In 1995, I started volunteering for a crisis pregnancy Center in Gainesville, Texas called ABBA Women’s Center. I would go once a week to do any minor repairs that needed to be done around the office and store room. Most of my time quickly went to repairing broken baby cribs that had been donated to the center. After several years of this, I began seeing baby cribs coming back through the center that I had repaired, only now broken in a different place. It was obvious to me that the beds were made rather flimsy. I could build a better baby bed. After consulting with a few of my friends about their experiences as dads and finding out OSHA safety regulations concerning the manufacturing of baby beds, I made the plans for the original bed while building the prototype. 

In the year 2000, Camp Fort Worth was looking for a hands-on activity that involved tools and handwork. I asked the director, Jeff Hedglen, if Camp Fort Worth could begin making baby beds. Jeff answered, “Can you make baby beds?” I replied back, “Yes,” and it was done. The offer was taken up and baby beds began to be made during Camp Fort Worth that summer. 18 years later the 300th bed was completed. These beds are still in operation in the greater North Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth area. Unfortunately, Camp Fort Worth then came to an end, and the beds were no longer made. However, the need for them in the Dallas/Fort Worth area remained. Meanwhile, the Sanctuary City for The Unborn movement was growing. Lubbock, Texas became a sanctuary city when its citizens voted it in on May 1, 2021. The Texas Heartbeat Bill came into effect shortly thereafter. The need for baby cribs was quickly increasing. Now a resident of Lubbock, I gathered together two other Camp Fort Worth alumni staff members and formed Baby Beds Incorporated in Lubbock, Texas. One of them, Gregory Brown, was my baby bed making protégé at Camp Fort Worth. The other, Gregory Ramzinski, Jr., was a youth ministry colleague in the Diocese of Fort Worth as well as a Camp Fort Worth staff member. Baby Beds Incorporated was established on August 6, 2021 to provide baby beds to crisis pregnancy mothers and their babies at absolutely no cost to the mothers. In addition, Baby Beds Incorporated offers pro-life talks, seminars, and workshops to churches, groups, congregations, conventions, schools, etc., and plans to begin a high school pro-life summer camp to immerse students into a culture of life in 2023.

Eric Gray, Founder, Baby Beds Incorporated