No Kid Sleeps on the Floor: The Movement Changing Lives|(feat. Luke Mickelson)

Shannon (00:01.496)
Welcome back to Travel Time Stories with Shannon, where real journeys meet real stories and real healing happens one conversation at a time. Today's episode is about something many of us take for granted, a safe, warm place to sleep and the powerful impact that comes from meeting a basic human need with compassion and community. I'm your host, Shannon, coming to you from the Lone Star State of Texas.

Some weeks I open up and share pieces of my own life story from my travel adventures to the winding road of healing and personal growth. And other weeks I'm joined by my best friend and co-host, from Missouri, as we sit down with special guests who share their experiences, insights and expertise to help all of us along our own journeys. Today, Ann is here with me. Hey, Ann.

Ann (00:55.704)
Hey everybody, welcome to the show. This one, this one's gonna touch your heart people and make you think really hard. So thank you for joining us tonight.

Shannon (01:07.31)
Our guest today is Luke Mickelson, the founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a global nonprofit built around a simple but powerful mission. No kid sleeps on the floor in our town. What began as a simple handmade bunk bed in the garage has grown into a movement with hundreds of chapters delivering hundreds of thousands of beds to children in need. His work has been recognized on many shows,

I'm sure some of you know, Mike Rowe's returning the favor, CNN Heroes, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Good Morning America, The Today Show, People Magazine, and even American Ninja Warrior. All of these shows recognize the wonderful... I can't help it, that one just gets me.

Luke Mickelson (01:52.785)
You know, know, Shannon, that one.

Ann (01:53.314)
Wow.

Ann (01:58.243)
That's the best!

Luke Mickelson (02:02.749)
You know the funny thing about that one and by the way, I know I cut you off on my intro, you know, I appreciated it the funny

Shannon (02:10.488)
No, that's okay. That's why it's called edit.

Luke Mickelson (02:13.533)
There you go. You know, the fun thing about American Ninja Warrior is it's probably the one that people enjoy talking about the most, you know, because I don't know what's American Ninja Warrior, but as far as an experience for me, you know, being in it, it was the worst one of all of them. was, you know, because, you know, not only do you have to like show up mentally, but you have to perform physically as well.

Shannon (02:28.504)
Yeah.

Ann (02:36.611)
Shannon (02:42.572)
Physically, yeah.

Luke Mickelson (02:43.677)
And that one, it was a little unfair because they called me and they said, hey, would you be on the show, represent your charity? I said, listen, I haven't swung on a rope since I was 12, but, know, okay, sure. You know, I'll try. And then they canceled it because COVID hit. And so I kind of stopped training and I stopped worrying about it. And then about four months later, they called me out of the blue and said, hey, can you be in St. Louis in three weeks? And I'm like,

Ann (02:43.743)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke Mickelson (03:12.913)
Really? Really guys? So I wasn't exactly prepared for it, but honestly it wouldn't have mattered. I got past the first obstacle. That was good. It is. It's win.

Shannon (03:16.259)
my gosh.

Ann (03:17.868)
Wow.

Shannon (03:25.383)
Hey, that's an accomplishment right there.

Ann (03:27.213)
That's a big deal right there, yeah.

Luke Mickelson (03:28.881)
Well, the sad thing is when I fell, and you you fall in the water, right? Well, when I got out of the water, you know, I like raised my hands up when my shirt came up and my belly was hanging out. It was just for the whole world to see. And of course, the announcer had to say, here's Luke and his dad, Bod.

Shannon (03:34.786)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (03:49.757)
There you go everybody. I appreciate it. I'm do this. Oh, that's funny. Sorry. You continue.

Shannon (03:51.576)
Yeah, it's like, gee, thanks dude. You didn't need to point that out.

Ann (03:55.884)
Right?

You jerk.

Shannon (04:01.87)
That's great. I love it. So all of these shows recognize the wonderful humanitarian work he is doing and the philosophy he portrays of humans helping humans, which is something we should all embrace to help our world be a better place. Luke, we're so grateful, humbled and honored to have you here. Welcome to the show.

Luke Mickelson (04:25.821)
Well, thank you for having me ladies. This is great. We're off on a good start.

Shannon (04:32.078)
Exactly.

Ann (04:32.683)
Awesome.

Luke Mickelson (04:34.013)
shoot. No, this is great. You know, I really enjoy sharing the message, obviously the story of Sleep in Heavenly Peace and how it came to be, but really more importantly, and what I hope your listeners go away from this is realizing that child bedlessness, you may have never heard of it and you may have never really experienced it. And certainly you probably don't know how major and how big this problem is. But today, after this show, I hope you get a glimpse of

of what it really entails, childbedlessness. And then share effort with me to spread this awareness out. There's so many people in the country that doesn't even believe or know that this is a real thing. And having me on your podcast as an honor and sharing it with your audience is really where I love sharing the story because it's so important. So thanks for having me on.

Ann (05:35.459)
Thanks for being here, Luke. And as we say on Travel Time Stories, everybody, grab your favorite beverages and let's get into this.

Shannon (05:35.48)
Thanks for being here.

Luke Mickelson (05:42.801)
Got it.

Ann (05:48.801)
Luke, let's go back to the beginning. How did sleep and heavenly peace actually start? I love the name, by the way.

Luke Mickelson (05:55.424)
Hmm. You know what's funny about that, That wasn't the first name. You know, when I started really building a lot of beds, when I realized this was a thing, it started building a of beds, my wife at the time said, well, you gotta call this little Christmas project something. And I said, don't worry. I got the best name. Beds for Babes.

Ann (06:18.146)
No!

Shannon (06:20.526)
Good thing you changed it.

Luke Mickelson (06:21.053)
Hey in my defense in my defense it sounded good to start with but once I said it out loud I Said it out loud and I went No, that doesn't sound good It's probably not a good Google search by the way No, it's funny, you know, and my wife at the times like yeah, no, we're not gonna be calling it

Ann (06:28.864)
It did.

You're like, wait, not, yeah, not those kind of beds.

Shannon (06:34.478)
haha

Yeah, no.

Yeah, exactly.

Ann (06:45.527)
That's hilarious.

Luke Mickelson (06:50.361)
And so, you know, when it started is around Christmas time. so, you know, Silent Night, who doesn't love that, that hymn and the part of it about sleep in heavenly peace, you know, it just it really just emanated what we want these kids to do when we leave their home is, you know, sleep in peace and and, around Christmas time. And even though we're not, you know, associated with really with any religion per se, I like the name because, you know, no matter what you believe in, we all know that

Silent night and that that hymn is about a certain child that didn't have a bed either, you know, and so It really it really fit so we we like it. Although my buddy rob schneider, know rob schneider When he heard the name he says luke that sounds like a funeral home I said rob, you're not helping buddy shoot

Ann (07:42.627)
That's so good.

Shannon (07:45.646)
You

Luke Mickelson (07:46.077)
So anyways, back to your question, by the way. It was 2012 and I lived in a small town, the same town I grew up in, Kimberly, Idaho. It only had about 3,000 people. When you're from a small town like that, you know everybody, which is great because you get to bond with people and you get to learn to support them and they support you. mean, growing up, I was raised by a single mom.

Shannon (07:48.174)
You

Shannon (07:51.918)
You

Luke Mickelson (08:14.065)
you know, with five kids, can you imagine, you know, that you want to talk about support from the community? You know, we were firsthand recipients of that. And I know that really kind of ingrained in me the joy of service and the need, the want, the desire to give back just like I was given. And so, and it's easy to do that in a small town. And so, you know, when I finally, you know, served a mission, went to college and I came back and...

Ann (08:18.551)
Now.

Shannon (08:18.669)
Wow.

Luke Mickelson (08:42.809)
lived in my own hometown, I coached football and had a good job. And in the church that I was attending, I had a position called Young Men's President. So basically, I was the leader of the Young Men's Program ages 12 to about 17, kind like a youth pastor, if you will. And I was responsible for some of the spiritual aspects of Sunday and what we taught.

Shannon (09:03.352)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (09:10.621)
But really we focused a lot on the activities that we did during the week and the church had adopted the Boy Scout program, right? So we were basically leaders of the leaders of the Boy Scouts, right? Is what I was. But a part of position, about every other week I would sit in a council meeting with a lot of other auxiliary leaders in the church and we'd talk about what's going on in the community, right? Whether there's, you know, service opportunities.

and whatnot, we'd talk about members of the congregation or even members of the community that may need help. And one particular family was talked about, it kind of struck my ear because, you know, I grew up in this town, 4,000 people, I rode my bike everywhere, so, you know, as a young kid, so I'm pretty sure I knew every square inch of that town. Well, this family lived in an apartment complex I didn't even know existed, which was really interesting to me because, you know, I thought I knew.

