HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) — Sunday marks the eighth year that the Volunteer and Information Center of Henderson has supplied beds and mattresses to families.
The center says some of the recipient families only have air mattresses, only have beds which children and parents have to share or have no beds at all.
The center says the area family resource coordinators are familiar with these families in Henderson, and that it is an ongoing situation.
“This program helps to alleviate a little bit of that, but we know that there are a lot more children out there who do not have a bed,” Susan Sauls, who serves as the Volunteer and Information Center’s executive director. “The word gets out by the schools to the families as much as they can. Then the families come and apply and if they qualify then they get the beds for their kids.”
Those who received beds also went home with sheets, a blanket, a pillow and a bag of toiletries.
South Middle School student Jack Cassady now has a bed of his own after sharing a bunk bed with his brother, Gabe.
“I think it will help me fix my posture and let me sleep better because — my old bed — it was one of those beds where it could be a bed and you can turn into a couch by raising up the back,” Cassady said. “But the part where you would sit on if it was a couch, it was like curving down like a little sinkhole. So, whenever I was laying down, I was laying down like curved.”
With a new bed, Cassady says he is also looking forward to rearranging and reorganizing his room.
“It’ll probably feel a little weird because — the bed I’ve been sleeping in — I’ve been sleeping in it for three years, so I’m not going to be used to the full mattress or anything like that,” Cassady said.
The Volunteer and Information Center says the event would not happen without its volunteers.
Some of them include workers from International Paper which has volunteered for its second year.
They spent time moving the beds out of the Housing Authority building on Sunday.
“Seeing the kids’ faces when they got their first bed and that they had a bed to sleep in on the first night — it just made us want to continue this partnership.”
283 children in Henderson County have now received beds under the center’s program.
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