Back in the spring, we told you Serve Weekend was coming and that our goal was 50 beds for kids in the Northland who didn’t have one.
We didn’t just hit that goal. We blew past it.
On August 23, 174 volunteers across Good Shepherd’s North Oak and Gladstone campuses gave up part of their Saturday to serve our city.
Nearly 100 volunteers spent the day at our Gladstone campus building 80 beds in partnership with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a national nonprofit that builds and delivers bunk beds to kids sleeping on the floor. The project was funded through our 2026 Easter offering. Sleep in Heavenly Peace Kansas City Chapter President Craig Weltig says the need reaches far beyond the Northland. About 3% of the population doesn’t have a bed to sleep in, a number that includes kids as young as three. Because of one Saturday, eighty of those kids in our own community will sleep somewhere safe tonight.
Others packed hygiene kits for families displaced by the earthquakes in Venezuela. Through our partnership with DHH Church in Venezuela, those kits are going directly to people now living in temporary camps as their communities begin the long work of recovery.
And on Sunday volunteers served alongside A Turning Point KC, cooking and sharing community meals with our unsheltered neighbors right here in Kansas City.
By the end of the weekend, the bed build had caught the attention of local news. KCTV5 came out to cover the story and you can see more photos from the day below.
How to Get Involved Next Time
If reading this makes you wish you’d been there, good news. Serve Weekend happens multiple times a year, and it’s far from the only way to get plugged in. Visit goodshepherdkc.com/serve to find ways to make an impact, right here in our community.