Shannon (10:08.304)
wow.

Luke Mickelson (10:09.783)
And the mom was one of the local school bus drivers. The dad suffered from some mental health issues or something like that. He couldn't hold a job. So they were just struggling as a family, two, three kids. And anyways, so one of the leaders was in the home kind of assessing what they needed. And so she was telling us about this family. And almost in passing, she said, yeah, the kids don't have any beds.

And I said, it caught me by surprise. said, now, wait a minute, what do mean they don't have any beds? Like they've got a mattress or something, right? And she says, actually, no, they're just sleeping on the floor with their blankets. And, know, ladies, that hit me so hard, just like what you said, Shannon, when you think about it and you start thinking about your own kid, you're like, oh my gosh, really? Like day in and day out? I can't imagine sleeping on the floor, let alone during, you know, a cold Idaho December, you know, and...

Ann (10:53.665)
And.

Shannon (10:54.701)
Yeah.

Ann (10:57.997)
Yeah.

Shannon (10:58.081)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (11:07.485)
And it really hit me that, we're gonna do something about that. And then another thought hit me, as a leader of these young teenage boys, trying to find an activity to do that didn't involve a screen or some sort of video game is not easy to do nowadays, right? This thought came to me, I said, you know what, I've never built furniture before in my life, but this would be a great opportunity to get an Xbox controller out of these boys' hands.

Shannon (11:07.767)
Yeah.

Ann (11:08.215)
Right.

Ann (11:25.802)
No.

Shannon (11:26.658)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (11:35.963)
and let's put a drill and a sander in it. Let's teach them something, right? And so I got pretty excited about it. You know, I went home that night and my daughter had a bunk bed. So I'm measuring the bunk bed and figuring out how I want to do this, knowing that I'm dealing with 12 year old scouts, probably have to make this pretty easy. And so with the changes, I came up with a good design. And so the boys came over that week and it took a couple of nights that week, you know, to finish this bunk bed, because we'd never built before, but

Shannon (11:54.188)
Yeah.

Ann (11:54.796)
Hehehehehe

Luke Mickelson (12:04.839)
But, you know, and it was a great opportunity to teach them how to use tools and share with them the joys of service and tell them what we're doing and why we're doing it, you know. And I think because of that, the boys really enjoyed it. In fact, they only had to come over one night, but they ended up coming over multiple nights so we could get this bunk bed finished. And the funny thing was happened was the word kind of got out.

Shannon (12:27.531)
amazing.

Ann (12:28.919)
Yes.

Luke Mickelson (12:31.773)
You know, it got out in church, it got out in the community. These boys would tell their parents. Well, Saturday night came around and it was time to deliver the bed. And about 30 people showed up in my house wanting to deliver this bed, you know, which was really cool. But also I was like, guys, we can't send 30 people over to this two bedroom apartment. And so I stayed back with some leaders and cleaned the garage. So I didn't even get to go on the delivery. But the next day at church, these young boys

Ann (12:47.363)
Wow.

Ann (12:53.136)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (13:01.597)
And even their parents told me how amazing the delivery was, you know, to witness these kids who may have never had a bed before in their life get a bed. And they showed me pictures and the smiles on these kids' faces. mean, I was happy for my Boy Scouts, but I was also really jealous that I didn't get to be a part of that. It was, yeah, it was an amazing experience for them. you know, and a little side note.

Shannon (13:22.101)
Yeah.

Ann (13:22.433)
Yeah, good to see that.

Luke Mickelson (13:28.881)
you know, at the time in my life I was about 35 years old, right? You know, I had a good job, I had kids, I was coaching football and I was serving in my church. You on paper I had a great life. But internally for a couple of years I was struggling. I was struggling about my faith. I was struggling about my purpose and passion that I think I used to have. But you know, when you get older,

Things change, know, priorities change, you know, the value and the measure of success, it's just different. I didn't really care about the number of zeros behind my paycheck anymore, right? I used to value that as how successful I was. Now I didn't really care. You know, I cared more about what kind of impact I would leave, what kind of stories my kids would tell about their dad. You know, that's what I started really caring about. They didn't care about how much money you made, you know.

Shannon (14:00.675)
Yeah.

Ann (14:01.187)
Yes.

Shannon (14:23.842)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (14:26.843)
And when I realized that, I was lost. I was searching for something. And here I did this bed build. And that hole that was in my heart instantly filled up. It was just amazing. It gave me some fulfillment I hadn't felt in many, many, years. Well, the project was over. And I'm sitting on my couch, and I can just feel this doom and gloom come back. This life.

has the tendency to just get back into your life and you go back in the rut of things. And I didn't want to do that. There was more out there. I knew it and I could feel it coming. And right then, I'm sitting on the couch going through this turmoil internally. And my kids and I were watching Big Bang Theory. That was our program, right? And gotta love Sheldon.

Ann (15:19.843)
I love Big Bang.

Shannon (15:21.28)
That's a good show!

Luke Mickelson (15:23.271)
Well, I remember a commercial came on or something like that and us parents, know when we got kids, it's first part of Christmas season and something comes, they're gonna be asking for these toys that they know I'm not gonna buy them another Xbox for crying out loud, right? And anyways, sure enough, that's what happened and it just hit me perfectly, right? I was going through this turmoil, trying to find happiness for myself, for my kids, just delivered a bed to kids.

that didn't have beds, that was new, you know? And now my kids want another Xbox. You know, it's just like, it all came together at once. And I remember sitting there thinking, you know what, can sit here and wallow in my sorrows, you know? And I can sit here and try to give myself a pep talk and then tell my kids how they should appreciate this and enjoy that. Or I can actually do something about it, you know? And that was a...

It seemed like a hard decision at the time, but I remember I finally decided to get my butt off the couch. I stood up, I didn't say anything to my kids. I just got up and started walking to the garage. And I remember my son's like, dad, where are going? The program's on. And I said, you know, I've got some leftover wood. I'm gonna build another bunk bed and you're gonna help me. And so we had a great time for the couple of days. I had my daughter who was six years old at the time.

you know, her pink tutu, drilling away, and my son in his Boise State jersey out hammered it. You we had a great time, you know. I just wanted them to appreciate what they had, you know, a bed for crying out loud, and also the joy and satisfaction and the fulfillment that comes from being selfless and thinking about other people. I wanted to resonate with them. And so we built this bed.

Shannon (16:49.902)
off.

Ann (17:11.16)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (17:15.643)
The problem was, is now I had this bunk bed and I had no idea what to do with it. I didn't know of another family that had kids sleeping on the floor. And so my wife at the time said, well, why don't you throw it on Facebook, buy, trade, put it on one of those sites. And I barely knew what that was. I wasn't much of a Facebook guy. So I reluctantly put it on there. And I'm glad I did because a couple of things happened.

The first thing that happened was I was shocked by how many comments on this post that I got from people I didn't even know or friends that I hadn't talked to in 20 plus years, right? And they told me about these kids that they knew and the conditions that they were sleeping, know, sleeping on pallets and sleeping on hardwood floors or couches or, you know, or multiple kids to one bed, you know, it just was really shocking that

in our day and age and in our country, this is going on and it's going on right under my nose in my own hometown and I had no idea about it. And the second thing that was just as shocking was the number of them. There was multiple people, many people that knew many kids. In fact, I remember reading a story about a family that they had a house fire and so they'd been living in an eight passenger van. There were six of them, right? Can you imagine living in a van?

was people. mean, it was crazy. And so I just was, it just, it just astonished me. And here I had this bed and I wanted it to go to a really special, you know, a really big need because I wanted my kids to know that their efforts went to really help a child. Well, a friend of mine called me and said, Luke, do you still have your bed? Have you, have you delivered it yet? I said, no, I haven't. says, listen, I've got, I've got a story that'll just

Shannon (18:40.997)
my gosh, no.

Ann (18:41.407)
Ann (18:44.675)
you

Luke Mickelson (19:10.206)
tear your heart out. I said, well, do tell. And this is my Haley story. This is the first delivery I ever did. And this is what changed me.

Shannon (19:25.016)
God, I'm gonna need a tissue, aren't I? my goodness. I'm getting mine ready, because I know I'm gonna need it. I can tell already.

