An Idaho man is 1 of CNN’s top heroes for 2018. Here’s how you can vote for him.
TWIN FALLS — A 24-hour cable news channel has honored a Kimberly man who started a nonprofit that makes beds for children.
Luke Mickelson, the 41-year-old founder of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, was named among the 2018 Top 10 CNN Heroes earlier this month.
As an honoree, he’ll receive $10,000 and will appear on “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” when it airs live at 6 p.m. Dec. 9. “It was quite a surprise,” Mickelson told the Times-News on Thursday morning.
“They actually told me a couple days ago.” With the initial shock of being recognized, he also felt honored and humbled. Mickelson is in the running for the “CNN Hero of the Year” — an honor that would earn him another $100,000.
Viewers can learn more and vote for their favorite hero up to 10 times per day, per method, by going to CNNHeroes.com and logging in via email or Facebook. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 4.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace got started in 2012 after Mickelson did a youth group project in his basement to make beds for children who needed them. The idea caught on.
“It’s not me — it’s the cause,” he said. “When you realize that there’s kids sleeping on the floor, it does something to you.” In 2017, Mickelson was filmed to star on Mike Rowe’s Facebook series Returning the Favor. He quit his job because he couldn’t get the time off, and began dedicating his whole time to the nonprofit.
At the end of the show, Mickelson received donations to cover four years of rent for the nonprofit’s new warehouse at 456 Madrin St. And it’s snowballed from there.
“We received over 2,000 new chapter requests and in eight different countries,” Mickelson said.
Sleep in Heavenly Peace was featured on NBC Nightly News. Before the Returning the Favor episode went live, the nonprofit had 12 chapters; it now has 130 chapters in 40 states, and is still creating 10 chapters a month. Leaders come to Twin Falls for training.
“It’s been a busy summer,” Mickelson said. “It’s real exciting.” He plans to use the $10,000 award money mostly to help Sleep in Heavenly Peace grow — the insurance costs alone will rise dramatically with the rapid expansion.
And if he receives the $100,000 for Hero of the Year, he’d like to take the nonprofit internationally. He gets a lot of requests for chapters in Canada, Mexico and countries in Europe.
“Our biggest deal right now is trying to get some paid staff going,” he said.
CNN will give honorees a free capacity-building training from the Annenberg Foundation in February. The network is also partnering with CrowdRise by GoFundMe to encourage people to donate to the nonprofits directly from the CNN Heroes website.
This story was originally published November 29, 2018 at 3:54 PM.