The LaundryCares Foundation will welcome the community of Abilene, Texas, to experience a Free Laundry and Literacy Day event at Laundry Luv on December 7. Guests can enjoy complimentary laundry services and cleaning products, plus free food and fun activities for children and adults from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. There is no limit to the amount of clothing and linens that can be brought in to wash and dry for free.
During the event in Abilene, Laundry Luv also will unveil its new Read, Play & Learn space, where children have access to literacy-rich materials while their caregivers launder clothes and linens. Local leadership and the Abilene Public Library staff will officiate a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4:00 p.m. to formally open the reading and learning center. Immediately afterward, librarians will host a story time and remain onsite for families to sign up for library cards and learn about library programs.
Throughout the afternoon, children can play educational games, participate in reading activities, and receive a free book from Scholastic and Sesame Street. The LaundryCares Foundation will also handout Sesame Street printed toolkits for parents to use at home.
Read, Play & Learn spaces, open in select laundromats across the country, offer safe, comfortable learning environments to support school readiness, a need that is often unmet in underserved communities. The programs are made possible through LaundryCares and the Clinton Foundation initiative Too Small to Fail, who together form the Laundry Literacy Coalition to help support young children’s early language development.
The LaundryCares Foundation works with laundromat owners and community organizations throughout the U.S. to connect communities with literacy resources. Interested parties can enroll in the LaundryCares Network at no charge to become part of the movement that’s helping bridge the child literacy gap in historically excluded communities.
