Wash It Kwik<\/a> laundromat in Denton, Texas, is just a quarter-mile down the road from the Newton Rayzor Elementary School.<\/p>\nSimply due to their close proximity to each other, the two entities \u2013 each in their own way \u2013 serve the same neighborhood, as well as many of the same families.<\/p>\n
And, recently, Wash It Kwik and Newton Rayzor have taken advantage of this geographic and demographic overlap, along with the passion of the school\u2019s librarian, to partner on a childhood literacy program for the entire community.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy kids went to Newton Rayzor 17 years ago, and that\u2019s where my wife, Sweet Julie, and I met Kelly Born,\u201d explained Bruce Walker, who owns Wash It Kwik. \u201cShe was a teacher and librarian at the school, and she and her husband had kids about the same age as our boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward to last fall: Born was dropping off some laundry at Wash It Kwik when she noticed that Walker was looking for some part-time help at the store.<\/p>\n
\u201cKelly and her husband are trying to pay off some debt,\u201d Walker noted. \u201cThey\u2019re both teachers who were sick and tired of being in debt. Plus, they have two kids in college, so they were looking for some extra money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker hired Born \u2013 with a few concessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her she could come in a little late and leave by 9:00 p.m. on school nights so that she can get to bed at the decent hour,\u201d Walker said. \u201cAnd she has been just awesome \u2013 even encouraging her fellow teachers to find ways to pay off their own debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, as a school librarian, Born is constantly thinking of ways to get kids excited about reading and learning. And, as a local educator, she often sees her students at the laundromat while she\u2019s working and their parents are doing laundry.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when the light bulb went on.<\/p>\n
Born was inspired by a book she had read to her students called \u201cBiblioburro,\u201d which is about a man from Colombia who delivers children\u2019s books on his donkey to remote villages throughout the area. She decided that her students could serve as a \u201cBiblioburro\u201d for the other kids in the community who visit the laundromat.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe created a reading station at the store, along with these beautiful crates to hold the books,\u201d Walker said. \u201cKids can take a book and leave a book. Now, they can spend their time reading and learning, while allowing the parents to get the family laundry done. It\u2019s a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born even organized a trip to the Wash It Kwik, where Newton Rayzor\u2019s kindergarten and first grade classes walked to the laundromat to donate books to the store\u2019s new \u201clibrary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKelly also has persuaded us to recycle, which helps the school earn a little money,\u201d Walker pointed out. \u201cLast year, the entire school earned less than $200, and I know we can do better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wash It Kwik now takes all of its recyclables to Newton Rayzor\u2019s recycle dumpster, which helps to fund upcoming school projects. Walker also presented the school with a $500 gift to go toward anything the school library requires. In addition, with Born working two jobs to pay off debt, Walker gave her $250 to put toward that goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur entire team loves working with Kelly,\u201d he said. \u201cWe certainly hope she stays with us for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Texas Laundromat Teams with Local Elementary School on Childhood Literacy Program Wash It Kwik laundromat in Denton, Texas, is just a quarter-mile down the road from the Newton Rayzor Elementary School. Simply due to their close proximity to each other, the two entities \u2013 each in their own way \u2013 serve the same neighborhood, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":6436,"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":[98,243,244,245,9351],"tags":[9240,312],"class_list":["post-6435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-feature-1","category-feature-2","category-feature-3","category-highlights","tag-childhood-literacy","tag-laundromat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6435"}],"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=6435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6437,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6435\/revisions\/6437"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}