- 31 - Andrea Hancock has worked in the pest control industry since 2004, when she and her family started Mattress Safe, an industry supplier that supports residential and commercial service providers with mattress encasements that keep out dust mites, bed bugs, bacteria and more. While helping grow Mattress Safe as the company’s vice president, Hancock dreamed of creating an international nonprofit organization that focused on providing clean bedding and pest control services to those in need around the world. It’s a dream that slowly but surely became a reality. Hancock said the idea for P.E.S.T. (Professionals Empowering, Sustaining & Transforming) Relief International first came to her before she even began Mattress Safe. She had seen a documentary that showed missionaries working to replace compromised mattresses at an orphanage, and two children featured in the documentary received a new mattress to replace the one they were sharing that had been chewed through by a rat. With personal savings and support from the pest control industry, Andrea Hancock launched P.E.S.T. Relief International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the worldwide community through humanitarian relief. Hancock then began Mattress Safe and started making trips to orphanages in Honduras to provide children in need with clean and safe mattresses and bedding, which was soon to become her primary program that is now known as REST. As Mattress Safe grew and became more successful, Hancock began donating mattress covers to various orphanages and shelters in the United States. In 2012, she began saving her own money, knowing that she would need it in order to launch the nonprofit organization she was envisioning. Three years later, she had saved enough and applied for P.E.S.T. Relief International’s nonprofit status with a mission to unite the pest control industry to bring comfort and relief to those who are orphaned, abused and at risk. Now she has launched her own product line for humanitarian efforts called Rest Beyond Relief. Her desire is to use the proceeds to continue the efforts of P.E.S.T. Relief throughout the world while bringing comfort and relief one mattress cover at a time. “I thought to myself, ‘I want to do that!’ I want to make cozy places for orphans to sleep, so that they know they are loved and cared for,” said Hancock, who serves as executive director as well as a volunteer for P.E.S.T. “Little did I know that I was going to start a mattress protection company.” USA
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