HINESVILLE, Ga. () — Dozens of volunteers gathered in Hinesville with one goal in mind: to make sure children in the community have a bed to sleep in.

The Alee Shriners partnered with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a national non-profit organization dedicated to building and delivering beds to children who don’t have one. Volunteers worked together to construct dozens of twin-sized beds, turning piles of wood into fully assembled frames in just a few hours.

“We can generally build about 30 beds in about two and a half to three hours,” said Terry Cook, president of the Hinesville chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

Cook also said the need for beds is far more widespread that people might assume:

“It’s estimated that about three percent of the children population in any area that is sleeping on the floor, on the couch, sleeping on a pallet of clothes, anything other than a bed—that’s where we come in.”

This was also an opportunity to local Shriners to see how the operation works firsthand. Danny Fries Jr., potentate at Alee Shriners, said it was a learning experience that paid off.

“When you have strength in numbers, that makes everything go fast,” Fries said.

All the labor and materials were donated. Cook said the materials alone would normally cost around $250 per bed.

For the volunteers involved, it was more than a service project—it was about giving kids the foundation to success.

“Some of these kids they don’t have a meal, they don’t have a bed and yet we expect them to thrive,” said Cook. “A kid should have a bed.”

While this was the first time the Alee Shriners teamed up with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Fries said it certainly won’t be the last.

“This is our first but not our last. We’ll do some more.”