Breakfast for Beds!
On May 12, 2021, from 8-9 AM, Houston Furniture Bank hosted “Breakfast for Beds,” a virtual fundraiser to benefit the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative! Guests were treated to a step-by-step tour of the Mattress Builders factory, where Houston Furniture Bank makes mattresses for children in need. The goal was to raise the funds for 300 beds for kids. Saima Seyar and Kip Altstaetter, longtime friends and supporters of the Houston Furniture Bank, led the program from in front of the Mattress Builders’ quilting machine. They introduced a series of guest speakers and followed Hal Lynde as he moved from station to station, walking the audience through the making of a mattress.
No Kids on the Floor!
Guests who tuned into the live broadcast learned about the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative, which seeks to address the powerful statistic that some 300,000 children in the Greater Houston area are sleeping on the floor. In 2020, the first full year of the program’s existence, Houston Furniture Bank was able to provide a comfortable place to sleep to 1,000 children. Houston Furniture Bank serves families in need through over 50 nonprofit organizations that provide a variety of services to families with unmet needs.
Donors and Sponsors Fund 300 Beds for Kids!
The goal for “Breakfast for Beds” was to raise the funds for 300 children in need. Kip and Saima shared fundraising updates throughout the program as we inched closer to our goal. They acknowledged donors of every level, as well as the event’s sponsors. Silver level sponsors included Colliers International, Cadence Bank, and HEB, which provided $10 for those who registered to “Bring Their Own Breakfast” to the program. Bronze level sponsors included Mattresses for Less, Landmark Furniture, American Furniture Warehouse, IJK Home Construction and Minerva Perez Media.
As the program came to a close, pledges came rolling in! Each host, Saima, Hal, and Kip, pledge five beds, and Nino and Associates pledged $1,000. Thanks to over 2,000 individual donors, Houston Furniture Bank met its goal of funding 300 beds for kids, raising over $50,000!
Guest Appearances in support of “No Kids on the Floor”
Guests were treated to video appearances by important partners in the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative. Wayne Young, CEO of the Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD, one of the over 50 nonprofit agencies working in partnership with Houston Furniture Bank to provide furniture assistance to families in need, highlighted the 300 children who received a bed in 2020 as a result of their partnership. View Wayne Young video.
Mayor Sylvester Turner spoke movingly about his childhood in Acres Homes as the sixth of nine children. He asserted that the assistance he and his family received during that time helped them get where they are today. View Mayor Turner Video.
There was also a very moving message from Bob Sanborn from Children at Risk, a statewide advocacy group based in Houston. Sanborn asserted that according to the group’s research, the number of children estimated to be sleeping on the floor in the Greater Houston area is about 300,000 and the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative is doing incredible work to break the cycle of poverty in our community. View Robert Sanborn Video.
Making a Mattress
Chairman of the Board Hal Lynde treated guests to an in-depth tour of the Mattress Builders factory. Guests learned that Houston Furniture Bank’s Mattress Builders factory was founded in 2018 in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Over 3,500 families affected by the storm would receive furniture assistance. Today, the Mattress Builders factory creates mattresses for the “No Kids on the Floor Program.” For every $150 donated, Houston Furniture Bank is able to provide a new, durable mattress, box spring, and frame to a child in need. The program also creates mattresses for wholesale as a social business supporting the mission of “Making Empty Houses Homes.”
The live program included a description of many of the steps to create a mattress and box spring for the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative, from quilting layers of material for duality and safety to unbaling springs to sewing “flanges” to each mattress “topper,” to covering the springs with many layers of soft material to connecting all of the pieces with the specialized “tape machine” that connects the sides or “bands” with each mattress’s topper. Lynde collaborated with the Mattress Builders and Brandon Grange from American Furniture Warehouse to create a finished twin-size mattress and box spring which were then carefully sealed in plastic for delivery to a local child in need.
A Team Effort!
Houston Furniture Bank is so grateful to the donors, sponsors, volunteers, table captains, production team, mattress builders, speakers, staff, and fundraising committee members that made Breakfast for Beds a success! Thanks to their time, gifts, and energy, Houston Furniture Bank is one step closer to ensuring that no child sleeps on the floor in our community!
Work to do!
In 2020, its first full year of existence, the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative provided beds to over 1,000 children in need. But there is still a lot of work to do! Houston Furniture Bank’s goal is to continue to grown this program! With over 300,000 children sleeping on the floor, we have a long way to go but we are making excellent progress! With over 29 years of experience and relationships with amazing nonprofit partner agencies, Houston Furniture Bank is poised to make ours a city where no child sleeps on the floor! Please, consider making a donation today to the “No Kids on the Floor” initiative. Any amount you are able to give is an investment in our collective future!
