New laundry room helps 8th Street Community ‘take a load off’
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – For 45 years, the 8th Street Community has provided support for adults with different cognitive disabilities and teaches them to live and learn life-applicable skills.
However, they have been relying on four residential-sized washers and dryers for the whole community.
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305 8th Street has provided a space for people to live and learn applicable life skills. The non-profit currently supports 24 in-house residents.
“Currently we’re doing about 150 loads of laundry a week for our residents,” 8th Street Community Executive Director Susan McGrady said. “That includes towels and sheets and all the things we do at home, so the wear the tare is just not great.”
After a ribbon cutting opened their new commercial laundry room Wednesday, that load feels a little lighter.
The laundry room, which is built on the side of the home, will hold four new commercial washers and dryers that can handle larger loads and “increase efficiency.”
The project began in 2018, but was delayed due to COVID. McGrady says they were able to pick things back up in November of last year to help complete the laundry room. She says the space will come in handy for more than just daily chores.
“We’re also going to use this laundry facility as a training facility for job training for our residents. Several of our residents do work outside the community in public places and we thought that training them on sorting, scheduling, fabric care, machine usage, they could take those skills, make a resume and use those skills for positions in the community,” she added.
The original washers and dryers for the home won’t go to waste, though. They will continue to be used to maintain daily needs.
McGrady says they’re always looking for support from the community. To learn more about 8th Street Community and how you can help, click here.
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