HURON – Families are sleeping easier tonight thanks to a program Slumberland has spearheaded with local partners for a dozen years in Huron to provide mattress sets to those in need.
“Slumberland believes very strongly in being a part of our community and impacting Huron in every way that we can,” said owner Rich Bragg.
In partnership with United Way Heartland Region and its executive director, Rhonda Kludt, Slumberland gave away 10 mattresses, box springs, frames and mattress protectors this Christmas season to families in its Homes for the Holidays program.
The mattress sets, up from a total of eight a year ago, has a total value of $7,000. Since opening in Huron 12 years ago, Slumberland has donated $65,000 in new bedding.
The business donates new twin size Simmons and Tempurpedic mattress sets.
“We also do a program called 40 Winks, which goes throughout the year,” Bragg said. “It’s another opportunity to give new bedding.”
Recipients gathered at the store on Thursday to pick up the mattress sets. Volunteers also delivered them to others.
Nationally, Slumberland gives away 2,000 new beds each year across the 12 states it serves. More than 25,000 new beds have been donated to those who might otherwise be sleeping on the floor, Bragg said.

In addition to the mattress sets donated in Huron, Mt. Calvary Lutheran Women have again donated quilts and bedding for each mattress. American Lutheran Church donated pillows again this year, and Holy Trinity Catholic School’s fourth-grade class provided pillowcases for all the beds.
Volunteers from Huron Community Campus and Holy Trinity Catholic Church helped to deliver the beds.
Bragg said United Way Heartland Region helped to find families in need. Agencies receiving beds this year are Head Start, Huron Housing, Vocational Rehabilitation, the Huron School District and the Karen Association.
The most difficult aspect of the program is making sure the people most in need are receiving the beds each year, Bragg said.
“We want to make an impact,” he said. “We want to make sure that we get those beds out to folks that are truly in need.
“There’s no place like the relationship that we have with the United Way in Huron and Rhonda,” he said.
“Every single year she has made it so easy for us to help put the program together, to find the right folks and to help us facilitate the whole event,” Bragg said.
Homes for the Holidays continues to snowball, with new partners joining each December, he said.
“In order to make it work, it takes a lot of people,” he said. “We appreciate everything that everyone does each year to make this happen.”
Kludt also thanked the volunteers.
“I just have to say that the work the United Way does could never be done alone,” she said. “We do so much with so many partners.
“I’ve come to believe that the best word in Live United is ‘united,’ and we certainly are united in the Huron community,” Kludt said.

Photos by Roger Larson of the Plainsman

Slumberland president Rich Bragg speaks during Thursday’s presentation. Above: Fourth-grade students from Holy Trinity presented pillowcases that they decorated to go with the beds. Right: volunteer Roger Puthoff loads a box spring into the back of a pickup.