- As I was leaving, there was a little boy there and I turned around and said, "Where do you sleep at normally?"

And he goes, "I sleep there behind the couch."

And I went over and looked and behind the couch and against the wall, he had a pillow and he had a blanket back there.

And I didn't realize it till after I left that it isn't so much that was his bed, but that's where he was safe to sleep at night.

Those kind of things hurt a little bit.

(bright music) Our program is called Help Tuck Them In, and what we do is we bring beds to kids is our main objective.

We've been doing this for two and a half years now, and we have built a pretty good program here.

- And there is a nationwide program out there that is called Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

I came back here and was talking to Joe about it and he goes, "God, that's really a neat program.

I think that's something we could do."

And then one thing led to another, and before you know it, here we were making beds.

(drill whirling) - All of our beds have to be vetted to see and make sure that this is a need for these children, which in most cases it is.

It's always the same line.

When and where do you need them and how many?

And what are the ages and the sex of the kids, so that we give them beds that are appropriate and we give them bedding.

They all get a nice quilt and a pillow and a stuffed animal.

(gentle music) - We also provide cribs.

We cannot build the cribs because there are so many specs that we cannot even get close to making the cribs.

So we buy all the cribs and the guys put 'em all together.

We have delivered as of today, 291 beds and 20 cribs.

(gentle music) - We also bring along gift cards to grocery stores because when we'll go into a place, we'll look at the counters, we'll look at the refrigerator and we'll go, "There's no food here."

We have a full set of pots and pans and dishes and glassware and silverware that we also carry with us.

And if we see that there's a need for that, we bring that in there.

(phone buzzing) - I do all the lining up with the social workers, all of that kind of stuff.

Greg does an amazing job at cutting out all the wood.

George, I don't know where I'd be without George.

I can call him in the morning and he has them assembled by the afternoon.

Joe is amazing at lining up whatever we need to line up.

He's kind of the in between.

(bright music) - At my shop, before it gets here, we do all the cutting, pre-drill all the holes, so it's easy for everybody to put together and deliver and then comes over here to George.

- And then we sand and stain everything here.

We've got a lot of volunteers, groups.

I think one day we had 40 people in there.

(bright music) - The generosity of the people, our local community, has been amazing for this project.

The majority of our money is coming from local people, local organizations, local businesses, and that is what is amazing, the people that'll show up.

And even well just put an ad up Anybody that wants to help, people will walk in.

I know that one day there was a couple that came in and we had no idea who they were.

They were from Walnut Grove and they just wanted, he did some woodworking over there and he goes, "We heard about this and we just want to help."

These kids have suffered enough.

They need a good solid bed and a nice mattress and a pillow.

They don't need junk.

They need something that they can have for many years.

And we're hoping that these beds that we've given out in the last two and a half years are still there.

- I pride us on having a 24 hour turnaround.

So if somebody needs to leave a spot immediately in the middle of the night or whatever, all I gotta do is call these guys.

We are loaded and we are on the road.

- Yeah, we're gonna deliver two beds here to Fulda today to a couple of little kids.

- The guys provide the trucks, they donate their own vehicles, their own gas because they feel that what we are doing is making a difference in children's lives.

- We are a family.

We have seen things and we have been involved in situations that I think a lot of us would like to forget.

We have delivered beds to mothers who had to leave in the middle of the night.

We just delivered some beds to a family that their house burnt down and the mother died in the fire and it was a father and three little kids.

And we got a call on that and we just said, “When and where?” (gentle music) It's very rewarding for us.

We'll talk about it and we'll go, "This isn't something you want to quit."

- And we go into places, eight, nine, 10-year-old kids never had a bed.

This is the first bed they've had, so a lot of excitement.

- One of my greatest memories of us delivering a bed, it was actually here in town.

It was a single mom who had two little kids and the little girl was sleeping on an air mattress and she waited by the window for us to arrive.

She saw us and she was super excited and the guys carried in the bed.

He got it all set up and Joe turned her and said, "Well, I gotta know now if I've built it right or not.

He goes, you have to jump on this bed so it doesn't fall apart while I'm right here so we can fix it."

And she just screamed with delight.

There is nothing better than that.

It just, it melts your heart.

It absolutely melts your heart.

(gentle music) When you go into a home or an apartment and they literally have the cheap outdoor furniture as their furniture, and they have no beds, they have no dressers, they have nothing.

I grew up, I always had a bed, my family always had food.

I grew up very, not well to do, but I grew up in a very safe, loving environment and these kids don't have that.

- It changes us and I'm amazed at how much it has.

It has made me kinder and more generous.

I know, in my life.

We've always said, if we can change the life of one child, we have succeeded in this program.

- When you can walk in and provide them with that kind of security and that kind of, yes, there is somebody that cares about me, yes, there is somebody that's gonna provide this bed.

That's the driving force right there.

(bright music) - [Announcer] Postcards is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

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