Sandra Burton said her goal to raise funds to buy 1,000 sleeping bags by the end of 2024 was met before midnight on New Year’s Eve, with money for 1,005 bags. But when a major winter storm hit the Golden Belt over the weekend, the Rest Easy Sleeping Bag Project provided warmth in other ways. The Central Kansas Dream Center opened its doors as a warming station Saturday afternoon and donations originally earmarked for sleeping bags also helped buy crockpots to provide hot meals, Burton said.
“Every single dollar that was given was needed,” she said, recalling some of the gifts that came in. “Walmart’s donation of $100 on (Dec.) 29th paid for five sleeping bags. There was one donation for $1,000. There were two donations of $500 each. All the rest came in small amounts from lots of people. It took every single one and every single dollar, even down to the $1 a girl gave me at the Dog House bar.”
The Rest Easy Sleeping Bag Project was created to give away sleeping bags to homeless people in central Kansas.
“Interestingly, when we first opened the account at First Kansas Bank, Jay (Leurman), the bank manager, said, ‘We are going to name this account the Rest Easy Project because I have a feeling it will be for more than sleeping bags.’”
Burton reached out to Buzz Birney with Live Like Jesus Today Ministries to help with orders and distribution.
“By Dec. 31 at midnight 1,005 sleeping bags had been ordered and paid for,” Burton said. “They are still coming in. Of course the weather has delayed that, although USPS delivered five cases (Saturday) evening, which are now in my living room because it was too slick to put it in the garage.”
To meet her goal by the end of 2024, Burton said she continued to seek donors on New Year’s Eve.
“I went ‘ice’ cold calling the morning of Dec. 31, cruising down Patton Road. I stopped at four different places. None of them had even heard about the project and so my 15-second explanation was all they had.”
Burton told people the average cost for a case of 10 bags is $175. “In two businesses they simply just wrote a check for $175 and handed it to me, no questions asked. The other two places gave me cash. In less than an hour I had collected $550!” she said.
“I didn’t know that my ‘ice’ cold calling would be quickly followed by our ice cold storm,” she added.
“Two more checks came in on Dec. 31, so we had more money than we needed … Or so we thought.”
Winter storm arrives
“Buzz sent out a Facebook message (on Saturday) saying they were opening the Dream Center at 4 p.m. and they needed casseroles and crockpots of soup. I texted him and I said I don’t cook, but we have money for crockpots and soup from Walmart. He said that would be great, since they feed people often and they could use more crockpots. Being very grateful that I learned how to drive in this kind of weather, I made it safely to Walmart (and then) to the Dream Center and back home.”
On Sunday, Birney sent out another Facebook message requesting food that their team would come and get. Burton said she was able to do an online transfer of cash from the sleeping bag project to buy supplies for food.
Although the project was for 1,000 sleeping bags for those in need, it touched countless more than 1,000 people, Burton said, praising the generosity of the Great Bend community. “The givers, the people who heard the stories, the people at the bank who saw the money coming in, all the views on Facebook for all of our livestreams and videos. That’s when a project becomes something much bigger than itself. And that’s how God works. Buzz Burney’s crew from Live Like Jesus Today Ministries, people whose names I don’t know, giving of themselves out in this weather, organizing food ... Great Bend is blessed to have people with giving hearts and people with boots on the ground to take care of each other.”
