HAYDEN — When 13-year-old Lucky Call heard she and her fellow classmates at Hayden Canyon Charter school would get to spend an afternoon building beds for North Idaho kids without one, she was excited.
“It’s very hands on and I like that,” Call said.
What she didn’t expect was for the fun day of hanging out with her friends and playing with power tools to have a deeper meaning.
During the safety meeting before the project started, things took a more serious turn as Lenny Wolf, president of the Spokane chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, told the seventh and eighth graders about kids their age sleeping on the floor or a couch. The students work ensured 10 kids in their community would have a bed to sleep on next month.
“I was about to cry. It was really sweet,” Call said.
The project is part of Superintendent Sam Abrams’ goal to provide hands-on opportunities for students, a part of the school’s mission.
“Education needs to do a better job of connecting the real world with what happens in the classroom,” Abrams said.
Abrams started at the school in July and is one of the school leaders in this year’s Increased Charter Support Program cohort. The school currently serves about 395 students in grades K-8. Wednesday’s project helped students work on skills like teamwork, resilience, following directions and the physical skills of building, Abrams said.
Abrams partnered with Wolf, the president of the Spokane Chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nationwide non-profit that builds bed frames for children who don’t have one. The organization then delivers the beds along with donated sheets, comforters, pillows, and with purchased mattresses to children ages 3 to 17.
Wolf’s chapter serves a 30-mile radius around Spokane. So far this year, the group has delivered 70 beds, but 230 more kids are on a waitlist, Wolf said. Families can apply online and do not need to provide any financial information, he said.
For most kids who receive a SHP bed, “they’ve never had a bed in their life,” Wolf said.
The Hayden Canyon build day was special, he said because it’s “kids helping kids.”
During the safety meeting Wednesday morning, Wolf asked if anyone knew another kid without a bed.
“Three of them raised their hand, so it’s bigger than we think it is,” Wolf said.
Brax Dahlstrom, 12, spent the morning branding headboards before turning to the drill press.
“I think that it’s really nice that they’re doing this because then it gives people who don’t have a bed a place to sleep,” Dahlstrom said.
Students who participated in the project will then reflect on the experience and answer a series of questions under different topic areas to analyze what they learned, Abrams said.
Brian Bradley, who drives the school bus and does maintenance at Hayden Canyon, said the impact to students goes beyond those helping Wednesday. The elementary students, who ate their lunches and watched the older kids work, had their curiosity sparked about the project.
