Bendix Volunteers Build 31 Beds For Children In Need

Press release from Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC:

Sept. 3, 2021

For close to a decade, building beds for children who need a safe, comfortable place to sleep has been a passion project for Luke Mickelson, founder of the nonprofit organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP). And on Friday, Aug. 27, employees at the Elyria headquarters of Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems witnessed that passion up close – and brought their own.

More than 90 Bendix volunteers worked under tents in the heat and humidity to construct beds for the company’s Sleep in Heavenly Peace “Build Day” supporting the nonprofit’s mission. They were joined by Mickelson, who flew in unannounced from Idaho to join them.

The volunteer event centered around the construction of 31 handmade wooden beds and a $5,000 grant from Bendix to Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Bendix is the North American leader in the development and manufacture of active safety, air management, and braking solutions for commercial vehicles. The company has long been committed to service projects that enrich its communities, in the tradition of its parent company, Munich, Germany-based Knorr-Bremse, the global market leader for braking systems and a leading supplier of other safety-critical rail and commercial vehicle systems.

The SHP event was a fitting part of that tradition, as volunteers, including Bendix leadership, employees, and family members, worked in an assembly line set up in one of the company’s parking lots to prepare and finish the components for 31 beds in collaboration with the nonprofit’s Sleep in Heavenly Peace Cuyahoga West chapter, for distribution to area children and families in need.

And to the delight of Bendix volunteers and staff, Mickelson made a surprise appearance, traveling from his home in Twin Falls, Idaho, to join the build and deliver opening remarks.

Having the opportunity to meet Mickelson in person made the event even more meaningful for employees, said Maria Gutierrez, director of corporate responsibility and sustainability at Bendix.

“All of us were incredibly honored to share this experience with Luke,” Gutierrez said. “Working together to benefit the people in our communities is particularly important to all of us at Bendix. And the fact that Luke Mickelson took the time to travel here, working shoulder to shoulder with our team for this event, meant a lot to our volunteers.”

Building Beds for Children in Need

A $5,000 grant from Bendix covered the cost of all materials needed to build and furnish the beds, including mattresses and bedding. Additionally, Bendix organized a donation drive to collect funds and in-kind donations of bedding that could be included with the beds or gifted to future SHP recipients. And the morning of the build, additional Bendix volunteers and family members made 100 hand-tied fleece blankets in partnership with the Michigan nonprofit Fleece & Thank You, for donation to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital and SHP recipients.

Bendix’s build day was among the larger events for SHP Cuyahoga West in recent months. It took place following a quarterly Town Hall meeting for Bendix employees.

Mickelson lent his support by training volunteers how to make the beds and rolling up his sleeves to help.

As with other SHP Build Day events, Bendix volunteers built the beds in an assembly-line fashion, with a core team of SHP volunteers on hand to train team leaders and facilitate the build. Bendix team leaders and volunteers staffed a series of bed manufacturing stations, putting components through cutting, sanding, drill press, assembly, finishing, and staining operations. The completed components, ready to be assembled, were then loaded onto a truck, poised for delivery to area recipients.

In connection with the event, Bendix employees will also be given the opportunity to assist SHP Cuyahoga West in delivering the completed bed components and materials and assembling them for recipients on-site. “That will be a really nice experience for our volunteers to meet the families that will receive the beds and the benefits of their efforts,” Gutierrez observed.

Rebuilding a Tradition

Supporting build events like Sleep in Heavenly Peace is not new for Bendix and its North American facilities, which have hosted several on-site Habitat for Humanity builds over the years, along with a wide range of community activities, from beach and playground cleanups to blanket-making campaigns. With the pandemic, many of those events were put on hold over the past 18 months.

This year, with more employees returning to on-site work, Bendix sought an in-person option, but not at the scale of previous builds involving hundreds of volunteers. Partnering with SHP Cuyahoga West to build 31 beds allowed for such an opportunity on a smaller scale, Gutierrez said. Even so, the response from employees wanting to participate was overwhelming.

“Our employees were really enthusiastic about this project, one, because of Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s mission to benefit children in our community, and two, because it gave people a chance to interact with co-workers and colleagues again,” Gutierrez said. “So it was a great team-building experience and a wonderful way to bring people back together to resume the community involvement projects that we’ve always supported.”

Working to Solve the Problem of “Bedlessness”

Receiving 31 beds was just as meaningful for SHP Cuyahoga West, which currently has 200 children waiting to receive beds, said Susie Asadorian, president of the chapter. She explained that as many as 3% of children in the United States need a comfortable and safe place to sleep, according to SHP.

It’s a problem that the organization has aimed to solve ever since Mickelson founded SHP in 2012. He conceived the effort after being asked to construct a bed for a family in need through his church, and soon learning that “bedlessness” was a more pervasive issue. So he founded the organization with the mission that no child should ever have to sleep on the floor. The effort grew rapidly, and today, there are nearly 280 chapters located in the U.S., Canada, and Bermuda, organizing bed builds and collecting donations toward the cause across the country. The beds are delivered to local children and families, with recipients selected after an application and review process.

SHP’s Cuyahoga West chapter, established in late 2020, is working to serve families in need in the Greater Cleveland area. The chapter has delivered 150 beds to local children and families since February 2021 but doesn’t yet have its own facility other than a storage unit and delivery truck. Asadorian said the chapter hopes to grow to the point where it has its own location to host smaller groups for on-site builds.

To that end, Bendix has also announced an additional grant of $5,000 to help the chapter lease warehouse space during the winter months – to conduct builds in cold weather and for storage.

“As we are an all-volunteer organization that runs solely on donations and volunteers, Bendix’s willingness to host and sponsor this event is tremendously important to us,” Asadorian said. “And to extend their commitment even further and help our chapter with warehouse space shows that Bendix will go the extra mile again and again for its community. The support we’ve received from Bendix is going to put a lot of kids into beds this upcoming year, so we’re thrilled.”

Meanwhile, Gutierrez was especially impressed with the strong volunteer turnout at its first SHP build event. “We’re so grateful for the help and support from Sleep in Heavenly Peace Cuyahoga West, and of course incredibly honored that Luke Mickelson spent the afternoon with us, shared his story, and saw how his work is continuing locally. We’re proud to have been a part of this wonderful cause.”

This press release was produced by Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems LLC. The views expressed here are the author's own.