Earlier this year, Great Bend businesswoman Sandra Burton joined forces with Buzz Birney from Live Like Jesus Today Ministries on a quest to buy 1,000 sleeping bags for homeless people and others in need in central Kansas. By the end of last week, Burton reported they had received enough donations to buy 500 bags, thanks in part to a donation from children at Saint Joseph Catholic School in Ellinwood.

Burton and Birney went to the school on Dec. 17, to receive a donation from the sixth, seventh and eighth graders in Dr. Strecker’s class. They were handed a Ziploc bag containing almost $200

“The 22 kids could not ask their parents for money; it had to be their own,” Burton said.

To thank the students and help them remember what they did, Burton and Birney handed out Christmas throw blankets. “I said, ‘Every time you wrap this blanket around you, you can think about someone wrapping a warm sleeping bag around them,’” Burton said.

Burton, owner of Sandra Burton Massage, started the Rest Easy Sleeping Bag Project earlier this year to provide warmth to those in need. Some of the first bags purchased with donations went to Wichita, where Live Like Jesus Today Ministries has regular outreach. 

But there is also need closer to home. Earlier this month, when the Great Bend Tribune published a story about homelessness in Great Bend, Managing Editor Keith Lippoldt photographed the encampment under the Arkansas River Bridge on U.S. 281. Burton said she and Birney followed up by taking a dozen bags to the camp.

The work continues.

“As far as the Rest Easy Sleeping Bag Project, I am reaching out to large businesses and corporations who can help with bigger numbers,” Burton said. “To date, we have had mostly individuals and small business owners. The prices on the sleeping bags have varied but the average is still about $17.50 and with shipping we’re looking at about $8,800 (for 500 more bags). I have faith in the generous community of Great Bend that we can make that by December 31.”