Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) is a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to building and delivering hand-made, fully furnished beds to children in need. From their website:
“Every great movement begins with a simple decision—the choice to step forward and make a difference in your community. We believe that when you take the focus off yourself and put it on doing good things around you, you receive true joy. Starting an SHP chapter is more than just organizing volunteers; it’s about answering a call to action that exists in every corner of America.”
We visited with Kelsey Allensworth, who recently answered that call in Huntsville.
All chapters are started and run by local volunteers. To be a chapter president is to be a part of something truly special. It’s being part of a network whose focus is to help you succeed in raising money, building beds, and delivering beds. My husband Zack and I are members of Christ the King Methodist Church. Through a member, we learned about this organization and it really piqued our interest. We found out Madisonville was sponsoring a build day, so we signed up for it. The president of the Madisonville chapter shared info about the Huntsville area needing over 200 beds. At that time, there was no chapter in Huntsville, and the Madisonville chapter could not handle the volume that existed here. We decided then we would open a chapter for this area. We traveled to the national headquarters in Utah for the initiation for new chapters. We have been “rockin’ and rollin’” ever since. You know it is all worth it when you see the smiles on the faces of the children who may be receiving the first bed of their lives from you.
With SHP, many people went through the process before us and mapped out everything. Through training, we learned details about fundraising, ordering materials, building components, assembly, and additional aspects of running the chapter. There are rules for how we can fundraise, but anyone can fundraise on our behalf. We have had a lot of excellent support from this community.
Many of our builds have been sponsored by grants. Sam Houston State University groups like Aramark, their catering organization, obtained grants for us. The Sam Houston baseball team facilitated a huge donation of lumber through the local Home Depot. Hailey Lowry, through a work-study program, and several students and staff within SHSU have volunteered time at builds and deliveries. Entergy has provided two grants for builds, and Lowes is a national sponsor that has teamed up with SHP. Mattress Firm is working with our chapter to supply twin sized mattresses at a very reasonable price. While individuals can host fundraisers, our church has done most of the fundraising to date.
Nothing ever seems insurmountable. Currently, our biggest problem is trying to handle the growth. We’ve absolutely boomed in what we’re able to do. We’ve only been in operation since May of 2025. From then until today, our lifetime number of bed builds is 131. Forty-four of them were built at our best build day ever, where there were over 100 volunteers present. Each successive build day just gets bigger and bigger. Handling that amount of growth has been a challenge. We love having those types of problems. With our growth, we are better equipped to handle the amount of bed requests we are receiving.
If this organization ever goes out of business due to lack of orders, it will be a good thing. If a time comes when our area is caught up, we will hopefully be able to expand and help out other regions in need. We have seen that if money is needed to buy necessities, money is donated. If more hands are needed, hands appear. No challenge has ever been a challenge for long. The Holy Spirit is at work in SHP, and prayers are answered daily.
Once the bed components are finished, they are moved into a storage facility. Beds are not assembled until delivery day. Each area of the storage unit is segregated into different parts of the beds. When recipients are contacted and distribution dates are set up, the chapter will set up a delivery day and ask for volunteers to meet at the church. Each team leader receives paperwork that directs them to the deliveries they have that day. The team members introduce themselves and talk strategy. Everyone loads up and drives across the street to the storage facility. Team leaders direct the members to collect the amount of components that will make up the total number of beds they are delivering that day. Upon arrival at a delivery location, the team leader meet with the recipients and find out where the beds are going to be placed. Components, tools, and bedding are carried in by the assembly team, and work gets underway. One team member is in charge photographing the process. When the beds are assembled and the bedding placed on the bed, the children are allowed to see their new bed for the very first time. The joy on their faces is priceless.
Last holiday season, we thought “How wonderful if a bed could be delivered on Christmas Eve Day?” The chapter brought the topic up for discussion, and there was no hesitation. The recipients were thrilled. The thought of their children waking up in their own bed on Christmas morning was beyond special. The process went smoothly and was super impactful for everyone.
Another heartfelt moment was on a recent build day, when a volunteer shared she was without a bed for a time as a child. Hearing her story was a moving moment.
I want to acknowledge some people who are special to the chapter. Zack Allensworth is the build and delivery manager, my parents and brother and mother-in-law (Mark and Dana Smith, Stan Smith, and Judy Allensworth) are build station leaders and delivery leaders; Leslie Nichaelson is our Vice President; Robyn Reeves is our applications manager and delivery scheduler; so many dedicated volunteers who are too many to list; and lastly, a very special team member, Janice Willett, who has created an adjacent ministry to ours and works with her son to hand-make custom pillowcases for every child who receives a bed from SHP Huntsville; she is called the “Pillowcase Queen.”
The goal for SHP Huntsville is to deliver 150 beds in 2026. We are on a pace to reach that goal and determined to make it happen. In April of this year, Zack and I traveled to North Carolina, where SHP had a huge build event. Teams from all over the U.S. gathered to build 11,000 beds in 24 hours. One hundred of those beds will be delivered to our Huntsville chapter. Our team hopes this article helps spread the word in three big ways: we want families in need to know how to apply (website: shpbeds.org); we want volunteers and donors to know how to reach and help us if they feel so led (follow us at facebook.com/SHPHuntsvilleTX); and we want to generate a lot of excitement as we continue to grow and make sure every kid in Huntsville who needs a bed gets one.
