“Corporate responsibility” isn’t just a catch phrase to Laundrylux and at their September 17th quarterly meeting, their employees found out why.
Dan Naumann, Executive Vice President of LaundryCares Foundation, presented Jim Fair, Laundrylux’s CFO and Cody Milch, President of Laundrylux, with an award to recognize the company’s Signature Sponsorship of the Foundation for 2019.
“Laundrylux’s generous sponsorship support provides funding and resources for our Foundation’s three pillars, providing laundry services for disaster relief, free laundry days and our laundry literacy program, Read, Play, Learn. Laundrylux is showing support for the greater communities, proving they are a good corporate partner,” said Naumann.
At the afternoon cookout, Laundrylux employees communicated how pleased they are to work for a corporation that is giving back to communities within their own industry.
Naumann said, “It’s Laundrylux’s – and others – support that enables us to fulfill our mission. Their sponsorship helps to run our programs, provide location services and equip our members with packaged materials.”
The first pillar of the Foundation’s mission is providing help to disaster recovery efforts. “Our membership provides free laundry, free soap to first responders, victims and support staff. As this opportunity continues to emerge and grow, we learn more about what’s needed and can support that – through hurricanes, fires and other disasters.”
Member laundromats who participate in this program are found all over the nation, but typically some areas see more usage than others. LaundryCares provides a list of those members to first response groups and groups direct people to participating laundromats.
“Clean laundry is a basic need,” says Naumann. “It’s a requirement of living. When you’ve spent the day in mud, or covered in fire ash, being able to put on a clean T-shirt is important.”
The Foundation’s second pillar is Free Laundry Day. “This is how our members give back to their own communities, how they demonstrate their own corporate responsibility. While it’s an outreach to new people, potentially giving laundromats a whole new set of customers they didn’t know existed, it’s also a way to give their community a hug,” says Naumann.
Free Laundry Day is open to anyone, and customers have been known to drive 15 miles or more to participate. “It’s a way to build a connection with the community well into the future.”
Read, Play, Learn programming is the Foundation’s third pillar. “A lot of laundries had an area for children’s reading and games already, but this formal program now gives them a platform. They use our program as a conduit for ideas and connection, to discover more ways to help improve their own community,” says Naumann.
Read, Play, Learn aims to put literacy programming for children and their caregivers into alternative spaces, places where children and families regularly gather together. Materials provided range from something as simple as books with posters that give parents tips for interacting with their children to full-blown, dedicated spaces that include comfortable seating, kid-sized tables and chairs, puppets and bi-weekly storytime programming.
Laundrylux’s sponsorship support of these programs, says Naumann, is invaluable. At the beginning of summer 2019, about 50 laundries in 22 states were committed to Read Play Learn, and LaundryCares would like to see at least 5,000 more come onboard within the next 5 years. Disaster Recovery efforts continue to grow wherever there is a need and Free Laundry Days show communities that laundries are committed to being a caring part of the community.
Laundrylux is a critical part of those efforts. Naumann said, “As we continue to expand nationally, Laundrylux’s commitment to our Foundation becomes even more significant in helping us realize our goals for our communities.”