A Year of Giving Back: The Laundry Industry’s Community Support Efforts in 2015
The laundry industry has a long-standing tradition of giving back to the communities it serves. That tradition continued in 2015 as business owners, industry groups and others supported their communities through various initiatives. Here’s a brief look back at how the industry and some of its members gave back during the past year.
LaundryCares Events
The Coin Laundry Association’s LaundryCares Foundation led the industry organization’s community support efforts in 2015. Some of the activities and initiatives LaundryCares was involved with in 2015 include:
- Early Learning Initiative
Wash Time is Talk Time, an initiative to promote early learning was launched jointly by the CLA, Too Small to Fail and other organizations in Oakland, California. The goal ofWash Time is Talk Time is to turn laundry time into opportunities for families to engage their children in reading and conversation.
To learn more about Wash Time is Talk Time, visit http://toosmall.org/community/laundromats.
- Free Laundry Services
New York – Hosted by the Laundry Depot 5th Avenue in Bay Shore, NY and sponsored by the Coin Laundry Association and Eastern Funding, this largest-ever free laundry event treated local families to free laundry services. LaundryCares volunteers distributed Wash Time is Talk Time materials as well as free books to the children on hand.
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Atlanta – In April, coinciding with the Clean Show 2015, LaundryCares partnered with the Laundry Project to put on a free laundry event at 3 laundromats in the Atlanta area.
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Learn more about LaundryCares at www.laundrycares.org.
Other members of the laundry industry initiated their own events to give back to their local communities in 2015. Here are two examples:
Holiday Charitable Gift Drive – New York
A broad cross-section of the laundry industry contributed to Eastern Funding’s 9th Annual Holiday Gift Drive for charity. Donations were used to purchase gifts for children of families at a nursing and rehabilitation center (the Wanaque Care Center), an organization that helps the families of veterans returning from overseas service (Mahwah Marine Moms), and an alcohol and substance abuse treatment center (Reality House).
Free Christmas Dinner for the Homeless – Pennsylvania
In Bucks County Pennsylvania, the Marrazzo family, one of the largest laundromat operators in Pennsylvania, hosted a free community Christmas dinner. In this tremendous act of kindness and community spirit, the event was open to anyone who wanted to attend.
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