This morning, I step carefully down three flights of stairs with a bundle of dirty clothes in my arms. I’m thinking, as I often do, how inconvenient it is to have the washer and dryer in the basement. I load the clothes—the “darks” this time—twiddle the dials to the proper settings, throw in some detergent, push ON. Then I turn to my other business in the basement, my workout space. Half an hour for the laundry, half an hour for the squats and lunges and chest presses. Then I load the wet stuff into the dryer, and go about my day.
Inconvenient. Really??
In today’s hometown newspaper, I find this: “Every day, children in Kansas City miss class because they don’t have clean school uniforms. To address this issue, the United Way of Greater Kansas City’s Loads of Love KC is installing washers and dryers inside public school buildings.”
Clean clothes. How privileged I am to take them for granted. I think of families that can’t afford to have the machines in their own homes, in the basement or anywhere. How many bundles per week for how many people? How many quarters and dollars plunked into commercial machines? How much time to carry the loads to the laundromat—perhaps you don’t own a car?–and then wait around for it all to get clean and dry, perhaps trying to keep a toddler entertained or study for your GED or fill out a few job applications? Money and time–steep challenges for many hard-working families.
Children without clean clothes face daunting obstacles to success at school. Feelings of shame. Bullying. Anger. Every. Single. Day.
According to the report, Whirlpool’s Care Counts laundry program is leading the way in an effort to support laundry facilities in schools. “Teachers reported 89 per cent of students had increased classroom participation, while 95 per cent had increased motivation in class.” There’s more to the story, and the bottom line locally is this: “We’ve seen amazing results.”
Most of the headlines in the morning paper are overwhelming. Trade wars, sleazy political ethics, gun violence, refugees, and deportations. If I followed sports, I might also add the dismal news of a losing team or a disgraced coach. Where and how can I make a difference?
Tomorrow I’ll be marching with a crowd of people advocating for sensible and restrictive laws for gun ownership. Today…I’m thinking about clean clothes and how to secure them for children. I’m glad to know that some big businesses in the laundry business are helping out. After all, that is in their best interest, right? Check out what’s going on near you to help keep kids in clean clothes coming to school to get educated.
I hear a buzz in the basement.
I remember when I was growing up in Chicago we moved to an apartment across the street from a laundromat. Yes, lots of quarters but my mother could load 5 or more machines all at once. The height of luxury.
When I went through Kansas City Public Schools mentor training the other night we were told about the laundry program at local schools (used to be one, now more) and how it’s cut down on chronic absenteeism. Whodathunk? Good for this Loads of Love program.
I’m sure some people will complain: Laundry. Yet ANOTHER thing the public schools are supposed to take on! Where will it end?? Personally, I hope it will end when we as a nation arrive at living wages for working people. Is that not fundamental? You work. You get paid sufficiently and fairly. You provide shelter, food, clothing, health care, and communications services for your OWN family, and pay taxes, too. Why is this so difficult to figure out? Well, I’ll write another post on that sometime. For now, give the kids a chance with clean clothes for school, the bare minimum.