The Community and Character Committee is holding the Quarters for a Cause fundraiser to benefit Laundry Love, an organization that helps the homeless by doing their laundry.
Deans will have jugs in their offices for their students to deposit donations until Feb. 18. The dean group that raises the most money will receive a free meal from Joe’s Pizza Feb. 20. The second place team members will have $2 off their order and third place members will have $1 off.
“We thought [the challenge component] would provide a good incentive for people to donate and get involved – especially the deans too,” Community and Character Committee member Courtney Nunley ’17 said. “We wanted faculty to get involved as well and really make the fundraiser schoolwide.”
Students seem to think the competitive nature of the fundraiser is a good idea.
“I think that the challenge is a fun way to raise money,” Andrew Lehroff ’17 said. “[Laundry Love] sounds like a good cause.”
Laundry Love’s purpose is to assist people struggling economically by cleaning their clothes at no cost. Laundromats, generally those near homeless encampments and missions, agree to allow the homeless to do their laundry for free during a specified time once a month.
Chaplain J. Young had told Assistant to the Head of Upper School and Community and Character Committee Chair Michelle Bracken about Laundry Love, and she thought it would be a great idea for a fundraiser. Young and Bracken convinced the owner of Alligator Laundry in North Hollywood to hold free sessions from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month.
“After Father Young mentioned Laundry Love to me, I went to one of the laundromats in North Hollywood,” Bracken said. “Only a few people, all homeless, came and they were really appreciative and loved it.”
Donations can only be quarters, a symbolic nod to the fact that laundromats used to take only quarters.
“The truth is that when you go to a laundromat, they don’t use quarters anymore,” Bracken said. “Now you actually have to buy a card. So it’s just more of a symbolic thing.”
