Bell Employee

Mary Voss

Des Moines, Iowa

Nonprofit Organization

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

The Need

A neighbor walking by was always impressed by Mary Voss’s home and yard projects – not to mention her fearless use of power tools!

“You need to volunteer for our bed build,” he told Mary one day, explaining that he enjoyed helping Sleep in Heavenly Peace, a local nonprofit that builds beds and delivers them to children who don’t have them.

When Mary told her husband, a high school teacher, about the effort, she received another revelation.

“You’d be shocked at how many of our students sleep on the floor, on the couch or even in a car,” Mary’s husband told her. “They just don’t have beds.”

“I had no idea our community had this need,” Mary says. “So I called my neighbor back, and I said, ‘We’re in.’”

The Impact

On the day of the bed build, the event was jam-packed. Mary and her husband spent 4 hours working alongside dozens of other volunteers, who built 20 beds to be delivered. Mary also provided her Pay It Forward funds, plus additional donations – enough to build 2 full beds.

Each child also receives sheets, a comforter and pillow – all brand new.

It was a tiring day, but a rewarding one.

“We signed up for the next (build) before we left,” Mary says, adding that Pay It Forward makes her “a better person,” someone who is “hyper-alert to people in need and situations that might need us.”

“If everyone did what Bell does,” she asks, “wouldn’t it be a better place?”

Through the Pay It Forward program, Bell gives employees money each year to donate to people in need and causes they care about.