Meridian mattress company giving back to community

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -Sleep Country mattress store located on Meridian Street is using pajamas to help give back to its community and has partnered with local nonprofit Blue Skies For Children for their annual Pajama Drive helping foster kids.

            From now until February 26, the public can drop off new pajamas and  packaged socks and underwear at the Sleep Country store and, unique to the Northwest program, materials donated in the Bellingham location will stay in the local county, according to Sleep Country Foster Kids spokesman Jarrett Tomalin.

            Pajamas are “very essential, night time is a scary time, and having a new pair of pajamas helps the transition for foster kids,” Tomalin said.

            According to Tomalin, Bellingham donations are able to stay within Whatcom County because of the company’s partnership with Bellingham’s Blue Skies For Children, a local nonprofit organization.

            “It’s definitely an essential part of the community,” Tomalin said. “The more the community puts into it, the more the local foster children receive.”

            According to the Blue Skies For Children website, it was founded in 1997 and its mission is “to raise hope and self-esteem by sponsoring enrichment programs and other essentials for homeless, low-income and foster children in Whatcom and Skagit Counties.”

            “We have contact with case workers and supervisors who contact the local foster homes and families and they come to us,” said Julie Guay, the executive director for Blue Skies For Children.

            Guay said every single donation drive is important, as there are six through Sleep Country, and sometimes it is easier for people to donate pajamas instead of money because clothing is a tangible item they can physically donate.

            “Foster kids go from home to home, lose things and outgrow them,” Guay said. “Kids grow so fast it’s a continual dive and it’s important for the kids to have pajamas keeping them warm and safe”

            “It helps make them comfortable in their new home,” Tomalin said.

            Nearly half of foster children do not return to their original family, and foster children average three different placements, according to the Sleep Country website.

            Guay said that while the Pajama Drive is doing well, it usually doesn’t do as well as the Sleep Country Coat and Toy drives because of the holiday season.

            Guay said the Coat and Toy drives are during the holiday season, when people are out shopping anyway and in the giving spirit, while the Pajama Drive is right after the end of the holiday season, when people aren’t spending as much money.

            “Each year the drive is different, and we are hoping in 2012 the Pajama Drive response is more than last year,” Guay said.

            Sleep Country employee Mark Henderson said the Meridian store receives good support from the community.

            “I personally think it is absolutely vital, on a scale of one to ten, it’s a ten,” Henderson said. “Any business is a business of the community.”

            The Meridian Sleep Country can get several pajama donations a day, or go sometimes four to five days without a donation, according to Henderson.

            According to Tomalin, last year’s Pajama Drive had in increase in 500 pajamas donated and “Bellingham is doing great.”

            In 2011, all of the Sleep Country stores brought in over 4,300 pairs of pajamas, while 2010 brought in 3,800 pairs, according to Tomalin. The Sleep Country Foster Kids Pajama Drive began in 2005.

            According to Henderson, people don’t necessarily have to use Sleep Country as their donation center.

            “Anybody can host a drive, just set goals and raise money,” he said.

            According to the Sleep Country website, someone who hosts their own Pajama Drive for their friends and family can then either drop off their total donations at Sleep Country, or call and have the store arrange a truck to come pick up the clothing.

            “While we collect pajamas at all Sleep Country locations,” Tomalin said, “we often have people host their own drives, such as athletic teams and churches.”

            Each year, the Northwest has over 10,000 new kids enter the foster care system, according to the Sleep Country website. Foster kids also experience four times as many emotional problems as their fellow peers.