More than 4,000 children in the Greater Richmond community sleep better at night, thanks to the efforts of Jenny J. Jones and a legion of other volunteers at Beds for Kids Inc.

Ms. Jones founded the nonprofit organization that provides beds for children in 2006 and serves as its CEO. She says she was inspired to start it after she began mentoring young, single mothers in job hunting and maintaining finances.

“I found that none of their children had beds to sleep on,” she recalls. “Some were on the floor, some were sleeping on sofas and multiple adults and children (were sleeping) in the same bed.

“Beds for Kids bridges the gap between a child’s needs and a family’s means by providing safe, comfortable beds to children,” Ms. Jones adds. “A bed can make a decade of difference in a child’s life and impact their future forever.” She notes that data show that a child who gets a good night’s sleep does better in school, is more secure, less angry, less anxious and better able to handle life situations.

“There are also statistics show a large number of infants deaths are due to a lack of proper bedding and co-sleeping,” she says. “We are attempting to lower the number of co-sleeping suffocations by providing every child a bed.”

Ms. Jones says everyone at Beds for Kids serves on a volunteer basis.

The organization helps between 400 and 600 children each year. She says there is a waiting list of about 230 children who need beds.

Each bed costs $250, she says, which includes a twin mattress, box spring, frame, comforter, sheets and pillows. “The average life of a mattress is 10 to 15 years,” she says. “When we provide a bed to a child, it solves an issue in that family’s life for 10 years or beyond.”

She says the group is holding its annual fundraiser — The Dream Chasers Bed Race and Festival — from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, at The Diamond parking lot. For more information: www.dreamchasersbedrace.com. Here’s a look at this week’s Personality, Jenny J. Jones:

Date and place of birth: October 1964 in Richmond.

Current home: Midlothian.

Education: Studied music education and accounting at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Family: Husband, Keith, and two adult children and two grandchildren, ages 6 and 9.

No. 1 objective: To provide as many children a bed as possible by the resources that we are afforded by the community.

What Beds for Kids does for families: If a child needs a bed, we provide it if we have the means to do so. We provide beds to children from 1 month to 18 years of age.

How program works: We deliver beds to children on the waiting list as soon as we have resources available. We have volunteers that will pick up donations and deliver to the clients. We have large groups that will have a community service day and deliver multiple beds in one day as a team-building exercise and collect donations to help offset the cost of the beds they are delivering. 

Types of beds children have received: The majority of our deliveries is a twin bed. We occasionally receive bunk beds, but it is a rarity. We provided a full-size bed to a 3-year-old who had a feeding tube. He was hospitalized because the small bed he was in allowed his tube to get hooked on a netting that was around the bed and pulled it out at night.  We felt a full-size bed would give him a safe space to roll around while he slept with preventive guards.

How Beds for Kids is financed: 100 percent by donations from the community.

Number of volunteers: 1,000 volunteers a year.

How volunteers can become involved: Volunteers can go to our website, www.bedsforkids.us, or email volunteers@bedsforkidsinc.com and let us know if they are looking for office work, delivery of beds, corporate or large group volunteering.

How I start the day: I take a half hour each day to reflect and meditate. At this point in my life, it is important to me to let go of the stresses of life and help as many people as possible.

A perfect day: Meeting all the obligations I could of that day. Spending time with friends and family.

A perfect evening: We have four generations of family still alive and living close. We frequently have family gatherings at our house. My husband and I also have friends that we have had since high school. So I cook for my family and friends. In the chaos is the perfect evening. Too many people in the kitchen, the grandkids running and screaming through the house, the noise of 35 people laughing, talking and having a good time and then, at the end of the evening, sitting down as our children sit down inside and socialize. The grandkids are playing somewhere in the house and my husband and friends are outside relaxing and talking about the past. 

I place top value on: Human life and respect.

Favorite late-night snack: Chocolate.

Prized possession: My family.

The one thing I can’t stand: A human being who is making another human being feel abused, disrespected or unloved.

My friends like me because: It is my hope that my friends like me (laugh out loud), but I think they do because they know I will be there for them.

When people first meet me they think: I am direct. I really never play games. I am never dramatic because I do not like drama. But I smile at a stranger because they deserve it and I hope that people see a reflection of a loving person.

Person who influenced me the most: My clients. They give me the strength to keep going when things do not go well or we can barely make ends meet with our debts.

If I’ve learned one thing in life, it is: Love myself first and then I have room to love others. Respect myself or no one will respect me. Give to others because one day I might need their help.

My next goal: To keep moving forward.