CRANBERRY TWP — Area children will have spiffy new sheets and pillowcases plus warm blankets and comforters to put on the new beds they receive from the Mars nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace, thanks to the local women who attended a convention on Friday and Saturday.

Elaine Snyder, of Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), served as Friday’s keynote speaker at the 126th General Federation of Women’s Clubs of Pennsylvania annual business meeting and state convention.

Snyder spoke at the Pittsburgh Marriott North about her four-year-old charity, whose volunteers build and deliver beds for children aged 3 to 17 who do not have them.

On the opposite end of the room from the podium where Snyder spoke was a puffy pile of 225 new bedding items for SHP volunteers to hand out along with the beds.

The sheets sets, comforters, blankets, pillows and comforters were collected by members of the GFWC Junior Women’s Club of Butler and the GFWC Intermediate League of Butler who attended the convention.

Each centerpiece in the room where Snyder spoke Friday included two new, small stuffed animals, all of which were also given to SHP for distribution to the children who receive the beds.

“It’s typical of what we do,” said Yolanda Cypher of the GFWC Intermediate League of Butler. “No matter the cause, we rise to the occasion.”

She found it heartbreaking to hear from Snyder that 326 beds have been delivered to 159 families since SHP made their first bed in March 2020, and was glad so many women donated bedding and cash to the organization.

“What better gift could you give someone than a good night’s sleep?” Cypher said.

Snyder told the roomful of benevolent women from across Pennsylvania that SHP members feel every child has the right to a bed and that restorative sleep enhances a child’s physical and emotional well-being.

She said protective services will not release a child to a home unless they have a bed, so in some cases, SHP allows a child who was taken from a home to return to their family.

The SHP motto, Snyder said, is “no kid sleeps on the floor in our town.”

She said the Mars SHP, one of four in Pennsylvania, provides twin or bunk beds to children in 42 ZIP codes within 30 to 40 minutes of the SHP warehouse in Mars.

The organization does not ask for income or any other information from recipients, Snyder said.

“If you can’t afford a bed, you get a bed,” she said. “If you have six children, you get six beds.”

She gave a slide presentation showing volunteers sanding and staining the wood and putting together the finished pieces, including slats.

“We don’t use box springs,” she said.

The beds are completed at the home of the recipient, and a mattress is included in the set.

Snyder said one mother who lives in an extremely old mobile home in the country with her five children was offered an apartment in Butler, but chose to keep the kids in their rural setting, which she considered safer.

The mother needed bunk beds with a trundle bed for three of the children who sleep in one room, but the configuration of the beds would put them above the room’s heating vents.

“My husband didn’t think we should do that, but the mother said ‘Oh, they don’t work. We use space heaters,’” Snyder said.

She said although SHP members worried about that arrangement, they provided the beds in the requested configuration to the delight of the children.

Snyder said most children who receive beds are beyond thrilled, as was evidenced in the pictures she showed of beaming youngsters sitting on their newly build beds that were outfitted with bedding as well.

“They hug us and show us their homework,” Snyder said.

While the group does not provide beds for parents, Snyder and her husband found a bed online at a good price for one mother of young SHP recipients who was sleeping on a concrete basement floor.

After her presentation, Heide Marie Cebrick, GFWC Pennsylvania president, thanked Snyder for her work and presented her with a check from those who attended the convention.

Cebrick said she was unsurprised at the amount of bedding collected for SHP, as giving is a top priority of the GFWC.

“It’s not about me, it’s about we,” she said.

Cebrick said 80 women from at least 40 of the 65 counties in Pennsylvania attended the two-day convention.

“Only a few counties do not have GFWC clubs, but we’re working on them,” she said.

The GFWC clubs’ top charitable projects also were awarded at the convention.

On Friday, various projects created by clubs from counties all across the state were recognized.

The GFWC Junior Women’s Club of Butler took the Creativity Award in the Environment category for a gardening project.

The club planted vegetables at a garden on the Sunnyview complex in Butler, then donating the harvest to the Community Dinner program held at various churches in Butler.

Club members also served as volunteers at the free dinners one Thursday per month to help distribute the evening meals.

That Creativity Award will move on to national GFWC competition, said Susan Morrow, chair of the Environmental category and GFWC Intermediate League of Butler member.

The GFWC Junior Women’s Club of Butler also took home the Special Programs Signature Project award at the convention.

In the domestic violence project, the club partnered with a Tae Kwon Do school to host a women’s self-defense class, which served as a fundraiser for the Victim Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe).

The class was open to community members as well as club members, and the club matched the amount raised.

In total, $500 was donated to VOICe as a result of the fundraiser.

The GFWC Intermediate League of Butler also received an award in the Special Programs category for providing journals to women and children living in VOICe emergency housing.

The club came up with the project after learning that studies show journaling can improve sleep, help with depression, improve healing time, help process trauma and provide mood-boosting effects.

The club provided the VOICe home with a total of 76 journals.

The GFWC Intermediate League of Butler also received an award at the convention in the Leadership category.

The club was awarded for their Silver Tea event, in which past club presidents are recognized for their leadership at a “tea.”

Many other speakers were featured and awards given out on Friday and Saturday at the convention.

Elaine Lineman, president of the GFWC Intermediate League of Butler, said the state convention was the second held in Cranberry Township in recent years.

“It’s always informative,” Lineman of each year’s state convention. “It’s wonderful hearing everything the clubs across the state are doing.”

She was amazed at the amount of bedding collected for Sleep in Heavenly Peace.

“We are very giving,” Lineman said of the Butler clubs. “We realize there are so many people who have hardships, and we want to make their lives a little bit easier if we can.”

The club also has a sense of humor, which was demonstrated by Yolanda Cypher when asked what she hopes attendees from across the state take away from the convention in Cranberry Township on Friday and Saturday.

“That the west side (of Pennsylvania) is the best,” she said.