Thanks to Allen Fu for these great shots!

Look forward to seeing you all on Thursday.  We will meet at the Laundromat (406 East Santa Ana Blvd.) on the opposite end of the parking lot from the line.  Parking is available on the street and in the parking structure across the street from the laundromat.

See you at 730pm.

With so much to tell you, we had better get right down to business!

• We are throwing you, our dedicated supporters a party on Sunday, May 23rd at 7pm.  Details and RSVP available here.
• Our top secret small Laundry Love Santa Ana site has a few openings for June.  If you are interested please email info at laundrylovesantaana.com  Someone will follow up with (then the message will self destruct)
• The next large Laundry Love Santa Ana will be June 17th.  Keep an your eyes and ears open as we are not sure where the orientation will be quite yet.  Go ahead and let us know if you are coming here.

A few exciting things happened on Thursday at Laundry Love Santa Ana as well.

• Chef Troy Hashimoto, from Ocean Ave. Seafood, came out and made our guests and volunteers some incredible gourmet hot dogs.
• Also, someone from the Baskin Robbins in Irvine, brought out ice cream for everyone.
• Additionally, Environ donated over a hundred cans of soda for the evening.
• Then, to top it all off, Wells Fargo Foundation actually came out and presented a check to Laundry Love Santa Ana for $2500.  That is quite a bit of laundry and everyone is super excited.  Lots of people took pictures with the check.  It was a blast!

And finally (are you still here?) we have a couple picture collections that have already surfaced, and anticipate a few more coming out soon.

• Pourio took some amazing shots that can be seen here and here.
• One of our volunteers took some shots with a point and shoot available here.

We love some of the creative volunteer led things that are happening out there.  If you have an idea, please let us know how we can support you and run with it.  We want Laundry Love Santa Ana to grow as a community of people caring for each other in creative, unique and tangible ways.  Thanks so much for YOUR unique contribution.

All of the answers you seek are contained in this video.  Cheers!

A huge thanks to our friends at Animoto for giving us a free upgrade.  If you need to make slide shows you should check them out.

The beautiful Miss Taiwan putts to raise funds for Laundry Love Santa Ana.

Saturday, the great folks from the National Association of Asian American Professionals of Orange County, put on a great golf tournament followed by a mixer.

Several folks from our leadership team were able to make it out and share a bit about what you guys are doing in Santa Ana.

It was an incredible event and we are extremely grateful to them for putting it together.  If you would like someone to come share at your next event contact us at info@laundrylovesantaana.com

We look forward to seeing some NAAAP-OC members (and perhaps the Miss Taiwan Court?)  coming out to check out the next event.

Check out more pictures from the fundraiser here.

This is where it all begins.  The leadership team gets asked what happens at Laundry Love Santa Ana quite a bit.  It feels like our friend Pourio captured this quite well on Thursday.  It starts here, with people lining up for hours.  For clean clothes.  Something many folks have magically appear in their drawers.

But the really amazing thing, is that this is not where the story ends.  Within an hour its not uncommon to see dancing, laughing, smiling.

Friendship.  That is what Laundry Love Santa Ana is all about.  Connecting with people.

Friendship is what Laundry Love Santa Ana is all about.  We bring people of different backgrounds together so that they can all make new friends.  What happens after is in your hands.

Would you consider helping to run our next event? How about volunteering at our small unadvertised location?  Perhaps you’d like to make a donation?  What about coming out once a month for the 511 Santa Ana movie night?  These things sound like tasks.  They sound like work.  But truly, this is the stuff of friendship.

What happens when a group of elementary school kids gets together to raise money for Laundry Love? A lot happens, $543 dollars worth to be precise. Every year classes from the Harbor Day School pick a different charity to support. This year one girl suggested to her class that they help Laundry Love and the result was the quarters came pouring in. To make things more interesting the contest was divided between boys and girls, a battle of the sexes to see who could bring in the most change.

When asked how many quarters $543 dollars amounted to the response was overwhelmingly “ a lot!” And they are right. It is a lot. Far more then I would ever have guessed a group of kids could come up with. Piggy banks were cracked, parental stashes were raided and creative ideas abounded. One girl even went so far as to request quarters for Laundry Love in place of her Valentine’s Day candy. That’s giving till it hurts folks. When I was kid my definition of giving until it hurts meant punching my brother until he begged me to stop. .

The classroom stakes were high. Not only did the winner receive serious bragging rights but instead of wearing their uniforms they got to have a “free dress” day. I know from my own school experiences that this is no small prize. For the record the girls won the contest pretty handedly but in the boys defense they were heavily outnumbered. Regardless, by giving like they did, you could say they all won and maybe taught us adults a little something a long the way. Thanks Harbor Day School!

The children of Irvine Baptist Church Lifesavers Ministry start their support for Laundry Love Santa Ana by creating a “Laundry Love Piggy Bank” to collect donations. After hearing about Laundry Love Santa Ana by volunteer/patron Wilson Tseng, and by their pastor/one-time-visitor to the site, Sally Kim, the children wholeheartedly dug deep into their pockets to reach for loose change, still freshly wrapped in lint, for donation. When asked about what they consider luxuries in their lives, their answers weren’t only filled with Nintendo Wiis, TVs, or iPods, but rather the simple things in life such as clean clothes and good health. “High-five,” kids of IBC and “thanks a lot!”

A big thanks to everyone who came out this month.  You guys helped local families do nearly 100 loads of laundry.  Our new friend Pourio caught a lot of the action on film (ok not film, the admin is just REALLY old).  Check out his great photos here.

Love that we keep finding videos on Youtube from you guys!  Please do send them our way if you make them so we can share them.

A great night.  Thanks to all who have donated and volunteered to keep this thing going.  Here is a collection of media we have found so far to give you a picture of what went on:

• Kadi’s Whrrl Story
• Scott’s Picasa Pics
• The Girly Gazette

Please do check them out, comment and thank them for helping to share what you are all doing here in Santa Ana.  As more people learn about what is going on here, I know your impact will only be magnified.