Dave Neiman, Jim Paoletti, Tom Mertz (center), Doug Douglas and Jack Anderson belong to the woodworking club at Riderwood, an Erickson Senior Living community in Silver Spring, Maryland, which helps make beds for children. Volunteers at Sleep at Heavenly Peace deliver the twin beds and bunk beds to local families. Photo by Courtney Coombs

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Sleep in Heavenly Peace has delivered more than 300,000 beds nationwide. Volunteers love seeing the children's faces light up when they finally get to choose a bed of their own.

Scott Nathan has a background in finance and insurance management. But that hasn’t stopped him from helping kickstart a bed-building charity operation based in Montgomery Village, Maryland.

Nathan had a long and successful career at Malden Solutions and as a self-employed entrepreneur, but after the pandemic, he wanted to step back and focus on his community.

“I was very career-focused before, and really only looking at growing a career and growing a business,” Nathan said. “But [with] the refocus and re-shifting after Covid, I decided to put that time, energy and resources into not just helping me, but trying to help some other people out there.”

He heard about a nationwide organization, Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), which focuses on building and providing beds for children who do not have one. After attending one meeting, Nathan was sold.

Founded in Idaho in 2012, Sleep in Heavenly Peace has 200 local chapters that are dedicated to ensuring that all children have a bed of their own. Its motto: “No Kid Sleeps on the Floor in Our Town!”

“Unfortunately, a ton of kiddos out there just don’t have a good place to sleep,” Nathan said. “They may be sleeping on a floor, sleeping on a mattress on the floor, sharing a bed with other family members.”

According to studies conducted by SHP, 2% to 3% of American children go to sleep every night without beds of their own. Poor sleep can lead to detrimental physical and mental consequences.

So Nathan launched SHP’s Montgomery Village chapter in January 2023. It serves residents across Montgomery County, including Gaithersburg. He just needed help making the beds.

Riderwood steps up

While Nathan is no carpenter, Riderwood Senior Living resident Tom Mertz is. Prior to his retirement, Mertz worked as a carpenter and builder in his professional life.

When Mertz moved to Riderwood, an Erickson Senior Living community in Silver Spring, Maryland, roughly six years ago, he began working with its thriving woodworking club, which now includes Mertz and six others. But after doing plenty of small repairs and work for other residents, they needed new projects to work on.

“We did some other things and kind of ran out of projects for various reasons. So I was looking for something to do,” Mertz said.

Through a mutual connection, he teamed up with Nathan. Today, Riderwood residents like Mertz help by picking up lumber, then cutting and preparing the wood for use in building the beds.

Once the wood is ready for bedmaking, which is often done on “build days,” people of all ages are able to participate.

“Riderwood allows us to eliminate the most dangerous step from our build day events…so that we are able to invite other kids to come help out on the build days,” Nathan said.

Beds and camaraderie

While making sure that all kids have a bed of their own to sleep on is a priority, Nathan says the community built through the process is just as important.

He notes that SHP is operated solely through volunteer and donation support, meaning community support is critical. Maryland has six chapters, and Virginia has eight chapters (but none in Northern Virginia yet).

“The volunteers are the engine that makes this car go. Without our volunteers, we would not have been able to have any beds delivered,” Nathan said.

As a volunteer, Mertz said that working with SHP has been extremely fulfilling, especially during his retirement.

“Having something important and valuable to do is really important, so everybody feels good,” Mertz said. “You’re doing something for the community, for the world.”

Other local chapters

In Frederick, Maryland, Toni Davis and her husband, Micah Davis, are on the leadership team of their local chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

A friend told Davis about the organization in 2019, and when she started volunteering, she and her husband were the only delivery team.

“We were out two or three nights a week, delivering beds,” said Davis, whose full-time job is director of marketing at Brooke Grove Retirement Village. She and Micah have delivered about 3,000 beds to local children.

“Knowing that you can just take a few minutes out of your time to go into a family’s home and put a child in a bed — often taking them off the floor, where they’ve been sleeping — is incredibly rewarding. As a result of having a good night’s rest, they’re going to do better in school and be a better contributor to society.”

Once a month, the group builds 50 to 60 beds in a renovated barn they lease in Adamstown, Maryland. The teams assemble the twin and bunk beds when they arrive at the home. They also give the family new linens, pillows and blankets.

In-person delivery

Nathan and Mertz say one of their favorite parts of working with SHP is personally delivering the beds to sites, where they can see children claim the beds they want.

“Seeing a kid walk in the room and seeing their bed for the first time, and a lot of times this may be the child’s first time ever having a bed of their own — just seeing the kids’ reaction is incredible,” Nathan said. “Those kids’ smiles really is what it’s about.”

Mertz recollected a particularly moving moment in which he saw a child climb into a bed and refuse to leave it. The work that he and the woodworking club do is difficult, he said, but moments like those are what keep him going.

“To do something to help people out, to help maybe make the world a little better place, [is] very rewarding,” Mertz said. “That’s why we do it.”

For more information about Sleep in Heavenly Peace, visit shpbeds.org.