Stories From Laundry Love Santa Ana

  • Received this amazing collection of stories via email.  Somehow neglected to share them with you all (site admin FAIL).

    From what I saw last night….Laundry Love had a great start. Its an awesome concept that I truly appreciate.

    Mr. B was our first guest we spoke to, he lives in his RV and presently is making a living recycling bottles and cans. He has suffered from drug abuse for 17 years and says he is now clean. During this time he also sold as well as used. He lived day to day using and selling. He has a teen age son and followed his mother out to the west coast to be closer to him. He appreciates our kind gesture.

    As Robert and I accidentally blocked the rear door a nice Hispanic woman was trying to get thru to do her laundry. She spoke no English but I told her that she can get her laundry done tonight for FREE….she understood that…and I guided her to the “sign-in” sheet. Her eyes said that she appreciated our kind gesture.

    A homeless woman with 3 large bags of clothes that needed to be laundered spoke non-stop for 20 minutes about absolutely everything that came to her mind and said she would see us next month….I never got her name but I’m sure she was appreciative.

    A man who lived ac cross the street in the apartments came over to see what all the people were doing at the Laundromat….he said that he would be telling his entire family to come next month. He couldn’t believe that it was free with no “catch”.

    I hunted down the owner of the laundromat and tried to thank him…he didn’t speak much English but we we able to have a short conversation. He was very happy we were there, he loves his customers..showed me all his pictures on his iphone. His daughter is at John Hopkins and is so proud of her. His mom is still alive and well and he gives dum dum suckers to everyone….its his thing.

    It is amazing how connected people from such diverse backgrounds are becoming.  Irvine families, college students, NPO‘s, those with no home, working poor families, churches and others from throughout the community.  We all look forward to more of your stories coming through.  Thanks for all of your support.

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    November 12th, 2009 | Scott Overpeck | No Comments | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

About The Author

Scott Overpeck is a creative leader with a heart for contextualizing movements of justice, advocacy and compassion to his surroundings. He is the founder of Intersection Creative Strategies, a consultancy advising social enterprises and non profits on communications as it relates to marketing, fund raising and commerce. Additionally he sits on the board of Renewing Hearts; helped found Laundry Love Santa Ana; and leads 511, a small creative community in Santa Ana. Scott lives in Orange County, California with his wife and two sons. He enjoys tacos, unicorns and American Idol.

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