thank you this next story is positively
Jax it is something that you may take
for granted being able to do your
laundry but for many people in our own
community it's not always possible
because it can be so expensive
well the laundry project is part of
current initiatives which is a nonprofit
organization and joining us to tell you
how you can get involved and how they
are helping the community
Jason Sowell the founder of the laundry
project and Ashley Ruiz who has been
very active working very hard to get the
word out to the community so Ashley
let's talk to you first of all what is
the laundry project some people have
seen it on social media recently explain
it to us so the laundry project is a
pretty simple initiative that Jason
started about 10 years ago and the goal
is just to bring dignity and hope to the
community through clean clothes mm-hmm
Jason how does it work so we partner
with laundromats and low-income
communities and provide free laundry
services so we basically turn in a
laundromat into a community center for a
few hours and bringing a team of
volunteers so in a family comes in they
wash their clothes but the volunteers
are putting quarters in for them we have
all the soap and supplies that they need
to do their laundry that day because if
you have a family of five six seven it
can be expensive and it can be
time-consuming yeah I mean a lot of
people spend their entire day off
basically at the laundromat which right
we don't want to do right yeah and if
you have a washer or dryer at home you
just put your stuff in and you go go
about your business
around your house or whatever and come
back to it you go to a laundromat you're
there you're stuck in there for however
much time it is with your kids trying to
keep them under control while they're
trying to do laundry as well so it's
definitely a chore okay ash is it a
surprise or I mean how did we know about
where these laundromats we try to make
it as much of a surprise as we can I
think that's kind of the cool thing
about this is these people are waking up
in the morning fully expecting to spend
their hard-earned money fulfilling a
basic need of doing laundry so when we
show up and say hey we'd like to just
you know take that from you they some
people kind of approach us a little bit
of hesitation but other than that I mean
they're pretty gracious to just let us
do our thing hey we're just here for you
and they have a lot to gain
washed-out it's okay we're close my you
know in that regard I love it a whole
lot of puns here so first of all if you
want to benefit from this anything you
can do you can go to laundry by current
org we have all of the locations listed
there and we're not just in Jacksonville
we are nationwide there are several
states that we have these projects going
on and especially in Florida so laundry
by current org yeah and second of all
you're gonna need people to help out
right you still looking for volunteers
even for this weekend yeah absolutely
volunteers sponsors as well I mean I'll
take all your quarters so that we can
put them in machines for families but
yeah we're always looking for people can
give in different ways they can donate
soap they can donate money they can
volunteer and they can find that
information on the site as well and if
you were to go to volunteer just a
couple of hours right nothing right hard
to do yeah just a few hours on a
Saturday morning real easy you don't
even have to do people's laundry you're
not there to do it you're just there to
put quarters and machines and help them
pour soap there you go it means a whole
lot so this has been going on for quite
some time you've been doing it one of
the best reactions that you've seen
obviously some people as you said could
be a little bit hesitant but then when
it finally happens and they realize hey
this is legit this is real yeah they're
no longer wishy-washy yeah exactly
you're right you're on a roll this
morning I like it
no there's probably probably some of the
best our reactions are people telling
stories of like now I can now I can
throw a birthday party for my my child
that it wasn't gonna be able to afford
now I can send them to school with clean
clothes we can buy groceries this week
because we're saving money being able to
wash our clothes and that to me is the
is the real fulfillment of it all is
that they've they found some hope and at
the end of day it's just it's just
laundry but through that they found some
hope that life can be better when we can
get over this huh yeah that is wonderful
well thank you guys for what you are
doing a great thing for the community I
know that you're gonna make so many
people smile on Saturday and I do have
to apologize that my jokes were a little
Queeny
[Laughter]
I'm out the laundry project will be at
two locations on Saturday organizers
will pay for the laundry from 10:00
until 1:00 10:00 in the morning until
1:00 in the afternoon discount coin
laundry on 26 East 9th Street and
discount coin laundry at 555 to suit L
drive and for more information go to the
website which once again is laundry by
current org laundry by current org we're
also going to make sure we post that on
our website news for Jack's morning show
section thank you both thank you