Sleep Country donates mattresses to 3 women's shelters

Three New Brunswick centres for homeless and abused women and children are receiving new mattresses and bedding from a national company.

Sleep Country Canada used its new Fredericton location as the backdrop to announce the donations on Tuesday.

The company gave new mattresses, covers, sheets and pillows to the Liberty Lane Transition House in Fredericton, as well as the Coverdale Centre for Women in Saint John and Crossroads for Women in Moncton.

The mattress company donated eight twin and eight double mattress sets for all the beds to the Fredericton transition house.

Fiona Williams, the executive director at Liberty Lane, said the donation of beds is very important to her organization.

"When women make that choice to leave for their safety, they often make that choice to leave behind, not just family and friends, but also prized belongings, including items like their bed," Williams said.

"And anybody in this room knows that having a safe place to sleep is probably one of the most important things to our health and well being."

Sleep Country has recently opened up stores in Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John.

Christine Magee, a co-founder of the company, said Sleep Country tries to find ways to give back to the communities that it does business in.

"We always believe that women, children and their families are often very marginalized across the country and it is one of our philanthropic mandates is to give back to the community and as part of that our mandate is to help women and children and sadly domestic abuse is not going away and it is one of those things that really is out there and we really want to make a difference in," she said.

Sleep Country also offers a bed donation program which offers used beds to those in need.