Free beds help hundreds of poor Hillsborough students

Across the Tampa Bay area, some children sleep on the floor because there's no money for luxuries like a bed.

Others double up with a sibling or parent.

It's Nicole Daone's job as a social worker to help these families, but few places offer free beds or free anything these days.

Thanks to a coworker, The Children's Home caseworker discovered a company that does just that.

Through its program, A Hope to Dream, Ashley Furniture delivers free beds to needy children 3 to 16, with comforter sets included.

Since December 2010, the Wisconsin-based company has given away more than 1,500 beds nationwide for a total of $800,000.

That includes 409 mattress sets in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Clearwater and Brandon.

"Helping children has always been one of the passions of the owner, Todd Wanek,'' said spokeswoman Ruthie Bautista of Ashley Homestores in Brandon.

"When kids have a comfortable bed and get a good night's sleep, they do better in school,'' she said, "and in life.''

That's what Madeline Rivas is counting on for her five boys.

The family moved from Miami to Tampa a year ago for a better, safer life.

With only her husband, a mechanic, working, they landed in a low-rent north Tampa apartment with a landlord who did little to maintain the complex.

Soon, Rivas' home was infested with rats and roaches.

For months, the kids slept with their mattresses on the floor, dodging pests and waking up sore and tired.

Their parents slept on air mattresses. Eventually, all the furniture, including the beds, had to go.

In a new apartment complex and under the watchful eye of Daone, Rivas sees a new life unfolding.

Her boys have had to sleep on the floor for more than two weeks now, but they knew beds were coming.

"Every day they would ask me, 'Are they coming today?' " Rivas recalled. "Not yet, not yet,'' she would told them.

When the big day finally arrived today, Jose and Neftali Bautista, both 9, could hardly wait to come home from Shaw Elementary.

The first thing they saw was a giant Ashley Furniture truck with two burly delivery guys and distribution manager Bill Mclendon carrying up five twin box springs, followed by five memory foam mattresses.

Made of the same material used on space shuttles, the foam eventually rises to the proper height and conforms to each child's shape.

"So they'll never wake up with a back ache,'' explained deliveryman Matt Izzo.

Jose couldn't stop smiling, or stand still.

He ran from room to room of the sparse two-bedroom apartment, lending the guys a hand with the set up.

Then Jose and his brother helped make the beds.

"They never do that!'' Rivas said.

With the lime and white comforters in place, Neftali stretched his stocky frame across each mattress, just like Goldilocks in The Three Bears.

"This one's too soft,'' he said as his body sank into the foam.

It didn't take long, though, to find a bed that was just right.

Ashley Furniture plans more deliveries Friday, Bautista said.

Two are going to sisters, 5 and 7, whose dad recently lost his construction job. Like the Bautista boys, they were sleeping on the floor.

Another will go to a 12-year-old girl whose mother was a victim of domestic violence. They fled their previous home with few belongings.

Often, recipients are referred by social service agencies or charities, though families can apply on their own, Bautista said.

The winning applications are selected by a committee that reviews each family's needs.