Local chapter for Sleep in Heavenly Peace ensures kids can rest easy
Since 2022, the TX-Hill Country chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace has built and delivered almost 350 beds like these to youth ages 3-17 across Burnet, Llano, Lampasas, and Blanco counties. The volunteer organization's goal is to provide beds for kids who don't have them. Courtesy photo
It’s just a bed. It consists of a wood frame, a mattress, sheets, a bedspread, and a pillow. Yet such a simple piece of furniture brings a great deal of joy to kids who don’t have one to call their own, said Jeff Matera, co-president of the TX-Hill Country chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
“When we deliver beds, well, you have to see it,” he said. “You have to see the kids’ faces. I think it’s more than the bed when they get one. I think it helps them with their own confidence.”
Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national nonprofit organization that builds and delivers beds to youngsters in need, ages 3-17. The national organization’s website states that “a bed is a basic need for the proper physical, emotional, and mental support” of a child. The local chapter’s goal is to meet that need in the Highland Lakes, serving Burnet, Llano, Lampasas, and Blanco counties.
Neither Matera nor co-President Leo Boutte realized the need for beds until they learned about the national organization around four years ago. They discovered that even in one of the richest countries in the world, many kids sleep on couches, share beds with their parents, or simply lie down on the floor.
“Who would think a kid doesn’t have a bed?” Boutte said.
In fact, it was a 6-year-old Idaho girl sleeping on a pile of her clothes that sparked the Sleep in Heavenly Peace movement about 13 years ago. In 2012, the nonprofit’s founder, Luke Mickelson, learned of the girl’s situation. He knew about poverty, he said, but he had never really looked at it through the eyes of a child. He and his family gave the girl a bed. Her response—kissing the bed!—put Mickelson and wife Heidi on the path to creating Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
Since its initial start, SHP has grown to over 300 chapters across the United States and Canada. Volunteers and supporters have built and delivered more than 300,000 beds for youth. Until 2022, the Highland Lakes area didn’t have a chapter. It fell under the umbrella of the Austin chapter.
Matera heard about an Austin chapter bed build one winter for the Highland Lakes area and decided to attend. What he saw amazed him.
“I thought, ‘What a great charity, and it’s not really promoted,’” Matera said.
The Austin chapter’s president was invited to speak at a Marble Falls Rotary Club meeting, which is where club member Matera inquired about starting a Hill Country chapter.
Soon, he and Boutte, also a Rotarian, volunteered to lead the initiative. They attended specialized training in Salt Lake City and participated in three practice builds to ensure they understood the process. Sleep in Heavenly Peace doesn’t buy new beds; volunteers build each one by hand. The organization supplies mattresses, sheets, covers, and pillows.
The nonprofit also doesn’t replace current beds or set up beds for purchase. It only supplies volunteer-built beds and only to youth who currently don’t have their own.
“We have to build them, deliver them, and set them up,” Matera said.
The TX-Hill Country chapter teamed up with the Highland Lakes Crisis Network (now Ark of Highland Lakes) to host the initial build in 2022. Since then, the chapter has held about seven builds and constructed hundreds of beds. On Aug. 30, volunteers delivered the chapter’s 349th bed.
Highland Lakes businesses, organizations, and residents support the TX-Hill Country chapter through donations of money, bedding, and volunteer hours. The Ark provides space for the chapter to store extra beds. When chapter leaders announce a bed build, volunteers show up. The next build will be sometime this fall, but the date was not set at the time of this magazine’s press deadline.
Organizations can also sponsor builds, either at a location of their choice or the TX-Hill Country chapter’s spot.
The group’s biggest need is help getting the word out that they are here and they have beds.
“We know there are kids who need beds,” Matera said, “but their parents or (caregivers) don’t know we can help.”
Boutte said school counselors serve as the chapter’s best source of referrals. Still, he added, it’s about generating awareness, both of the need and of Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s mission.
Having their own beds makes a big difference in children’s lives, Matera said.
“You don’t know until you get involved,” he said. “The kids just jump onto the beds. There’s so much joy in their faces. You really have to experience it to understand the impact.”
The group’s next building event is November 15, 2025 starting at 9 a.m. at The Church at Horseshoe Bay, 600 Hi Ridge Rd., in Horseshoe Bay. For information on how to donate to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, volunteer at the next TX-Hill Country chapter build, or apply for a bed, visit shpbeds.org.