Luke Mickelson (19:26.536)
Sorry.

Ann (19:26.979)
Damn, yeah, I'm just going grabbing.

It's gonna be sad.

Luke Mickelson (19:32.851)
You usually do pretty good, but it must be late at night. know, Haley was a six-year-old girl who had never slept on a bed. She slept in the backseat of her mom's car her whole life. And, you know, my friend helped. She worked in social services. She helped this family get a house for the first time. And so I was so overwhelmed. was shocked. I was excited to deliver this bed to this little girl. And so when I showed up, right, I walked into the house. Now...

I'd seen poverty before, I'd seen homelessness and all this, but I never really saw through the eyes of a six-year-old. And so that put a really interesting light on things. And you can imagine what the house looked like, right? There was nothing in it. There was no couch or table, there was nothing. The only piece of furniture they had was a milk crate that had a hot plate on it and a can of soup. That was it. But this little girl, this little Haley, six years old, was happy as a lark.

I mean, just, you you and I would be in, we'd be in misery in a house or a situation like that. And she was happy. She'd never had a house before. Right. And I remember I said, Haley why don't you show me your bedroom? So she takes us, she didn't know why we were there. So she takes us back in her bedroom. And again, you know, holes in the carpet, tears in the wallpaper, the closet door was missing. I mean, you could tell it was just one of those homes, but she was happy as a lark.

And of all those things, the most shocking thing I saw was in the corner, there was a pile of clothes.

Luke Mickelson (21:08.316)
And that's where Haley slept. You know, she'd come home from school, she'd put her PJs on, she'd sleep on her school clothes, and the next day she'd put her clothes back on and go to school. I mean, was just, it was so shocking to me, you know, and at first I was like upset. I was really mad. I'm like, this is going on in my own hometown, right next to, I mean, come on, really? And then we got really excited because we started bringing in these pieces of bed for...

for Haley and we were putting it together, you know, and you could see, was watching her, you could see her trying to figure it out. And then all of a sudden she realized it was a bed and she just erupted. She came over and hugged me and my buddy, these two strange dudes, you know, and then she went up and hugged the bed, even kissed the bed. I'd never seen a child kiss a bed before, you know. I mean, I was just, I was a wreck, you know. And then if that wasn't enough to just tear your heart out.

Ann (21:45.559)
it.

Shannon (21:52.86)
my gosh, yeah.

Ann (21:57.604)
Shannon (22:01.901)
Yeah.

Ann (22:02.03)
yeah.

Luke Mickelson (22:04.947)
you'd look up and here's mom and mom, single mom, six years of struggle and tears just pouring down this lady's face. And I was raised by a single mom too. So I knew exactly what those tears meant. I'd seen them before. And that just, it just wrecked me. And I knew right then and there, this is more than just a bed. This is more than just providing a good night's sleep for a child who didn't have a bed.

And right then I told myself internally, no kid is gonna sleep on the floor in my town if I have anything to do with it. And I'm a farm kid, right? I love hunting, I love fishing, and college football, and all these things that you do outside. And in an instant, these things that I loved for 35 years of my life, in an instant, they no longer really mattered. It changed instantly. It was the craziest thing.

Shannon (22:45.441)
Yeah.

Ann (22:46.061)
Right.

Ann (22:57.379)
changed. Yep.

Shannon (22:58.808)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (23:00.381)
And that's all I wanted to do now is just build beds for kids. Because I knew for a few hours each night for a couple of nights to build a bed and solve that problem. Okay, that's well worth my time.

Shannon (23:16.611)
yeah, definitely, yeah. Who wouldn't wanna make time to do that? Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (23:19.039)
Right? Right. you know, that's when I looked over to my, you know, my buddy that was with me, we drove home. It was about 30 minutes away and we really didn't say much to each other. It was just so shocking. And, you know, when we got home, we finally talked and I said, you know, Jordan, we got to do something about this, right? This is, there's, you know, I had this post that had other kids on it that I read. We got to do something about this. And so I just started building as many beds as I could.

Ann (23:21.964)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (23:48.448)
And that first holiday season, built 21 beds and delivered them all to the kids that were on that list before Christmas, before Santa showed up.

Shannon (24:01.026)
Wow, that's incredible.

Ann (24:01.527)
You know, I was with my dad one time when we drove by this house way back in the hills and you could, it had no front door, no windows. You could see everything and you could see the dad sitting on the porch with his jug. You could see the kids with like blankets on the floor. There was no furniture in this place. And I said, dad, how, how is it that they live like this?

Luke Mickelson (24:02.111)
Mm.

Luke Mickelson (24:21.199)
Mm. Mm.

Ann (24:31.425)
He said, Sissy they don't know any better. This is how it's been for them for centuries. I suppose somebody needs to make a change.

Luke Mickelson (24:36.479)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (24:41.523)
You know, and the sad thing about child bedlessness, you know, it's not even a real word. Did you know that? It's not even a real word, but it's a real problem. And people don't know it even exists. You know, when I was done delivering those 21 beds, the next year we wanted to do it. And I'm like, you know what? There's gotta be another charity out there that does this, you know. We weren't even a charity at the time. We were just a Christmas project, right?

I scoured the internet trying to find a charity to see what they did and how they did it and how they scaled up. I found one in the entire country, only one in North Carolina that provided beds for kids. And I said, that's astonishing. There's not another charity. And the weird thing was happening is the more we built and the more we delivered, the more applications we got, the more this child bedlessness thing started to be

Shannon (25:08.557)
Yeah.

Ann (25:20.28)
my gosh.

Wow.

Luke Mickelson (25:37.564)
unraveled and exposed and and then something happened which was really odd. I started getting calls from Child Protective Services, Foster Care, CASA, all these agencies that help children. I learned that a bed for a child was typically the single hardest thing for those organizations to find. Do you believe that? Like you can get a TV, you can get a

Ann (25:51.521)
Wow.

Shannon (26:03.042)
Wow, really?

Ann (26:05.623)
I had no idea.

Luke Mickelson (26:06.665)
can get all those things way easier than getting a bed for a We actually just teamed up with a national organization called Care Portal. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but Care Portal, it's basically a program where people can go on there and ask for anything. Anything they need, bicycles, rides to work, anything. if an agency, typically a church, becomes a Care Portal, what they call a Care Portal champion,

Shannon (26:19.425)
No.

Luke Mickelson (26:36.159)
then they go through and if someone in their geographical area has requested anything, then they can fulfill that. Well, guess what the hardest thing and most requested thing is in Care Portal, a bed for a child. Isn't that crazy? The second thing is a child car seat, but a bed for a child. So we've teamed up with them. And anyways, back in 2012, 2013, this was all being exposed to me. And I just remember thinking,

Shannon (26:54.627)
Wow.

Luke Mickelson (27:05.375)
No one's doing this. This is crazy. I'm going to do it then. That's when we decided to be a charity and go down the road of being a charity. Now, being a farm kid from Idaho, I've been an entrepreneur my whole life. I've started and stopped a lot of businesses and that's the only way I knew how to do it. We ran it just like a business. We had expenses, we had overhead, we needed a budget for...

you know, rainy days and all this such. What I didn't realize is that's exactly what we needed to do to be successful. And again, the more we shared, what happened is a lot of our friends that lived states over and towns over, they saw what were doing. They're like, hey, Luke, can you come and build in my town? I'm like, better yet, instead of building, why don't you just start a chapter? I can teach you what I do, can help you, we can raise money and we'll build beds in your town.

And so throughout the years, we started putting on these chapters. Well, in 2017, the end of 2017, a couple of things happened. Well, I've been doing this for, you know, at this point now, almost almost six years. was five and a half years and it was growing bit by bit. It was growing. And then all of a sudden, a lot of friends started these chapters and we were we had grown to seven chapters in five different states. Well,

My boss at the time noticed this and at first it didn't feel like a blessing. does now. He knew me enough to know that my focus and my joy is no longer my work. I don't think my work suffered. I was doing everything in my own spare time. But he came up to me, says, Luke, it's time that you decide whether you stay employed and not do your charity.

Ann (28:33.368)
Wow.

