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A Good Night Sleep
DETROIT, MICHIGAN (Detroit Free Press) - Two years ago, Adrianne Chamblis managed to get her family into a Habitat for Humanity home on Detroit’s east side.
But she was never able to afford much in the way of furniture. Her 13-year-old daughter slept in a used, donated bed and her 8- and 5-year-olds either slept in her bed, or with her 16-year-old son.
On Saturday, Chamblis and her children received two twin beds for the younger children and a double bed to replace her 13-year-old’s second-hand one. As she proudly showed off the new beds, complete with colorful new comforters, her younger daughter dug into a bag of tutus and other dress up clothes that was also left by the donors.
“Oh, I was excited, very excited,” Chamblis said.
The Chamblis family was one of 46 families across the region who received 100 donated beds from two charities on Saturday.
“We give beds and bedding essentials to people coming out of the homeless population into permanent housing,” said Leigh Ann Lanaux of the non-profit organization Good Night’s Sleep of Los Angeles.
The group delivered 518 beds to other cities in the last 18 months before coming to Detroit, where it partnered with Humble Designs of Troy to deliver beds in the area. Humble Designs is a non-profit providing free home makeovers to families recommended by charitable organizations.
The beds, which by law must be new, were purchased with money donated to Good Night’s Sleep.
The idea for donating beds to families in need came from a line in the 2009 movie "The Blind Side," when the athlete tells the character played by Sandra Bullock that he’s never had a bed before, Lanaux said.
The recipients had to have been homeless, but moved into permanent housing for at least six to 12 months, and have a job or be in program that will help them remain in their permanent housing.
The Detroit donations included sheets, comforters, pillows and other bedding donated by employees of Doner, an advertising agency in Southfield.
“The reaction we get is one of thankfulness and humbleness,” Lanaux said. “The best reaction is the children. The children that we delivered to today were either sleeping with their parents or on the floor. We told them how to make up their bed and they couldn’t wait to jump in it.”
Other projects in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Jackonsonville, FL, and New Orleans this fall. More donations in Detroit were not ruled out.
“I’ll come back to Detroit any time,” Lanaux said.
For more information, see www.agnsfoundation.org.
Copyright 2013 Detroit Free Press
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Updated 300 days ago Article ID# 1700507
A Good Night Sleep
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