Pre-school students from the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools recently gathered in front of Leah\u2019s Laundromat on the Q<\/a> for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to announce the unveiling of a new Family Read, Play & Learn space at the Kansas City store.<\/p>\n

This initiative is the first of its kind in the city and is being launched in partnership with the LaundryCares Foundation<\/a>, Lakeshore Learning<\/a>, Scholastic<\/a>, and the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library \u2013 bringing together this public, private and philanthropic collaboration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe LaundryCares Foundation is proud to partner with the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools\u2019 Department of Early Childhood,\u201d said Dan Naumann, executive vice president of LaundryCares. \u201cWe share their vision to bring early literacy into community settings and everyday places like the laundromat. We believe this project helps break down barriers and increase access to critical early language and literacy interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Read, Play & Learn space at Leah\u2019s Laundromat on the Q will provide a much-needed literacy resource to children in our community, which will help build critical school-readiness skills,\u201d explained Dr. Megan Cook, director of Early Childhood for the KCKPS.<\/p>\n

The store\u2019s owners \u2013 Sheleah and John McPherson \u2013 recently celebrated their first year in the laundromat business. Sheleah is a former educator who knows first-hand the importance of literacy and is giving back to her community by providing access to a dedicated space within her business for local youth to read and learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited to be part of this awesome program that will encourage reading and enhance our young people\u2019s imaginations while they are here with their parents,\u201d McPhearson said. \u201cI want to do my part to enrich my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The McPhearsons carved out a small section of their laundromat to create a fun, engaging and comfortable space that encourages reading. The area features three built-in shelves and one self-standing bookshelf \u2013 filled with more than 250 children\u2019s books and 70 adult titles. Families are allowed to take books home in order to encourage continued learning.<\/p>\n

The KCKPL has donated 300 books to the laundromat, which will be replenished regularly through book donations from the library and other community-based organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to partner with LaundryCares,\u201d said Carol Levers, director of the KCKPL. \u201cThe Kansas City, Kansas Public Library is not just about books. We bring people together and connect them to worlds beyond our community, allowing access to programs and services that fuel lifelong learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are truly grateful for all of these organizations coming together to promote the importance of literacy,\u201d noted Superintendent of Schools Dr. Anna Stubblefield. \u201cOur collective collaboration reinforces the importance of learning outside the classroom. When children are encouraged to read independently, it can enhance classroom learning. The Read, Play & Learn program provides students with the opportunity to read, learn and play outside of school.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the launch of the new reading and learning space at Leah\u2019s, a player from the Kansas City Monarchs baseball team was on hand to read to the local students in attendance. In addition, Dream Automotive donated 60 containers of laundry detergent to give out to laundry customers at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the neighborhood laundromat has a unique opportunity to upcycle the otherwise mundane laundry day routine and give back to the families who patronize our businesses every week,\u201d explained Brian Wallace, president and CEO of the Coin Laundry Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre-school students from the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools recently gathered in front of Leah\u2019s Laundromat on the Q for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to announce the unveiling of a new Family Read, Play & Learn space at the Kansas City store. This initiative is the first of its kind in the city and is being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":11561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9351,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11562,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11560\/revisions\/11562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}