Shannon (28:36.536)
You

Luke Mickelson (29:01.416)
or do your charity and go all in. And that was a hard decision. I didn't have another job lined up. mean, my income was set. I was gonna be the president of the company. I was gonna buy it out. And just like meeting Haley for the first time, in an instant, my life just changed. I went from a really well-paying salary to nothing, to zero, because the fulfillment I got from

providing beds for kids, the passion it gave me meant more to me than anything. And I just, you know, left it to the good Lord that, something will come up. And so I had to quit my job. And then right after that is when Mike Rowe showed up. You know, so Mike Rowe, like you mentioned earlier, had the hit Facebook watch series called, Returning the Favor, where he, you know, scour the country and go visit, surprise these nonprofits show up.

and then gift him something. We were season two, episode nine, and he gifted us a warehouse, which was really cool, obviously. But the best thing that episode did for us, it was viewed by 10 million people. And we started to get chapter president requests, people wanting to start a chapter, all over the country, all over the world, really. And since then, since it aired in 2018, since then,

Shannon (30:09.133)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (30:25.824)
Sleeping in Heavenly Peace we've trained over 430 chapters in 48 states and four countries. And just last year alone, we built almost 90,000 beds to a total of 370,000 beds so far. Yeah.

Shannon (30:44.024)
That's incredible. And why do you, yeah, it really is. Why do you think child bedlessness is something that's more common than what people know about, what we're aware of?

Ann (30:46.125)
That's amazing work.

Luke Mickelson (30:58.27)
I think it's pretty hidden because a couple of things, know, most families that suffer or go under some distress financially, you know, they're focused on three things. Food, clothing, shelter. You know, those are the big threes, you know, and as a parent, I do the same thing if I was in trouble. you know, beds, unfortunately, are just a luxury and beds are expensive. I mean mattresses alone you know, or they're only a hundred bucks. You know, it's not cheap to try to furnish a bed. Something is important and secure and

Shannon (31:24.642)
Yeah.

Ann (31:25.666)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (31:28.224)
safe as a bed. It's crazy, you know. And the second thing is, is I think, you know, I try to put myself in these parents positions, you know, it's, it can be embarrassing, you know, it can be,

you know, a little embarrassing that, you you don't, your kids don't have any beds, you know, and keep in mind, it's easier for an adult to get a bed and get a bed donated to them than it is for a child. So most of the time these parents have beds because it's easier for You know, the kids that they don't have beds, you know, so they end up sleeping on couches or with mom and dad. So now no one gets a good night's sleep, you know, it's just, it's a really unknown thing. No one talks about it. I think one of the biggest

Ann (32:06.349)
Wow.

Luke Mickelson (32:10.892)
wins that I felt about five or six years ago, a big milestone was, know, CASA and these foster care agencies, when they go into a home, they used to never even ask the question whether the kids have beds because they couldn't fulfill it, right? They couldn't go and get help from a charity. Well, now they're actually, at least in my own hometown,

they actually ask them if they have a bed because if they don't, they know they can get one from sleep in heavenly peace So that's a big win for us.

Shannon (32:44.45)
Yeah, that's great.

Ann (32:44.483)
That's a huge, huge win, huge win, Luke. Wow. So you...

Luke Mickelson (32:48.448)
I don't really know, other than that, really don't know why it's such a hidden thing, you know, because it's such a detrimental problem. know, these kids, listen, it affects them in so many ways. The first way, let's talk about physical effect, right? We know when you don't get a good night's sleep, right? These kids wake up, they're sore, you know, they're grumpy, they have a bad attitude, they don't, they're not ready to learn. So when they go to school, they're not learning much, not like the other kids. So...

Shannon (32:49.612)
Yeah.

Ann (32:56.419)
I don't either.

Luke Mickelson (33:17.78)
their grades suffer, they fall behind, and can never really catch up, or it's just harder for them to catch up. And that's the physical side of things. Then you get into the social side of things. These kids, don't have a bed, so they can't sleepovers. They don't want their friends to come over and see the situations they're in. It's frustrating. When they go to their friend's house, they see their friends have beds, and how nice that would be, and then they go home to nothing again. And psychologically, that's rough.

Ann (33:37.279)
Exactly.

Shannon (33:37.549)
Yeah.

Ann (33:45.911)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (33:46.334)
And then mentally again, how many times have we been, think about your life, you had a hard day, it's been rough, stressful, your boss was riding you, or you lost an account or something like that, you just had a hard day. What's the one place you just can't wait to get into? The one place on earth that is your sanctuary. I travel all over the world.

I travel all the world and I sleep in some of the greatest beds and hotels, but ain't nothing, know tops my own And these kids don't have that you know, so they can't escape they can't recharge In fact, I had a friend of mine says, know Luke It's really interesting. You call it SHP He says cuz me and my me and my sister we kind of grew up in a really rough home You know, and when there was fighting and stuff like that going on

Ann (34:11.041)
your comfort.

Shannon (34:13.09)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (34:19.16)
Compared to

Ann (34:21.603)
Amen.

Luke Mickelson (34:41.073)
my sister and I would escape to our SHP, which was their bed, because it was called their secret hiding place.

Luke Mickelson (34:50.538)
So, you know, that gives you just a little bit of a glimpse of exactly what child bedlessness, how ugly it is and how horrible it is. And on the flip side, what an amazing impact providing a bed for a child is. That's why I say my book is called More Than Just a Bed because

Ann (34:53.112)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (35:09.661)
It is. It provides confidence. It provides, you know, safe and security. It relieves parents of guilt and frustration. know, and now you've got kids sleeping in their own bed, getting a good night's sleep. They're not with their brothers and sisters. They're not with mom and dad developing some, you know, unhealthy bond there or not getting a good night's sleep for the whole family. You know, it's just, it's just more than, more than the simple, simple bed.

Ann (35:39.925)
yeah, it affects their health, their emotional well-being, and really their ability to thrive. mean, they're getting up tired every day.

Luke Mickelson (35:44.992)
Yeah, it certainly inhibits it, you know, and you you got...

90 % of the other kids in the population have beds, right? What's interesting too is I wanted to learn about how bad this problem really was. The more we build through the years and the more it got exposed, even in my own hometown, we've built thousands of beds and we still get an application every other day or so. It's only 80,000 people. So I really wanted to know how bad this was. So I started looking for statistics. Well, still to

Shannon (36:16.782)
Wow.

Luke Mickelson (36:20.579)
this day, there are no statistics on the planet that talk about kids that don't have beds. The craziest thing. The only statistic that I know of is what Sleep in Heavenly Peace has drawn up, and we're no statisticians, right? We just know because we've been doing it for so long, it's greater than 3 % of the total population. So if you live in a town of 100,000 people, there's 3,000 kids that are sleeping on the floor.

and people don't even know about it. And the sad reality is, is you and I sit right now talking.

There are 155 to 160,000 kids on our waiting list. And that's only covering geographically 27 % of the United States. We don't even cover 70%. And I can't help but think that means there's probably 70 % of the families in need. They don't even know that this is a solution for them. So you can imagine, we know it's greater than 3 % on average, which is a sad thing.

That's it.

Shannon (37:24.494)
It's so sad, yeah.

Ann (37:24.941)
Such a, yeah, it's such an invisible issue. It just, you don't hear about it. It doesn't come to light.

Shannon (37:34.83)
Yeah, and like you said, there's no statistics on it because nobody's gathering that information. Nobody's asking if your kid has a bet or not and taking down that information to put statistics to it so we could see just how wide and horrible it is.

Ann (37:45.24)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (37:52.408)
Wait.

We hope that changes. I think a lot of statistics happen because you got to have people that take census. You got to have people that ask these questions. And I don't think they ask the question because they don't have a solution. It's kind of like, hey, do you have any beds? No, can you help me? Well, no, I can't. I don't know what the solution is. And now that we are, we're the largest bed-building charity in the world, which is kind of sad to say because there's not very many of them. But now that we're getting the word out, like I mentioned when we started the show,

sharing this and letting people know, letting your congressman know, letting your agencies locally, you know, they're gonna be the ones that love you the most when you tell them, hey, did you know that there's an agency out there right now that provides beds for kids? And that's all we do, only beds for kids. The same bed, the same design in Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, know, everywhere. It's the same exact bed style because we, it's a,

safe, easy to build and sturdy bed that we can build many, many of them in this short period of time. And the way we do that, I haven't shared this with you, is we organize what's called build days. So any organization that wants to build beds with us, we require a $300 donation for every bed. And that covers everything, the wood.

the hardware, the sheets, the pillows, the mattresses, even the delivery of the bed. And we pull 10 % from every donation just to cover our expenses. That's it. So 90 % of a donated dollar stays in the chapter that you selected to. When I started this and was going to be a charity, I didn't have anything against charities. I just didn't like the thought of my money going to some pie in the sky and I have no idea where it went. And I think a lot of people feel the same, right?

