Vince Boddicker

It’s Labor Day and Vince Boddicker is loading up his maroon GMC truck. He could be out golfing. He’s still seeking that prized hole-in-one. Or he could be working on his farm or ranch. There’s always work to be done. Instead, Vince and volunteers are loading up his truck with two twin beds to be delivered to two sisters in Mitchell.

 

When they pull up to the house, the two excited girls are on the front porch and say “Hi”. Their room is 10×10. Just enough room to stack the twins to make a bunk bed. Each child gets their own homemade wooden bed, brand new mattress, pillow, sheets, quilt and blanket.

The girls share that they’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor, stained when their younger sister had an accident. After installing the wooden bed, Vince and the crew make the bed with brand new sheets and handmade quilts picked out based on the girls favorite colors: purple, red and pink. The volunteers pack up their tools, load up the pickups and the girls say “Thank you” from the porch.

Vince is co-president of Sleep in Heavenly Peace. In 2020, he founded the local Mitchell chapter of the national nonprofit that provides beds for children in need. And there is one in Mitchell. To Vince’s surprise hundreds of children in the area didn’t have a bed.

Sleeping on the floor, a couch or in a parent’s bed prevents a child from getting quality sleep. It causes behavioral problems, trouble paying attention in school and can literally stunt a child’s physical and emotional growth, says Harvard Medical School.

Children need more sleep than you may think— up to 17 hours a day for infants under three months to 10 hours per night for 18-year-olds, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vince wasn’t planning on running a nonprofit. It started with Brookings’ resident Dave Miller. Dave started the first chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace or SHP in South Dakota, the 34th in the nation. Dave could talk for hours about SHP and has. He’s traveled across the state sharing the impact he’s witnessed.

“I just speak from the heart of how much it has truly changed my life. And again, I don’t say that lightly. It has. It’s just the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been a part of by far,” Dave, who is in his 60s, says.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national nonprofit that was started when an Idaho man built a bed to giveaway to a family in need. When he posted it on social media, the response was overwhelming. He started Sleep in Heavenly Peace in 2012.

In October 2019, Dave drove down from Brookings to speak at the Knights of Columbus. Vince was in the audience. While he’s volunteered before with his church and town boards, he’s never started a nonprofit. But listening to Dave, the cause seemed so important, Vince decided to start the Mitchell chapter.

“When you start a chapter, they said, you know you get the word out there. Your biggest worry is going to be funding, but that’s the least thing you have to worry about. And they’re absolutely right. The community steps behind you and helps you out. I can’t tell you how many church ladies organizations that have donated quilts.”

And it’s truly a community effort. The Farm Bureau Financial Services donates storage space. Krohmer Plumbing and Muth Electric have donated space for bed builds.

But in Mitchell can there really be that big of need for bed? “The answer would be if you can make the time, get involved with this, and you will see the need,” Vince says.

He encourages anyone and everyone to volunteer including children. No experience necessary. At September’s bed build in the former Krohmer Plumbing building off of Ohlman, more than a dozen volunteers gather to cut, sand and build bed frames. They even burn their SHP brand on the head and foot boards. Among the volunteers, an elderly couple walks in, the wife aided by her husband. They both spend hours sanding the boards, one of the most important jobs, Vince will tell you. No child wants a sliver from their bed.

If you don’t know Vince, you may have heard his booming voice on local radio. He’s up early to do the livestock and grain market reports and gives five other updates throughout the day.

He knows the industry well. Vince grew up and later owned a family farm near Parkston. During the day, Vince is a broker for Farmers Trading Company and Midwest Grain Marketing, a role he’s served for more than three decades.

He’s old enough to retire, but Vince is not much of a sitter. In fact when he was healing from knee replacement and on doctor restrictions, he still wanted to help with delivering SHP beds to children. Instead of hauling in the headboards or railings like he usually does, Vince brought in the pillows.

His friends call him reliable. If you want something done, Vince is the guy.

So far Vince has lead the nonprofit that has served more than 300 children in the Mitchell area. It’s not just young children who receive beds. Growing teenagers also need a place to sleep.

Victoria Conzemius applied for her 14-year-old son to receive a bed. She’s grateful for the volunteer team. “The fact that they deliver and they come and they build it and everything, I’m legally blind. I don’t drive. So just for me to even be able to go get it, it’s not possible,” she says. Plus, beds are expensive.

The SHP volunteer team picked out a patriotic bedspread for the teen, a great fit. He’s eyeing enlisting after high school and wants to be a police officer or firefighter.

 

If your child is in need of a bed, you can visit shpbeds.org/apply/