GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — A family resource office inside Georgetown’s Southern Elementary School recognized a need and did something about it.
“I recently did a survey of my families, and I had 27% of my families identify laundry as a need in their household,” said Family Resource Director Torie Hundley.
That means nearly 1/3 of the families associated with the school do not have the resources to do laundry as needed.
Hundley’s school and Georgetown Middle School came together. They put together a program that allows those families to go to Lola’s Laundry in Georgetown so they can take care of the necessary household chores.
“They each get a $20 voucher for their laundry, and we also provide the detergent,” Hundley explained.
They can do this on one Tuesday morning and one Tuesday evening each month, with the sessions accommodating peoples’ work schedules. Toyota, a manufacturing plant in Georgetown, contributes $4,000 to the program to pay for those vouchers.
“They might live in an apartment complex or mobile home park where laundries aren’t readily available,” said Kim Sweazy of Toyota’s Community Relations department.
It seems like such a routine most take for granted: having clean clothes and linens, but for those who struggle to find the resources to wash those items, it creates some real problems.
“It eliminates the barrier for kids to come to school,” Hundley said. “Because if they don’t have clean clothes, they can’t come to school. Or if there’s sickness in the home, it allows them to wash the illness out of the sheets,” she continued.