Ann (39:42.584)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (39:43.417)
I wanted to make sure and be as transparent as you possibly can when you donate a dollar when grandma donates $100 to your charity You can tell grandma 90 greater than 90 % of your dollar stays in that community just like the beds they stay in that community because it is a community problem, right and This child bedlessness is not going to be solved by some farm kid from Idaho It's going to be solved by people on the local front

standing up, getting off the couch per se, and doing something about it. And so I knew way, way back in the day, if we were gonna really make change in our country, if we really gonna tackle this huge problem that I'm learning about.

then I need to create a platform that allows common joes like me to start a chapter and be successful in their hometown so they can help kids. And so that's what we did. That's how we've grown so fast and have built so many beds. And we continue to grow. We put on about 50 to 60 chapters every year, which is awesome.

Shannon (40:52.27)
That is. And so you said, talking about build days, here's my question. So do you have companies that come to you and say, hey, we want to do a build day with a group of our employees or whatever, because I know like big companies, my husband used to work for Xfinity and they always, every year they had a community day that they called it and they picked a charity and they did.

Ann (40:52.429)
That's amazing.

Luke Mickelson (40:55.34)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (41:21.954)
work or whatever with that charity for the day, all the employees. And so do you have big companies that come to you and do that with their employees?

Luke Mickelson (41:30.038)
You know what I learned? I learned two things when I was doing this. We solve child bedlessness, which is awesome. That's our main mission. But I also learned that there is millions of people, millions of companies out there that want to give back. They just don't know how, right?

And so I learned that if I create an event, an activity where people can get involved, they get their hands dirty, they feel fulfilled like I have, they're gonna become the mouthpiece for Sleep In Heavenly Peace is what we need. But I also learned that companies out there, it's usually some poor HR gal that they lace with this requests or this demand of, we have a company outing or we got the Christmas party or we got...

you we've got a day of service, you need to go find an organization that is fun to do, that is meaningful. If it's a charity, great, even better. It's got to be able to handle two or 200 people, because I don't know how many people are going to show up, right? And, you know, and it can't take all day. And by the way, we have to organize it, right? Those are those are lot of demands for these little HR, you know, personnel to try to figure it out.

Well, we check all these boxes because we're mobile. We only require a donation. So when we talk to these philanthropic departments, it's like, listen, all I need to know is your budget, how many volunteers you kind of expect, and where do you want to do this? Because we show up with the wood. Lowe's is our number one sponsor. usually provide and deliver the wood to wherever we're going to build.

We show up with the tools and we build these in kind of an assembly line, right? So there's stations that we put at people at and they don't need any experience whatsoever. I remember one day I had a bank wanted to do some event, wanted to build beds on their lunch break. And I said, sure, come on in. Well, half of them were ladies wearing stilettos. mean, it's like, you guys aren't ready for this. But I tell you what, in 15 minutes I show these ladies how to do it.

Ann (43:32.099)
Bye.

you

Luke Mickelson (43:38.145)
They rocked out like 20 headboards. It was crazy to watch, you know? It was awesome. so, you know, these, and that's the beauty. And all you nonprofits out there, listen, if you're struggling, I'll give you a little hint that I found is very successful.

Ann (43:43.181)
Dang.

Luke Mickelson (43:53.495)
You know, when we started long time ago, when I started this and started bringing volunteers into help, I wanted them come back. I wanted them to have a great experience, right? So I didn't want them to feel stressed. I didn't want them to feel overworked. So I tried to do as much of the heavy lifting as I possibly could. Will, let me tell you story about Hank. Is this okay?

Shannon (44:19.0)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (44:19.208)
So my very first public build, it was the one that I actually announced in the paper. I'd never done that before. It was, think 2014. So we just became a charity. And I put in the paper, hey, Saturday morning, nine o'clock, down at this warehouse, we're gonna be building beds for kids if anybody wants to come show up. Well, keep in mind, this is January in Idaho, not very warm. This warehouse, we got cracked windows. I've got a stove to heat the whole place.

Ann (44:19.745)
Yes.

Ann (44:45.315)
cold.

Luke Mickelson (44:49.258)
really uncomfortable situations. I really didn't think a whole lot of people showing up, but we had a ton of people. And one particular guy, Hank, comes walking in. Now, Hank was like 500 years old. I mean, this guy was an old dude, right? And I was so old, I was a little worried he wasn't gonna make it through the build you know, because this is not easy work, right? But Hank had this grandpa smile. You know what I'm saying? It's just, you look at him, he smiles at you, and you're like, my gosh, he's everybody's grandpa.

Ann (44:58.435)
You

Ann (45:08.941)
Yeah

Ann (45:15.907)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (45:19.17)
I loved him and he came up to me and he says, hey, you know, where do you need me? And I was like, well, I don't need you dead. That's number one. But I said, tell you what, Hank, what did you do for a living? And he says, well, I was a carpenter for 40 years. And I'm like, oh, OK, I know exactly where to put you. So I put him back in the back cutting the wood. Right. That's one thing you can't screw up or else that's hard. You can't stretch wood out. And so I put him on cutting wood and

Shannon (45:29.134)
You

Luke Mickelson (45:47.391)
showed him a little bit and I mean he picked it up right away and started going to town. Well then I turned around and go back to you know to the other volunteers. Keep in mind I'm the only guy there that knows how to build these beds with 60 people so for four hours you know you're bouncing back and forth trying to teach people their station and how to do this and solve them problems. Well four hours later it dawns on me I haven't checked if Hank's still alive you know. Hey I was a little worried about it you know so

Shannon (46:14.68)
Yeah

Luke Mickelson (46:16.194)
I go back there and the build was just finishing and I said, Hank, Hank, how you doing? And he turned around, ladies, this guy, his clothes, his face was as white as his hair, just covered in sawdust, right? I felt so bad. I was like, oh, Hank, I'm so sorry. And he goes, Luke, let me tell you something. I mean, he looks up and he sees his grandpa smile and he says, I've donated and served and volunteered.

at so many events my whole life. He says, but never have I shown up at a single event and in five minutes was put on a project or put on an assignment and I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave for four hours. Right. And I remember going, sorry, man, I should have come and relieved you. And he says, no. He said, thank you. And right then it just hit me like I get goosebumps thinking about it. Hank taught me a valuable lesson.

The happiest volunteer is the sweatiest and the dustiest. And the reason why is because when you want to take time out of your day to volunteer, you want to feel like you did something. You want to feel like there is meaning and your efforts actually contributed to the cause. Well, the best way to do that is working hard. know, Hank knew that. And I can only imagine in the other events as wonderful as those charities are, probably did the same thing I did at first.

Shannon (47:27.403)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (47:28.632)
Yes.

Luke Mickelson (47:44.099)
I just made it easy for everybody. So you walk away knowing you helped, but it's different when you feel like your skills and your effort and your sweat and your fingerprints that touched every single one of these boards that come across your way are going to building a bed for a child and you feel it the next day. You're sore, you're tired. That's when you feel the most fulfilled. And most of the time, all the time, I get...

comments from volunteers that say this is the funnest event they've ever done. Not the easiest, but the funnest. And that's really where the rubber meets the road. And you nonprofits out there that might be listening, you got to make your volunteer experience meaningful. That doesn't mean easy, right? That means meaningful. And then they become the mouthpiece for you. They become your salesman. They become the awareness raisers that you need that help grow your organization, help reach more kids.

Shannon (48:20.962)
Yeah.

Shannon (48:32.973)
Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (48:43.816)
and it all comes from having a great experience, a meaningful and fulfilling experience to volunteer.

Thank

Shannon (48:53.442)
Yep, I totally agree with that. The best service project I've ever been a part of are the ones where I'm down and dirty in the nitty gritty and... Yep.

Ann (48:53.47)
yeah, can I imagine? Yep.

Luke Mickelson (49:00.958)
Exactly.

Ann (49:03.299)
Yep.

Exactly.

You

Shannon (49:09.816)
So you talk about humans helping humans. What does that philosophy mean for you?

Luke Mickelson (49:14.946)
Great question, Shannon. know, when we want to go back real far, you know, I mentioned how I was going through a big faith crisis, you know, and Sleep and Heavenly Peace pulled me a lot out of that. And where that came from is, you know, I don't know if you've ever been through a faith crisis. You know, I was a missionary for my church. was, you know, I was in church and going to church and believing for 35 years. Then all of a sudden I just had all these questions and I didn't know.

