At Slick, we thrive on doing more for the communities we serve. We’re super excited about our new partnership with A Bed for Every Child, an initiative of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless that distributes new twin beds to children living in poverty throughout Massachusetts. Since its inception, the program has delivered more than 5,000 beds.
We are teaming up with A Bed for Every Child to support their Holiday Build A Bed on Saturday, December 8 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at 73 Buffam St., Lynn, MA. Slick employees, customers, and friends plan to attend Saturday’s event—the goal for the day is 250 beds for 250 kids! Through The Slick Degrees Foundation, we’ll also be donating $25 for every order we receive with the code SLEEPTIGHT throughout this holiday season.
Here’s our recent Q & A with Tina Giarla, A Bed Every Child’s Program Director:
A Bed for Every Child’s mission? A Bed for Every Child works to ensure every child growing up in poverty in need of a bed has one. We want to give these child a place to dream big! We know a bed alone is not going to solve poverty, but we also know that giving a child the tools they need to get a good education can and will lift them up out of poverty as an adult.
How did this program grow out of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless? A Bed for Every Child was launched when a public-school teacher asked for help to get beds for her students. What she was witnessing was the same as hundreds of other teachers across our state - students in low-income communities coming to school tired and unfocused, because they were lacking one of life’s most important physical and mental factors - healthy sleep. The reason? They did not have a bed of their own. From that day on, A Bed for Every Child set out to deliver a twin bed set, including a new mattress, bed frame and new bedding, free of cost, to every child that needs one. We know a bed alone is not going to solve poverty, but we also know that giving a child the tools they need to get a good education can and will lift them up out of poverty as an adult.
Please share an A Bed for Every Child success story: Say hello to Isabella! Isabella who just this past September received her new bed. Isabella attends the Lincoln Thomson School in Lynn and this year is a proud 4th grader. It was her mother that reached out to us because last year Isabella’s teacher had mentioned that she was
falling asleep towards the end of the school day. As her Mother talked with us, she said that Isabella and her sister had been sharing a bed and most nights one or the other would end up sleeping on the floor. Although Isabella’s mother works, she said there was just never enough money to go towards purchasing a new bed. We spoke with Isabelle’s mother after the delivery of her new bed and she was so happy to report that Isabella was now getting a good night’s sleep and staying awake throughout the school day! Thanks to the generosity of many credit unions, banks, corporations and faith organizations across Massachusetts, over the past twelve months, A Bed for Every Child was able to deliver the gift of a good night’s sleep to 2,093 children, like Isabella, from Western Mass to Cape Cod and many cities and towns in between.
Describe the scene you envision for the first Holiday Build A Bed on December 8:
We created this event hoping to serve as a bridge to families and friends who want to give back to their community. We know that folks LOVE our build a bed project. After the beds are built and the builders are creating a personalized message to the bed recipient, the look on their faces is truly priceless. Not only do they know who, where and what their financial contribution is going towards, but they have built something with their own hands, that will comfort a child when they are happy, sad, cold, growing, and of course dreaming big! What could be a better gift to the community than helping a local non-profit fight the socio-economic consequences poverty has on a child’s health and well-being.
