Let’s talk about Mari, a hardworking student-athlete balancing school, sports, and a job at a local restaurant. Mari was a typical teen living life to the fullest when things took an unexpected turn.
Mari’s parents made a joint decision which resulted in the consequence of both mom and dad being incarcerated. Her only other relative, her Grandma, lived in an assisted living facility. Understandably, Mari was not permitted to live there.
With no stable home, she began staying with friends and sleeping on a couch, an air mattress, or sometimes in a guest room. Her friends’ parents were usually nice and understanding but she was only able to stay a couple of nights each time. This is reality for many of our students called “couch surfing”. While couch surfing provides temporary shelter, it also comes with challenges, especially when it comes to everyday necessities like laundry.
For Mari, the cycle of wear, wash, repeat was a constant struggle to avoid adding to household expenses like water and detergent. Also, she had no place to keep her clothing as she moved around so dirty and clean clothes alike were stored in her backpack, gym locker, school locker, and work locker. With limited options, she often washed her clothes in the gym shower or the sink at work, then used a hair dryer to get them just dry enough to wear. After all, no one would question the sound of a hairdryer and a teenager getting ready, right?
Most days, Mari managed, but sometimes, keeping up with school clothes, a work uniform, and sports gear felt impossible.
To help ease this burden for Mari and others, we partnered with Frederick Laundry, a local service that provides affordable wash, dry, and fold services in the community.
Last week, as Mari’s laundry started to pile up she felt the stress increase. As a result she was having a hard time focusing at school and work. She also missed a sports practice. Eventually she talked with her school liaison who reached out to SHIP for a solution. Thanks to this quick thinking liaison, we were able to immediately connect Mari to Frederick Laundy.
She was able to drop off two giant bags of laundry at the start of her day last Wednesday, and pick them up later–clean, fresh, and neatly folded. Having access to a full-service laundry every now and then is a game changer.
We’re incredibly grateful for our partnership with staff at Frederick County Public Schools and Frederick Laundry for making this possible. In many instances we are merely the bridge to capacity and this story a perfect example of why relationships matter. We would also like to say thank you to our community for continued support and for helping provide essential hygiene items such as laundry detergent. When we all work together, we can help our local youth experiencing homelessness stay connected to school, work, sports and more. Every bit of support makes a difference!