You know, and you got people telling you, oh, you know, it's just the devil's working on you and all this stuff. Whether it's true or not, I just remember thinking, man, I'm a good guy. I thought I was a good guy, you know. You know, here I built beds for kids and, you know, that's more meaningful than I ever felt in church. know, I just, I wanted people to feel what I feel and know that it came from just helping people, right? And where that comes from,

I don't know. I just know that I wanted Sleep in Heavenly Peace to incorporate and include anybody that's human. It didn't matter whether you were Catholic or Baptist or whatever religion or whatever political affiliation you have, whatever race or ethnicity, none of that matters. Because guess what? We're all humans. And we just want to help the humans. And unfortunately, these are little humans. And they can't help themselves.

So really as a human race, this is what we're designed to do. Whether you believe in a God or not, that doesn't matter. It shouldn't matter when you want to help your own humans. so humans helping humans was just, it was a fun thing to say, but it really meant a lot to me. It meant that we're here working together despite.

what we believe or how we believe. And so it's done us well. And you know, the funnest part too, ladies, is we have people of all faiths, non-faiths, political views that maybe in another life they would have fought, you know? But when they get in the trenches of a build or delivering beds, dude, none of that matters. I mean, you know, and we live in a country that is divided pretty...

Shannon (51:16.248)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (51:17.325)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (51:26.944)
pretty 50-50. And it seems like that division is getting harder and those boundaries are taller and tougher to cross. And we are in dire need of getting back to connecting of who we are. We're humans, right? And we're in this together. And I have another saying where I tell people, look, if you want true joy,

Ann (51:37.559)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (51:51.619)
You gotta stop looking at yourself and see how you can help someone else. your problems, they're not gonna go away. Of course not, right? But they will, promise you, seem far less heavy than what you think they are right now. Cause when you start helping people, you get a sense of humanity, I think it is. I think you get a sense of what really matters in this world. And I guarantee it's not whether your boss got mad at you or you didn't get that promotion or whatever it is.

It just matters that you're on this planet together helping each other.

Shannon (52:27.758)
Absolutely, I love that philosophy.

Ann (52:28.041)
you a yeah it's it gives you a lightness so how does service change the person giving just as much as the person receiving

Luke Mickelson (52:29.049)
Thank you.

Luke Mickelson (52:38.85)
that's an easy one. I'll just speak for myself because I think I'm a great example of that. It gives you purpose, right? Even if it's just a day of purpose, it gives you a purpose that's not focused on yourself and the beauty of that. And I tell people, in fact, I do a lot of public speaking about my platforms about tiny moments and following tiny moments because we all get them. We all get these little shreds of inspiration or thoughts of what should I

do or I could do this or I need to help this person or whatnot right and unfortunately and I'm no different than anybody else you dismiss them so easily you know I'm too busy or I don't know how to do that right or someone else is doing it they got that right and you know even sleep in Emily peace sleep in the peace didn't start that bed that I built with my kids wasn't because I knew of a child that was sleeping on the floor the inspiration was I wanted to teach my kids something right because if I hadn't followed that

Shannon (53:21.987)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (53:37.28)
inspiration, right, or that tiny moment, then SHP probably would never have started. And, you know, your tiny moment might not end up, you know, the largest bed-building charity in the world, right? Most of the time it won't. But what it will do is it'll help the person, but more importantly, it'll help you and bring a level of feeling and a fulfillment that makes life worth living. It takes...

Shannon (53:52.771)
Bye.

Luke Mickelson (54:06.293)
a depression and turns it on its head. And I just love it. I always encourage people and hopefully inspire people to, when you're down in the dumps, just go help someone. I promise you, you're gonna feel better.

Shannon (54:19.106)
Mm-hmm. Yep. When you step outside of yourself, you definitely, that improves you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So what role does community play in making SHP work?

Ann (54:21.251)
Yeah, I agree. Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (54:23.843)
correct.

Luke Mickelson (54:31.927)
Well, that's where the rubber meets the road. Like I said earlier, this is gonna be solved by the community. So first the community has to know about it. Then you gotta find someone that's so passionate to start a chapter. And once that happens, that's when the beauty happens. Most of our chapters, like I said, we put on 50, 60 a year. We only lose one or two usually because someone moved or something. When we start a chapter,

We help that chapter spread awareness in the community and it's so amazing to see the community step up, right? That's what makes chapters successful is having good core team members and and having a community jump in and and and You know the one of the best byproducts of being a part of sleep in heavenly peace is the people you get to meet You know, these are amazing people that you know dedicate so many hours of their time helping kids

know, we've seen Sleep in Heavenly Peace has saved marriages, has saved people from alcoholism, getting out of jail, building relationships, better relationships with their spouse or even their kids. These are all great byproducts of being selfless and focusing on something else.

other than yourself and your problems and then doing it together with your loved ones or your neighbors. You develop friendships with people that you would otherwise pass in the grocery store and not say a word to. These are the things that come from hard work and focusing on something other than yourself.

Ann (56:14.807)
So it sounds like a lot of different types of people get involved. mean, you've got ladies in stilettos showing up, Luke. That's amazing. But what surprises them the most? And is there one particular person that came out and helped besides Hank that just really stands out in your mind?

Luke Mickelson (56:20.995)
You

Shannon (56:22.03)
You

Luke Mickelson (56:23.991)
We do.

Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (56:35.085)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (56:38.723)
I'm gonna get my computer cable real quick, because I got a great story and I don't want to make a computer die. Give me two seconds.

Ann (56:48.511)
No. Okay. Okay.

Ann (56:54.498)
I ad-libbed.

Ann (57:06.911)
my god, I still see Hank standing there with all the sawdust on him. That made me laugh so hard I almost cried. I could just picture it.

Shannon (57:12.342)
Yeah, I can picture that in my mind too. Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (57:16.161)
My wife's watching Bridgerton, so I'm in good spot.

Ann (57:21.107)
get for her!

Shannon (57:22.816)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (57:25.399)
You ladies like it's.

Shannon (57:27.598)
It's a great program. The books are good too, so.

Ann (57:31.221)
Yeah, exactly.

Luke Mickelson (57:33.261)
Okay, sorry about that. We're good to go. So, yes, I have a great example of one of my favorite stories about a volunteer. So grab your tissues, because this is going to be a tough one. This is a few years back.

Shannon (57:48.558)
I still got mine.

Ann (57:49.961)
I'm ready!

And I don't usually have tissues for our podcast. I just want you to know that,

Luke Mickelson (57:55.62)
Yeah, I try to get through without crying. I'm 50-50 usually. So, yeah, this was an amazing story and I put it in my book because it resonates with everything that I think...

we can miss as volunteers. So we were at a build close to my hometown and it was actually in front of a hospital and we had a lot of the doctors and, but a lot of the community out there as well. Well, I remember I was running around like I normally do and I got a tap on the shoulder and I turned around and here's this lady, she was probably in her mid 40s or so and she says, hey Luke, I wanna introduce you to my mom. And I said, oh great, yeah, let's do it.

And so we walked over here and there's this old lady sitting in wheelchair and she had a sweet smile on her face. You know, she looked like grandma, you know, and I kind of knelt down beside her and she said, are you the young man that started this organization? I said, yes, ma'am, I am. And she says, I think it's so incredible that we have people that care about these kids building beds and all these people out here, because we had a build going on, right? All these people out here helping these

these kids out. I said, yeah, it's really neat. She's like, well, here's a little something from me that I hope can help, right? And it was like $700. I mean, it was probably quite a bit of money to her. And that was a great donation. It went and helped three or four kids get beds. And so I shook her hands and said, thanks for coming. And I remember she just kind of sat. She didn't really have the strength to help, but she kind of sat and watched the build. And it was neat. Well, the build was done. And I go home.

Well, about two days later, I get a call and it was this daughter of this mom, the lady that tapped me on the shoulder. She says, she says, Luke, don't think you remember me and you remember me and my mom. I said, oh yeah, great. It was wonderful. I hope you had a good time. She says, well, I don't think you understand what happened.

Luke Mickelson (01:00:01.219)
I said, please tell me. She says, well, my dad, so her husband, had passed away, I think it was like 10 years before that, right? It passed away a while. And she was so traumatized by that, she never left the house, ever, ever. She was so scared to go out in public, some mental block, right? That she had an...

Shannon (01:00:23.021)
Wow.

