Good Knights to host bed blitz

Good Knights of Lorain County is staging a bed blitz to deliver 100 beds to children in need.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 19 at the Wilkes Villa Apartments on 104 Loudon Court in Elyria.

Ilianna Lopez, a project manager for the Lorain County Metropolitan Housing Authority, said the gesture from Good Knights was much needed during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“This is a beautiful jester by Good Knights to help these low income families,” Lopez said. “We try to provide safe affordable housing to lower income, but their needs go beyond what we can supply,” Lopez said. “Especially now with the pandemic, loss of jobs and kids having to stay home. We filled up the requests for the beds in less than a day.”

Roger Dorsey, executive director of Good Knights, is working with volunteers, nonprofit agencies and first responders to supply beds to children in need.

The blitz needs around 50 to 100 volunteers to complete the task, Dorsey said.

Volunteers are able to attend the event, with masks, and help build beds for the children in need, he said.

“It’s local folks helping local folks,” Dorsey said. “People are welcome to help build beds.”

Volunteers will meet at the Wilkes Villa Apartments at 9:45 a.m. and build the beds shortly after, he said.

The blitz will be as socially distanced as possible and will provide children with beds, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillow covers and cases, Dorsey said.

Beds should take anywhere from five to 20 minutes to assemble and are relatively simple to complete, he said.

So far, 95 beds have been confirmed for setup.

Dorsey said in studies conducted nationally by nonprofit organizations and housing authorities, at any given time, 2% to 3% of children younger than age 18 are sleeping without beds.

This means there are anywhere from 6,500 to 9,000 children in Lorain County without beds, he said.

Dorsey said he wants to build between 1,000 and 1,500 beds this year.

The blitz will be as socially distanced as possible and will provide children with beds, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pillow covers and cases, Dorsey said.

PROVIDED This shows a sample bed made by volunteers with the nonprofit organization Good Knights.