On the day before Clean 2022, the Coin Laundry Association’s LaundryCares Foundation hosted a free laundry day in Atlanta. This event was held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at five laundry locations in and around the show’s host city:
- Bustin Suds Laundromat, Atlanta
- The Laundry Center, Atlanta
- Peachy Clean Laundromat, Acworth, Ga.
- Oz Laundry, Decatur, Ga.
- Wash & Spin Coin Laundry, Atlanta
Held in partnership with Too Small To Fail, the early learning initiative of the Clinton Foundation, the multi-store Free Laundry Day – dubbed “Lift Up Atlanta” – provided needed laundry services at no charge to hundreds of local families, with thousands upon thousands of pounds of laundry washed, dried and processed during the four-hour, five-store event. In addition, the day also featured free food, including sandwiches from Chick-fil-A; a DJ, face painting for the kids, numerous raffle giveaways, including bikes, televisions and free laundry for a year; and more.
Also, guests who brought their laundry to Peachy Clean Laundromat during the event were greeted by Nickelodeon’s popular character “Santiago,” from the hit preschool series, “Santiago of the Seas” – an action-adventure show infused with a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum, following 8-year-old Santiago, a brave and kind-hearted pirate captain, and his best mates as they embark on daring adventures.
What’s more, with early childhood literacy as one of the main pillars of the LaundryCares Foundation’s mission, ribbon-cutting ceremonies were conducted at all five participating laundromat locations to formally open LaundryCares Family Read, Play and Learn Centers at the stores.
“Laundromats are a community hub, and families can benefit from much more than clean clothes,” said Coin Laundry Association President and CEO Brian Wallace. “LaundryCares’ free laundry days aim to leave lasting impressions on all who attend. On top of free laundry, we give away children’s books and educational activities that families can take home to carry forward the experience.”
In fact, untold hundreds of books were distributed throughout the day as part of LaundryCares’ overarching goal to create safe and welcoming spaces within laundromats for childhood literacy and learning development.
Free laundry days represent an industrywide effort to give back to underserved areas that strongly support self-service laundry businesses on a daily basis. As a result, more than 100 volunteers from all across the United States, who are in Atlanta to attend the Clean Show, participated in this LaundryCares-sponsored event.
“Of course, a very special thanks goes out to our laundromat-owner hosts for their efforts and extreme generosity,” said Dan Naumann, executive vice president of LaundryCares. “The ultimate goal is a National Free Laundry Day – and, with today’s rousing success, we took another huge leap toward that goal. What a great way to kick off the beginning of Clean 2022… by giving back to local communities and ‘lifting up Atlanta.’”
