What's love got to do with?*

Were you looking for me on Saturday? I just know you were. I bet you didn’t find me. Actually, I know you didn't find me and it is probably because you didn’t look at the Big Wash Coin Laundry. You really should have looked there. Not only would you have found me, you would have stumbled across one of the greatest projects in Tampa. (oh yes, I was in Tampa for the weekend. My hometown for those who don't know me.) OK back to the topic at hand. Here is what you need to know.... Every first Saturday… Laundry Love.

After knowing about this project from the start, I finally checked it out. I went to visit my friend Jason who is the founder of Current, the organization responsible for Laundry Love. Jason spent the morning introducing me as his “old friend”. I quickly had that corrected to “incredibly hot and attractive friend”. Although in the sense that I have known him since our youth camp days, when he had a gig as a youth pastor and I was a rockin’ intern….I am an old friend. Well, Laundry Love has grown exponentially over the year. They used to go through $200 in quarters on a Saturday. Now, they average $400-500 in quarters, they have more volunteers than they know what to do with, and they have people waiting in line for them to show up in the morning. In an email that Jason sent out the other day, he shared this story:

Her name is Vickie. She's mother to 2 beautiful children. After paying bills she has $90 a month for her family to live on. One of her greatest struggles every month is laundry for her family of 4. To do all the laundry (clothes, linens etc) her family has would easily cost her over $40 every couple of weeks (I'm no math genius, but even I can figure that math doesn't work to provide clean laundry on top of other needs for her family.) She read the article about our Laundry Love Project, showed up with 7 garbage bags full of laundry and found a little reprieve from her burden. I wish I could describe to you how her countenance and attitude changed from when she showed up. She was all smiles and full of gratitude when she left. Hope had found its way to her heart.

I couldn’t help but think… How do I spend the 1^st Saturday of the month? Now, how should I spend the 1st Saturday? This project is about showing people love. Something that we so often keep bottled up on the inside. The answer to why Jason and others do this is so simple.... they love because HE first loved them.

If you are in the Tampa area and want to help with Laundry Love, let me know. I will get you connected with the right peeps. If you aren't in Tampa and would like to help, you can... they need quarters. If you send them a check, they can cash that. The bank will give them quarters. It is just that simple.

*not to be confused with yesterday's post...What is love?