CARLINVILLE, Ill. (First Alert 4) – Thieves stole a majority of the tools from the Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter in Carlinville, about an hour north of downtown St. Louis, dealing a major setback to the organization’s mission of providing beds to children in need.
The theft occurred sometime on Christmas Eve, when nearly $3,000 worth of power tools were stolen from the warehouse where the chapter stores its equipment.
“Pretty much all of our power tools, right? So, the drills, the impacts, the sanders, we had bits taken, we had everything down to a rubber mallet,” said Josh Carnduff, co-president of the Sleep in Heavenly Peace Carlinville chapter.
“A miter saw, a cobalt miter saw on a stand. And then four or five sets of drill and impact. All of our battery chargers, batteries, basically the, you know, the main cog and the gears that gets this thing going up and left Christmas Eve,” said Jason Leefers, co-president of the Sleep in Heavenly Peace Carlinville chapter.
Leefers and Carnduff formed the Carlinville chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace in October. The national nonprofit’s mission is to ensure no kids sleep on the floor.
“One day, they’re sleeping on the couch or something that they have their whole lives. Then, after we leave, 20 minutes from getting there, they’ve got their own bed as a safe space, something of their own to have moving forward,” said Leefers.
“We have community build days that build the bed frames, but we provide new mattresses, bedding, pillows,” Carnduff said. “When we go to a delivery and assemble the bed at the delivery, we leave, and the kid can hop right in bed. So they get to enjoy it immediately, which is, it’s really cool.”
Since starting in October, the chapter has built and delivered 17 beds at no cost to families with volunteers. It has another 30 applications pending in the northern two-thirds of Macoupin County.
“People are really starting to understand, especially with how many deliveries we’ve had already, how many open applications we have, that this was maybe a little hole in some of the community that we’re able to fill. People know that we’re out here doing whatever we can, not for any gain for ourselves, strictly to see what we can do for the kids in the community,” Carnduff said of the assembly process.
Their operation and effort are now at a standstill.
Carnduff discovered the theft on Christmas Day when he went to the warehouse.
“My phone rings. He says, ‘Hey, you don’t happen to have all the tools at your house, do you?’ I said, ‘No, it should be in the building.’ He said, ‘All right, well, we’ve got a problem,’” Leefers said.
Carnduff said the stolen power tools are essential for building the bed frames the chapter provides to families.
“We are so new and didn’t want to feel like we had let everyone down who had, you know, just started donating to us. Being a new chapter, we’ve really been hand-to-mouth with donations,” Carnduff said.
After the community learned about the theft, there has been an outpouring of support to help the chapter continue its mission.
“Anybody and everybody’s been reaching out. When it comes to the kids in the community, everybody gets involved. You know, we’ve got business owners calling saying, what do you need? I’ll get it right now,” Leefers said. “We’re really looking forward to coming out of this and putting that community right back into it. Getting everybody out here on community build days and really showing them, you know, what their donations and what their help is going to.”
Carnduff said, “Jason and I were out here and had someone show up just asking what he could do. With his business, we’ve had core team members, businesses say, ‘Hey, we’re going to help you do whatever you need.’”
The outreach had included business owners, individuals and even other Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapters in the area. Donations can be made on the chapter’s Sleep in Heavenly Peace page. The Carlinville CommUnity Chamber of Commerce is collecting donations, and Ace Hardware is among the businesses providing support.
With the support and donations, Jason and Josh hope to resume building and delivering beds soon for the reward of helping children.
“Once you have a kid ask to give you a hug because you’ve delivered their first bed,” Carnduff said. “It’s just, well, now do we go back to the warehouse and keep building? We want to get to everyone as soon as possible.”
Carnduff and Leefers said they are taking steps to prevent future thefts and secure the items.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact the Macoupin/Montgomery Counties Crime Stoppers.
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