Who could dispose of 90,000 beds in good condition- and still sleep soundly at night?…
Who could dispose of 90,000 beds in good condition- and still sleep soundly at night? No one we know. In fact, a new partnership between United Way, Radisson Hotels & Resorts and Hope for the City hopes to have the whole community resting easier. The three entities have created a public-private coalition to find charitable homes for the thousands of beds the hotel chain will be replacing over the next two years.
Radisson recently announced that it will be exchanging its existing king, queen and double-sized beds for the Sleep Number® beds by Select ComfortTM at 249 Radisson hotels and resorts in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, with the majority of Radisson`s 90,000 beds to be upgraded in 2005 and 2006.
Our exclusive agreement with Select Comfort will bring hotel bedding to a new level of comfort and choice in our industry and will help our hotels increase guest satisfaction and obtain a leadership position in the marketplace, said Bjorn Gullaksen, executive vice president of Carlson Hotels Worldwide Full Service Hotels and Brand Leader for Radisson Hotels & Resorts. We also wanted to provide an option for our hotels to put their existing beds to further good use and help those in need, rather than just liquidating the beds or having them end up in a landfill. Through our partnership with United Way, Hope for the City and their numerous affiliated non-profit agencies, our hotel owners in the United States and Canada can donate their existing beds to charity and help their greater community.
Those beds donated will be made available- in bulk- to nonprofit agencies.
The Radisson Plaza Hotel Minneapolis, Radisson`s flagship property, is the first hotel to begin to donate beds to the coalition. Through Hope for the City, it has donated an initial 10 mattresses and 10 box springs and sheets to Family and Youth Advancement Services, an organization in Saint Paul that serves the Hmong community. New West Mattress has donated 10 bed frames.
Organizations must commit to taking at least 200 beds to qualify for the program. Greater Twin Cities United Way, the organization that forged this North American partnership opportunity with Twin-Cities based Radisson Hotels & Resorts and Hope for the City, is now working with other United Way organizations across the nation to spread the word about how agencies can receive donated beds. At United Way we do our best to connect our business and nonprofit partners to solve community problems, said Lauren Segal, president and CEO of Greater Twin Cities United Way. We saw that, in this case, there was a natural fit with our three organizations Radisson, United Way and Hope for the City- to make the program work. We are confident that these beds will now find their way into the homes of people who need them most.
Hope for the City, an emerging leader in the Twin Cities nonprofit sector, is a driving force behind the partnership, distributing the beds with the help of its connections across the nation and Canada. Radisson has selected Single Source Solutions (SSS), a leading logistical service company offering transportation, warehousing, installation and removal of furniture, fixtures and equipment company in the hospitality, healthcare and childcare industries, to be the be the single source for licensees for handling the removal of the existing beds.
We are thrilled to be involved with this project that will bring joy, comfort and a good night sleep to thousands of people in need, said Megan Doyle, co-founder of Hope for the City. Hope for the City was founded on the premise of working with our corporate friends to help those in need. We welcome any opportunity to help people with goods that would otherwise go unused. Last year Hope for the City received and distributed more than $111 million dollars worth of corporate surplus worldwide.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
