Nine area families were given the gift of a better night’s sleep thanks to new-to-Chatham business, Sleep County Canada.
Business co-founder and executive co-chair Christine Magee was in Chatham April 27 to announce the donation – new mattresses and bedding for nine deserving families with Chatham-Kent housing services.
“When we expand into a new community, we look at how we can give back to the community,” Magee said at the Chatham store. “I’m proud new beds for these nine families was something meaningful we knew we could do right away.”
Shelley Wilkins, director of housing services for Chatham-Kent, said the municipality has 1,415 rent-geared to income households, and the donation helps them offer not just a home, but a better life.
“These families work hard to budget their money, and new beds are not something they can afford,” Wilkins said. “Poor quality mattresses can have a negative impact, but a good night’s sleep promotes health and wellness.”
At the event was Teresa Coleman, whose family received new beds and bedding. A single mom of three teens who have been sleeping on second-hand mattresses for years, Coleman said she was extremely grateful for the donation from Sleep Country.
“I am very humbled and we can’t wait to sleep on our new mattresses tonight,” she said.
Lyn Martel, vice-president of community programs for Sleep Country, said finding partnerships in the communities they expand into to help women and children started in Halifax with a women’s shelter and is something they do now in new areas.
The company runs a national campaign in May called Pyjamas and Storybooks for Better Bedtimes which encourages the donation of new or gently used pyjamas and books to local children in need, as well as a coat donation program.
A year round program at Sleep Country also supports the donation of gently used mattresses available to those in need, and any that can’t be used are recycled, keeping thousands of mattresses out of the landfill every year.
