Bishop John Harvey Taylor chats with Dolores DeAngelis, parishioner of St. Athanasius Episcopal Church and a founder of Laundry Love Echo Park, which recently resumed services after a pandemic hiatus. Photos: Mostyn Trudinger-Smith
Banks of washing machines and dryers await Laundry Love clients.
[The Episcopal News] Laundry Love Echo Park, a monthly program that offers those in need an opportunity to do laundry free of charge, had its official re-launch on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at Luxe Laundries on Alvarado Street.
Laundry Love is a national organization, and the Echo Park chapter began in 2016. Its last program before Wednesday was in March of 2020, during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Restarting Laundry Love in Echo Park has been one of the first projects of the interfaith Serving Together in Echo Park (STEP) group, said Dolores DeAngelis, parishioner of St. Athanasius Episcopal Church, a STEP member and original Laundry Love Echo Park founder.
The new chapter of Laundry Love started off small, with only three customers served on Wednesday night. Still, the group is confident that the branch will soon regain its former following. “We would have, I would say, between 27 and 37 customers,” DeAngelis said. She said that in the past, restaurants would sometimes donate food for Laundry Love customers, and Seeds of Hope, the diocese’s food justice ministry, would set up a produce pantry outside.
Volunteers receive their instructions before Laundry Love begins on Sept. 17 for the first time in Echo Park since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Rev. Frank Wulf, pastor of Echo Park United Methodist Church and a STEP member, has taken a leading role in organizing the Laundry Love relaunch. “We’re gonna get out, little by little,” Wulf said. “In a couple of months, it will be chaos in here.” Wulf said that even with low turnout, the first event was a great opportunity to bring different faith communities together. The event had organizers from St. Athanasius, Nefesh (a Jewish congregation), St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Immaculate Heart Community, and Wulf’s United Methodist Church.
Bishop John Harvey Taylor attended the event, offering a prayer and mingling with volunteers and customers. “It’s really a relational ministry,” Taylor said of Laundry Love. “While the washers and dryers are going, people are standing around just getting to know each other. It’s the most amazing effect. You ask someone you’ve never met before four or five questions, and you’ll find something in common.”
Taylor offered thanks for the relationships being formed among the volunteers and organizers, and for those that will be formed with customers. “We’re gathered in love and anticipation of new relationships with people who come through this door,” Taylor said. “It’s just starting, and word will get around.”
Episcopalian Dolores DeAngelis and Methodist Frank Wulf led the effort to re-open Laundry Love.
Marissa Minnick, a St. Athanasius parishioner and volunteer with Laundry Love Echo Park since 2016, said that in the past, although they put up posters and advertised in libraries, it seemed that most customers heard about the program by word of mouth. Minnick moved to Los Angeles in 2016, and learned about Laundry Love one evening when she came to do her own laundry. “This was my laundromat,” Minnick said. “When I came in one day and I saw [Laundry Love] here, and saw what they were doing, I started going to St. Athanasius and doing Laundry Love.” Minnick said that even with the lower turnout, she was excited to see so many new volunteers. “It used to just be the same six people,” she said.
The customers whom Laundry Love served were enthusiastic, and volunteers were excited by the prospect of seeing more people helped in coming months.
“It warms my heart to see Laundry Love happening again,” DeAngelis said. “We’re going down the runway, and we’ll take off soon. This is an opportunity for us all to meet each other. In a couple months, it will be crowded and hard to walk through here. God bless you all.”