By Gus Saltonstall
Thanks to a chain reaction of good deeds, nine Upper West Side schools received free washing machines on Monday.
An anonymous school in New Jersey had extra washers and dryers in storage and needed the space, so officials searched online for a way to donate the washers and dryers.
They came across a letter from Councilman Gale Brewer to the city advocating for more washing machines in Upper West Side schools as more students are being placed in shelters. West Side Rag was the first to report on the matter. The Jersey school called Brewer’s office to see if they could set something up.
Brewer contacted Upper West Side-based moving company West Side Movers for help. They said they would move the machines for free.
On Monday, the moving company picked up the washers and dryers in New Jersey and delivered them to the following nine Upper West Side schools.
- Urban Assembly for Green Careers: 145 West 84th Street
- PS 145 Bloomingdale School: 150 West 105th Street
- The Mickey Mantle School: 466 West End Avenue
- PS 9 Sarah Anderson: 100 West 84th Street
- PS 241 STEM Institute of Manhattan: 240 West 113th Street
- Community Action School: 154 West 93rd Street
- PS 163 Alfred E. Smith: 163 West 97th Street
- Frank McCourt HS/Brandeis Campus: 145 West 84th Street
- Edward A. Reynolds: 140 West 102nd Street
“It touched us that there was a problem with kids coming to school without clean clothes, and we were able to help with that very easily,” Matt Fiore, the second-generation owner of West Side Movers, which has been in the neighborhood since 1972, told West Side Rag. “We just feel like we’re part of this community and it was up to us to do something.”
Brewer claims that the lack of laundry service in many shelters, including those housing migrant families, contributes to a child not attending school.
“Students who do not have clean clothes are less likely to attend school,” Brewer wrote in a letter to Education Minister David Banks. “I firmly believe that a laundry service should be provided if school leaders determine that the lack of clean clothes is preventing their students from completing an education.”
Her office found that 38 of the 45 schools in District 3 on the Upper West Side did not have a washer or dryer, and that 31 of those schools had 10 or more students living in some type of temporary housing where laundry service was likely not available.
“By providing washers and dryers, we give the kids some school pride and help increase attendance,” Kevin Bourne, an economics manager at the UWS Urban Assembly of Green Careers School, told CBS News.
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