Laundry Love
On the last Wednesday of every month, Our St Cross Laundry Love Team meets at Wash n' Go on Artesia Blvd in Redondo Beach.
We show up at the local laundromat and provide soap, dryer sheets, and the funds to help people in our community have clean clothes.
We also provide fellowship and food to our guests and together share the love of God.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Volunteers help in a number of ways. Passing out hygiene kits, sack dinners, or serving pizza. Or you may get to help with the machines. Volunteer are assigned a row of washers or dryers and you help our guests navigate the machines and you provide them soap and pay for their laundry.
We are at the Laundry Mat on the Last Wednesday of Each Month from 6p-10p (2 shifts 6-8p and 8-10p). We always welcome new volunteers.
Please email Shane Mathews at billyshane@me.com if you would like to come to a specific shift or if you can stay for the whole time.
Please show up 15 minutes before your shift to check in and get training.
More About Laundry Love
Laundry Love is hands-on ministry which acknowledges a visible need in our community. When people have clean clothes, people treat them like human beings. To this end, volunteers from St. Cross meet at a laundromat once a month to supply detergent, dryer sheets, and the funds necessary to clean the clothes and bedding of people who are living in the streets, their cars or in low income housing. The activity also offers time to engage in meaningful conversation between members of St. Cross and their guests who benefit from our care and concern.
During the last seven years we have been blessed to see this ministry grow. Our volunteers come from various circles of St. Cross and new friendships have developed as we interact with those we serve. The community we nurture is a transient one, but we know many of our guests’ names and their stories. We have seen a few at church, spot others around town, and worry about “regulars” that are absent on laundry night. On average we assist 26 people/families each month, and our sign-in sheets reflect over 135 different names. In November our family grew as a new LL supporter provided haircuts on-site to nine guests.
St. Cross has been hosting Laundry Love in the South Bay for over 7 years, but we are not alone. We are a part of a growing community of compassion. Laundry Love began 12 years ago in Ventura, California (learn more at Laundrylove.org) and two nearby episcopal congregations who operate their own wash nights provide us with coaching and encouragement. Churches all over the country are hosting Laundry Love and discovering new ways to serve their neighbors and neighborhoods.
