Michigan man builds beds for kids who don’t have one

LANSING, Mich. (InvestigateTV) — Thousands of children across the United States go to sleep each night without a bed. Jarrod Olsen is working to change that — one bunk bed at a time.

Olsen is president of the Lansing chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a nonprofit organization that builds and delivers beds to children who don’t have one.

From pastime to passion

On a delivery day, Olsen and dozens of volunteers gathered to turn raw lumber into bed frames — bunk beds and single beds — before delivering them to families in the Lansing area.

“It was something that I was doing because I had the time to do it to kind of help give back and it turned into something bigger than we ever thought it would be,” Olsen said.

When he first began volunteering, the need was immediate.

“The first year we had a wait list of 750 or 800 kids. That’s when myself and a good buddy I roped in to help me started freaking out a little bit,” Olsen said.

Growing every year

Rather than stepping back, Olsen said he took on the challenge.

“It took us nearly three years to catch up that list, but we’ve continuously grown every year,” he said.

On this delivery day, Olsen and volunteers brought a bunk bed and two single beds to the home of Walter Dittis, a single father of four daughters — 3-year-olds twins, a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old.

“Means a lot to ‘em,” Dittis said.

Olsen said the work carries lasting meaning.

“I’ll look back and say I personally affected x number of lives of kids,” he said.