Shannon (01:00:27.958)
Yeah, she had agoraphobia. Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (01:00:28.259)
Yeah, agoraphobia. she wouldn't leave the house no matter what was going on. A baptism of a child or a wedding of a granddaughter, she just couldn't leave. Well, she said she saw, I think it was in the paper, she read something in the paper about these people that are going to be building beds for kids that didn't have beds. She said she called her daughter up.

Ann (01:00:28.653)
Right. Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (01:00:53.057)
She says, called me up and said, I want to go to this build. And she said, she about hit the floor. I mean, I don't know how many years that this mom, this grandma had never left her house. So when she came out, that's the first time she'd actually been outside for many, many years. And I said, that's amazing. You make sure you give her a hug for me. And she says, Luke, passed away last night. So.

Ann (01:01:02.243)
now.

Ann (01:01:20.255)
no.

Luke Mickelson (01:01:20.671)
It was two days later, so she was out, finally got outside. I think she may knew something was coming, but she got to see the true hands of amazing volunteers. And I know she wanted to witness that, especially about something so profound as a child's bed. I never forgot that. mean, how can you? was such an amazing experience. Yeah. And we shared a tear or two on the phone.

Shannon (01:01:21.35)
my gosh.

Shannon (01:01:43.906)
Yeah, can you forget that? Wow.

Ann (01:01:45.057)
You couldn't. You couldn't. Wow.

Luke Mickelson (01:01:50.05)
That's just an example of how passion, when you find something you're truly passionate about, there's not much that can get in the way of you fulfilling that and want to continue to do that. And I hope everybody finds their passion, you know, and you're not gonna find it if you don't follow your tiny moments. know, eventually you're gonna stumble on something that just strikes at your heartstrings, pulls at them and plays you like a fiddle.

Because that's what true passion does.

Shannon (01:02:24.664)
Yeah.

Ann (01:02:25.047)
Yeah, that is true. Very true.

Shannon (01:02:27.95)
So for listeners who feel moved by this Luke, what are the different ways that people can help?

Luke Mickelson (01:02:32.727)
You bet. Now it comes to the call to action, ladies. No, really, honestly. I hope you take the time to go to our website, shpbeds.org. know, it's Sleep in Heavenly Peace so shpbeds.org. there's a, our website's really interesting. You know, you're not gonna come up to our main, the main webpage, right? We did away with that because we wanted people to know what's going on in their own hometown.

Ann (01:02:38.325)
Exactly.

Luke Mickelson (01:03:02.093)
So geographically, when you go to sxpbeds.org, it's gonna bring up the closest chapters page. it's because we wanted people to see what's going on locally. So you're gonna see how many beds they've delivered. You're gonna see how many kids are on their waiting list right now. You're gonna see ways to get a hold of that chapter president. So you can either donate your time, you can donate sheet sets, twin size sheet sets. And if you wanna donate dollars, just know.

90%, greater than 9 % of your dollar is gonna stay right in that community, right? And the last thing is, if this is something that really pulls at your heartstrings and something that you really wanna be a part of, and there's not a chapter close by, you can start a chapter. There's a tab there that says start a chapter. And you're gonna go through a series of things that really are just to give you an idea of what a chapter president does. And after you go through all those things and you still wanna be a chapter,

We'll fly you out to Salt Lake City and teach you how to be a chapter. And when you get back, you're a full-fledged running chapter. So, and like I said, and like I mentioned, know, of all of these things, the one ask I have is please share this podcast. Please share what you learned today. Open your mouth and tell people. Trust me, I've heard stories of people sharing what they've learned about sleep in heavenly peace of the grocery line and the line next over, you know,

Ann (01:04:05.571)
Wow.

Ann (01:04:09.463)
Ready to go. Mm-hmm.

Shannon (01:04:10.126)
That's incredible.

Luke Mickelson (01:04:28.515)
was a family that knew of a family that had kids sleeping on the floor. And because of that conversation that they weren't even a part of, something happened. Back in 2012 or 13 or 14, me and Jordan, my buddy, who's our executive director now, we're sitting at lunch and we were talking about the coming up build that was gonna happen a couple of months. And this is when I, this one, one of those milestones where you realized, huh, I think we're onto something.

You know, we were sitting there talking. All of a sudden, we look over and the edge of our booth is this lady just standing there. And I'm like, can I help you? You know, it's kind of weird. She says, I have to apologize, guys. I listened to your entire conversation. Here's all the money in my wallet. And I just went, you got it. And it was like 70, 80 bucks. She's like, that's, it's all the money I had. That's when I knew, holy cow, there are people out there. They're just as touched and just as moved.

Shannon (01:05:07.8)
haha

Shannon (01:05:18.694)
wow.

Ann (01:05:19.392)
Wow.

Luke Mickelson (01:05:27.711)
as we are about helping kids. so please share this message. You don't have to have your story of your own. Use mine. Go find your chapter and go on a delivery. I tell people, can watch videos, you can see pictures, you can listen to testimonials of people delivering beds, but there is nothing that beats being in the room.

and feeling the emotions and seeing this little Joe hiding behind mom to start out with all scared and worried about these strange people in their room and then realizing or finally seeing that they're building a bed, their first bed. They come out from behind mom, they grab drills, they help us build beds and at three o'clock in the afternoon,

This kid is in bed sleeping because it's his first time he's ever had one. I mean, that right there is something that can change your life. And so if you're looking for ways to give back and feel fulfilled, of course, I would recommend Sleep in Heavenly Peace It's a way to help a cause that's so unknown but so needed.

Ann (01:06:25.398)
Wow.

Shannon (01:06:44.834)
Yeah, I totally agree. Well, if you kind of...

Ann (01:06:45.431)
So needed.

So it sounds like pretty much any, yeah, anyone could help. I mean, you don't have to be handy or anybody could do this. Right?

Luke Mickelson (01:06:52.833)
Nope. Show up in your stilettos.

Shannon (01:06:57.19)
Yeah, I was gonna say, even in your stilettos.

Luke Mickelson (01:06:59.011)
You know, another fun thing too is, you know, we put everybody to work. I mean, I have actually have a picture of a four-year-old sanding the same board as a hundred and four-year-old guy. It was really cool.

You know, and you know, we usually put these little kids on, know, putting the bolts on the screws and stuff like that. You know, because we want this to be a family event. I mean, that's how this started with me and my kids out in the garage going to town. And, you know, and it builds camaraderie, it builds unity, it builds togetherness and family. we actually call it internally the SHP family because we really feel that way. We feel, I mean, we can fight like brother and sister once in a while, but

Ann (01:07:42.051)
yeah.

Luke Mickelson (01:07:43.893)
But ultimately, you know, we're a family here to help our human family.

Shannon (01:07:50.915)
Yeah.

Ann (01:07:51.361)
It's a passion. For sure.

Luke Mickelson (01:07:51.543)
Yeah, for sure.

Shannon (01:07:53.578)
Exactly. Yep. So if someone out there is feeling overwhelmed by the world's problems and they're wondering if their effort really does matter, what do you want to say to them?

Luke Mickelson (01:08:07.331)
Get off the couch. I know it's hard. know that there's, trust me, we all go through these parts of our lives that affect us and we get down and we don't know how to get out of it. trust me, I'm a football coach. I give pep talks all the time and I give myself pep talks and sometimes they work, but most of the time they don't.

Ann (01:08:31.235)
I know, I get it.

Luke Mickelson (01:08:36.545)
The best way to do it. Yeah. For me anyways, and other people that I've talked to, if you want true joy, you just gotta stop looking at yourself, stop looking at your problems, forget them just for a moment, right?

Shannon (01:08:40.386)
Yeah

Luke Mickelson (01:08:50.837)
and go and help someone else out. I promise you, I promise you, you know, they don't go away, but they're not gonna feel so heavy. And you may, you may actually start seeing ways around them. And you might see ways or see that they just don't really mean that much, you know? So I encourage everybody, you have the strength.

to do it and maybe the only thing you can do is share this story, share what we're doing. You'll feel better about it. Who knows? You might get a call because of a post you put on Facebook. Maybe you shared this podcast on your Facebook page. You might get a call and this happened many, many, many times where people have thanked you for sharing that I now am part of a chapter or I now...

have a bed for my child because I saw what you know, how amazing is that, you know?

Ann (01:09:41.432)
Wow.

Shannon (01:09:46.648)
Yeah, that's totally amazing.

Luke Mickelson (01:09:47.615)
Mm.

Ann (01:09:52.195)
can we do some rapid-fire questions and just say the first thing that comes to mind. All right, Garage Builder Community Build Day.

Luke Mickelson (01:09:54.893)
Bring it.

