About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2024)
6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, June 5,2024 Sleep in Heavenly Peace’s Skip Sevier steps down DCN file photos Skip Sevier, right, helps assemble a bed during the inaugural bed building event for the Dawsonville chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace in 2018. NO KID MTHEFIoql 'Nowroiwv, Skip Sevier, left, helps assemble a bed during the inaugural bed building event for the Dawsonville The nonprofit’s goal is to provide beds for chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace in 2018. children in need in the community. By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com Six years since starting the Dawsonville chapter of national nonprofit Sleep in Heavenly Peace, local man Skip Sevier has stepped down as the chapter’s president. Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP) is a nonprofit dedicat ed to providing beds for chil dren in need in the communi ty. Through the efforts of hardworking volunteers, SHP chapters across the country work toward this goal by hosting bed building and dis tribution events, linen drives and more. Skip Sevier first heard about SHP in 2018, when he saw the nonprofit featured on a TV show called “Returning the Favor”. During the epi sode, the show’s host Mike Rowe visited Idaho, where SHP was originally founded, and spotlighted what the non profit does. “It was just touching — my wife and I were crying at the end of it,” Sevier recounted. “And so I contacted the Sleep in Heavenly Peace office the following week and asked them what we could do.” Sevier attended a three-day training in Twin Falls in 2018 and came home, he said, “rar ing to go” to get the nonprofit started in his community. He started talking to people in the community to gauge interest, and they held their first bed building event in the Seviers’ driveway in September of the same year. “We started delivering beds the following month, and there has been just tremen dous support from various aspects of our community,” Sevier said. Since 2018, under Sevier’s leadership the Dawsonville chapter of SHP has built and delivered beds to 525 children in its service area, which cov ers Dawson, Forsyth, Lumpkin, Union and White counties. When he began the Dawsonville chapter in 2018, there were only about five chapters, but now there are over 240 chapters nationwide. As it’s grown, the local chapter has been supported immensely by local organiza tions and business, he said, including Fred’s Beds, QTD Data Centers, Lowe’s and many churches, civic groups and local clubs. In 2020, Sevier was asked to be the regional support lead for the Southeastern United States, which included all of the chapters in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The following year, a support lead was added to take over the Florida chapters so Sevier could con centrate on the other states’ chapters, and this year a new support lead stepped in to take over the Georgia chap ters. Most recently, Sevier passed the torch of the Dawsonville SHP Chapter President on to Patty Kurz, who has been volunteering with SHP for quite some time now and is excited to take on the role of president. In the near future, he will also be passing on his support lead title to a SHP representative in North Carolina, which will give Sevier a well-deserved retirement from his leader ship roles and an opportunity to participate in SHP events as a supporter. “I’m looking forward to being a supporter, to deliver ing beds and volunteering,” Sevier said. He will certainly leave his mark on the organization and the county alike, SHP found ers Jordan Allen and Luke Mickelson said, as he’s poured himself into the non profit ever since hearing about it in 2018. “There are few people in this world that, when you first meet them, they become instant friends — Skip Sevier is one of those few individu als,” Mickelson added, “His heart is just as large as his personality and his example of unwavering and endless service has been an inspira tion to me. His community is richly blessed to have such an amazing man whose passion for helping children with comfortable beds to sleep in is unmatched.” “There are many people who keep themselves busy talking about wanting to make a difference in this world, but Skip Sevier has always been too busy making a difference in this world to talk about it,” Allen added. “His laser focus on helping others, especially children, is truly inspiring. Though I’m certain he doesn’t realize this, Skip is a hero to all those who know him, including me, and I am proud to call him my friend.” And his time with the non profit has left just as big of a mark on him, Sevier said, recounting story after story of the families he’s been able to help deliver beds to and the faces of local children when they realize they won’t have to sleep on the floor anymore. “We deal with some very sad situations, but we also deal with some heroes,” Sevier said. “Our society is in a very rough place, but our community is amazing. There are only two reasons why Sleep in Heavenly Peace exists at all: to put beds under children but also to involve our community. We can’t sur vive as a charity without the community’s support.” For more information about the Dawsonville chapter of SHP, including how you can help support its mission in the community, go to https://shp- beds.org/chapter/ga-dawson- ville/. SPONSORED BY Northeast Georgia Health System StU'i tht datt! 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