Elyria Rotary Club finishes 50 beds with Good Knights of Lorain County

More than 50 beds are now ready to go to local kids, veterans and seniors in need after the Elyria Rotary Club visited the Good Knights of Lorain County facility in Elyria for a night of service. The Rotary Club meets on Tuesdays, and in weeks that have a fifth Tuesday, like March, the club gathers for an additional social gathering or service event. This week, Rotary Club Director President Chris Pyanowski said that club members wanted to participate in Good Knights' nonprofit mission to build beds to be distributed to those in need in the county and neighboring communities. "The idea that somebody doesn't have a bed to sleep on is such a basic expectation of humanity, and I have always been impressed with this cause," Pyanowski said. "I have made beds with them before, I have delivered beds and I really connected with it … so myself and a number of members of the club felt that this was a very worthy cause." Good Knights mostly provides beds to children, which was its founding purpose, but as the organization has grown it has also started to deliver beds to veterans and seniors. Pyanowski said that Rotarians have participated in larger scale Good Knights events, but this week was the first time that the Elyria Rotary had gone by itself to the new permanent Good Knights facility in Elyria, which opened last year. The partnership was natural, because Good Knights founder and Director Roger Dorsey is a member of the Elyria Rotary Club. On Tuesday, 50 Rotarians, family members and friends worked every one of the nine bed-building stations that are set up at Good Knights. Pyanowski said that the simplicity of each station and the guidance of Good Knights volunteers meant that it was easy for anyone to join in on the work and make beds efficiently. In just two hours, Dorsey said that the Rotary Club built 25 beds, and the club was able to do necessary finishing work on about 30 more. Dorsey said that the nonprofit has worked for years to streamline its process so it is as easy as possible for outside groups to work on beds when they volunteer and Good Knights can build beds as quickly as possible. "It is always good to have out an organization that you are a part of, especially since a lot of Rotarians played a large part in us getting and building our new facility," Dorsey said. Good Knights has large community builds on the second Tuesday of every month, but smaller groups can do what the Rotary Club did and make separate visits to the facility at 728 Leona Road to work on beds. Groups interested in participating can contact Good Knights to schedule a build by calling (440) 420-5430 or visiting goodknightsoflc.org. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.