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 decisions I've made, because I wouldn't want to change where I'm at right now for the world and people out there that are struggling in these crisis modes. We all have these tiny moments in life that just thoughts that pop in our heads and ideas that we come up with, and I mean, how many times do we excuse them away? You know too busy, or I can't do that, and you put yourself down, or you just don't feel like you can do it. You can't, you can't. All you have to do is get off the couch and all you have to do is try. And who cares if you fail? You learn something and you just never know. You something and you just never know. You never know. You go out in the garage and you grab a piece of wood. 13 years later, you've helped 300,000 kids and over 600,000 volunteers that have been a part of kids in their own community came from you, going out in the garage and grabbing a piece of wood.

Daniela SM: 49:18

Yes, yes, wonderful. It would be great one day you get a volunteer. That was actually one of the kids that you gave them a bed.

Luke Michelson: 49:24

Already happened. You know one of the cool stories, and I don't, man, I'm talking a lot. I'm sorry, dan Yelovit, I'm sitting in the dentist office and nobody likes to sit in the dentist office waiting to go to see the dentist. I mean, I just churned into my seat and this mom and little kid came in and sat down and I had my SHP hat on, like I normally do and and I, you know, kind of kept looking over and the lady was kind of giving me two looks and and finally she caught my eye and she says hey, I just want to tell you.

Luke Michelson: 49:57

You brought my kid a bed last year, Thank you, and I just lost it. I mean, those are the experiences that you won't get until you get off the couch. They change your life, they change your. I mean, I was a hard businessman, sports guy, and now I'm crying in front of Daniela. I mean it's softy. I tell you what. It's. Just life-changing and it can happen to anybody. Just life-changing and it can happen 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 A beautiful reminder that when compassion meets action, life can truly be transformed, and that community is essential at every level. Spread the word and share this episode, allowing the ordinary magic to go further. Join me next time for another story conversation. Thank you for listening. Hasta pronto.