AUDREY KORTE
STANLEY, Wis. -- Inmates at Stanley Correctional Institution's medium security prison volunteered for community outreach this week in a fight to provide beds to every child in need in the Chippewa Valley.
More than 60 inmates spent the day working with Sleep in Heavenly Peace volunteers to build 22 beds for children who would otherwise sleep on the floor.
Stanley is the first Wisconsin prison to partner with nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace.
The medium-security prison can hold up to 1,500 adult males and sits on 100 acres just south of Stanley and Highway 29.
The prison has raised about $7,400 for Sleep in Heavenly Peace this year through sales of pizzas in the visiting room, cheese curd fundraisers and more, according to a Department of Corrections press release.
On Wednesday, a group of more than 60 volunteer inmates built 22 beds for the charity in less than three hours.
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One of those volunteers was Sean Abbott, who said that in the community he had seen children without a proper bed to sleep in.
Now he said he has a chance to help those kids and that in turn will keep him away from the lifestyle that led to his incarceration, the release says.
"Anytime I get a chance to do something positive in here, I'm going to take it," Abbott said.
In addition to constructing beds, other residents contributed to the effort through the Stanley Corrections Outreach Program Equals Success project.
Using donated fabric and materials, inmates made 10 quilts in bright, colorful kid-friendly patterns. The quilts will be donated alongside the beds.
In addition, the SCOPES group worked with another local charity to provide an additional 10 quilts for the beds.
As a father, Omar Simpson said he was grateful for a chance to participate in Wednesday's bed build and contribute to the community.
"Every kid should have a bed and be able to get a good night's rest," Simpson said. "It means a lot. It could be my kids that need a bed."
The partnership
Derrick Laufenberg decided in 2020 that he wanted to help area families in need of beds for their kids.
Now he is Chippewa Valley's Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter president working toward the goal of ensuring no children are forced to sleep on floors or couches or share cramped beds with other family members.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national nonprofit of 355 chapters whose mission is to end child bedlessness.Communities gather to build beds from scratch. The beds are then delivered to families with children 17 and younger who are in need, Laufenberg said to The Chippewa Herald in 2023.
The organization fundraises to pay for materials and uses volunteer labor to build beds from scratch.
The local chapter has donated more than 1,200 beds to kids in Chippewa, Eau Claire, Rusk and Barron counties so far, the release says.
Once organizations decide to get involved with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, they work closely with him to determine how best they can support the outreach.
When Laufenberg first saw an envelope from the correctional institution in his mailbox, he was confused. But he opened it to find a donation to his nonprofit from the prison, the release says.
As Laufenberg learned more about the prison, he decided that his group should give the men at SCI a chance to build the beds they worked so hard to fundraise for, the release says.
Working with the prison population required some extra time and planning but it was a success, officials report.
"We had to jump through some hoops to get this to work," said Laufenberg, who believes this is the first time that Sleep in Heavenly Peace partnered with a correctional facility. "I just thought working with inmates - realistically - we could all be one decision away from being in a similar situation."
After the event, Laufenberg spoke with his team of community volunteers who agreed that it had been the group's best build. They hope to return to the institution for other events.
"Our organization not only built beds for kids that day, but we were able to make an impact with inmates through our mission," Laufenberg said. "I hope it is something that helped each one of them go to bed with a smile on their faces."
"Some companies sponsor a delivery day, where they help supply the funds that it takes to buy the mattresses and the sheets and the pillows and some snacks and then we line up a bunch of deliveries on that day," Laufenberg said. "Other groups get involved with the builds.
The cost per bed is $250. And that's the lumber, hardware, everything. We get 20 beds built typically per build, so it's $5,000 to sponsor a build. And it takes about 30 to 40 volunteers for that build."
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