Luke Mickelson (01:10:01.41)
Okay.

Luke Mickelson (01:10:06.028)
community.

Ann (01:10:10.079)
I Quiet impact or loud celebrations.

Luke Mickelson (01:10:14.275)
I'm a party guy. I love everybody. That was an easy one. I like making a big splash.

Ann (01:10:21.195)
Me too! Okay.

Ann (01:10:27.075)
Luke, one bed or one town?

Luke Mickelson (01:10:30.049)
Oof. Well, one town I...

Luke Mickelson (01:10:35.371)
One town is more.

Ann (01:10:40.572)
more. I agree. So one person dead or alive that you would love to meet.

Ann (01:10:49.347)
That's hard one, isn't it?

Luke Mickelson (01:10:50.207)
That is a hard one. I spent some time with my grandpa, Grandpa Mickelson. I always heard what an amazing man he is and I get compared to him quite a bit. But I was so young, I don't really remember him. I would have loved to know him my age, 48. I'd love to know him when he was in his prime.

and see where some of that stock that maybe I have comes from. And I would love to build beds right next to him. I think he would be a great, he would have been a great chapter president.

Ann (01:11:12.749)
Yes.

Ann (01:11:27.223)
He would love what you're doing and be so proud of you right now, Luke. You know, I just... What's one thing you liked about our podcast?

Shannon (01:11:30.669)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (01:11:36.708)
Oh, I love how open it is. I think sometimes, you know, it's funny, sometimes podcasters will send me, here's the questions or write the questions you want. And I tell people, look, I don't want to do that. Let this conversation go where it needs to go. think you had a simple but amazing insight questions that.

Ann (01:11:51.626)
Bye.

Luke Mickelson (01:11:58.316)
I haven't been asked before and it's just the reality of having three people that have never met each other and now are friends and can share something so important. This is where our garage starts and this garage, this podcast now can turn into something as big as a movement that is heard nationwide and someone out there right now

Shannon (01:12:09.057)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (01:12:09.333)
Exactly.

Ann (01:12:20.608)
Exactly.

Luke Mickelson (01:12:28.553)
may start a chapter because they listen to the Travel Time Stories podcast and tens of thousands of kids, know, years later will be affected and receive beds because of this one, this one garage, if you will, story that they heard on this podcast. So.

Ann (01:12:47.043)
Exactly, and you could be that person. You could be the one that steps up and does that.

Shannon (01:12:47.395)
Yep.

Luke Mickelson (01:12:51.709)
And listen.

I'm an open book. My email address is luke.mickelson at shpbeds.org. If you have a question, you want to know something, shoot me an email. I'll answer as many emails as I can. This is what I do for a living, paid or not. I do this all day long because I want people to know that for themselves that child bedlessness is the real thing. And you can be a part of the solution. Even if it's just in a small way of opening your mouth, you can help.

Ann (01:13:17.154)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (01:13:22.702)
child.

Shannon (01:13:26.402)
Yep, exactly. So what's one place that's not currently involved, but you wish they were?

Ann (01:13:27.904)
awesome.

Luke Mickelson (01:13:32.42)
There's a lot. Personally, I'd love to be in Australia right now. You know, the sad thing is, is we do get a lot of requests from overseas and, you know, we say we're in four countries. We're really in Canada and in the United States of the two big countries that we're in right now. But there's so much need out there.

Shannon (01:13:35.822)
hahahahah

Yeah.

Ann (01:13:42.384)
Hehehehehe

Luke Mickelson (01:13:55.588)
In our own country, you know, like I said, we've we've only covered 27 percent geographically of the United States We mean we haven't even be able to help our own and and here in the United States We're able to stretch our dollar further than anywhere else in the in the world so, you know when when we take it a lot of our bandwidth stays here in the states because we can we can do so well, but you know, my goal is is to try to reach as many kids everywhere, I mean our

Ann (01:14:13.015)
Yes.

Luke Mickelson (01:14:22.785)
Our mission statement doesn't say, you know, no United States kid or no Canadian kid, you know, it's no kid anywhere. And, you know, we'll get there. We'll get there. We just need more help, more time, you know, more money obviously would help, but really more awareness gets raised. know, our government, just for an example, there's no grants out there for child's beds, you know. I can't even go get a federal grant. I question whether I want one, but I can't even go get a federal.

Ann (01:14:32.002)
Right.

Luke Mickelson (01:14:52.789)
grant because they don't even know it exists, right? And so it's going to take a mountain of mouths to turn some of these heads and help people realize that this is a real need. You know, it's really funny when I tell people, not so much anymore, but certainly 10 years ago when I tell people what I was doing, I usually got two comments, which really kind of surprised me. But then again, it didn't. My first comment was,

Shannon (01:14:53.678)
I'm...

Ann (01:14:54.231)
Yeah.

Luke Mickelson (01:15:21.151)
Well, there's not that many kids that are sleeping on the floor, right? mean, I can see a few of them, but there's not that many. And I quickly tell them, no, it's much bigger than you realize. And then the second question is, well, probably not in my town. We're a pretty wealthy town. And I tell people, listen, job bedlessness doesn't know economics. It doesn't know geography. It doesn't know race or religion or politics. It knows hardship. It knows trials. It knows

bad, difficult situations. It knows moms that grab garbage bags and have five minutes to escape with their kids and whatever they can grab. Tell me how economics plays into that. Tell me how a region or religion plays into that. It really is an ugly thing and it is everywhere. And it can be, and it has been before, right next door to people that had no idea.

Ann (01:16:03.191)
Yeah.

Shannon (01:16:22.35)
yeah, I can imagine that. And especially too, in those rich neighborhoods where they think it ain't happening, it's there.

Ann (01:16:23.596)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Luke Mickelson (01:16:29.109)
yeah. We have a chapter in Pinehurst, South Carolina. One of the richest, I mean that's where all the PGA golf tournaments are played. We got a chapter there. If that gives you any idea that economics doesn't mean squat, I don't know what does.

Ann (01:16:32.126)
It is.

Ann (01:16:39.469)
Wow. Right.

Shannon (01:16:41.582)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (01:16:48.611)
Yeah.

Ann (01:16:50.029)
Wow, that's amazing.

Shannon (01:16:54.222)
Well, Luke, thank you so much for reminding us that meaningful change often starts with noticing what's missing and deciding to do something about it. So I know you mentioned it earlier, but where can listeners find out more about you and SHP and contact you?

Luke Mickelson (01:17:10.775)
You bet. So Sleep in Heavenly Peace's website is shpbeds.org. You can contact the chapter president there or learn more about child bedlessness. If you go to our, down on the bottom, you go to the media tab, man, you can see videos and so see witness build days and delivery days and listen to testimonials. I promise you, you're gonna cry. Cause some of these common joes like me share their experience, you know, and it touches your heart.

If you want to get a hold of me, I share my email. Go to any Facebook or rather any social media front. I'm either SHPLuke or Luke Mickelson and like me. Send me a message. I'd love to connect with people. As I quote, quote term of a millennial here, which I am not a millennial, build my brand, if you will. It really is just so we can reach more people. I want people to know that

Ann (01:18:01.513)
Right? Yep.

Luke Mickelson (01:18:09.719)
that if Luke Mickelson, the founder and face of Sleep in Heavenly Peace is about raising awareness about children, then I want them to follow me. I share a lot of great experiences and stories from other charities, or rather from other chapter presidents and the experiences that they've had on my social media once in a while. And they're just amazing stories of amazing people doing amazing things.

Ann (01:18:38.145)
This is such important work that you do. Anything that we can do to help spread the word and get it out there, get some attention to this, let people know that this is a huge issue.

Luke Mickelson (01:18:53.207)
Well, you're doing it. I appreciate having me on. This means a lot. And you listeners out there, don't let these words fall on deaf ears. You can do something about it. We can do something together about it. And let's go tackle this thing, man. Let's beat this down.

Shannon (01:19:09.888)
Exactly. Yep. To our listeners, sometimes the most powerful way to change the world is to meet a simple need with love and consistency. Let's embrace the humans helping humans philosophy and we'll link sleep in heavenly peace and ways to get involved in our show notes and also on our website. So take a moment, share the story with someone you think needs to hear it. Leave a review.

Luke Mickelson (01:19:09.911)
Yep, exactly.

Ann (01:19:10.167)
these kids.

Shannon (01:19:39.476)
It truly helps these stories reach the people who need them the most. And until next time, keep traveling your story and keep making memories for life.