A new partnership between Benton Harbor Area Schools and Whirlpool Corporation means students who lack access to washers and dryers at home can have their clothes washed at school. Whirlpool’s Laura Fletty tells WSJM News the company has brought its Care Counts laundry program to the district. It’s put washers and dryers into the school buildings.
“Care Counts was started about six years ago,” Fletty said. “What happened was a teacher came forth identifying a need for her school, and at the time, we were happy to assist. We provided some washers and dryers to her school, and what we found was the data was overwhelming, that this was actually helping more significantly than we could have ever imagined. As we dug in and did the research, what we found was that lack of access to clean clothes has a much larger impact to students throughout the United States than we ever expected, and it really became the foundation and the kernel to the Care Counts program that we now have in place. Since then, we’ve expanded into 134 schools in 36 states, plus the District of Columbia. So, throughout the United States.”
Whirlpool says one in five students lack access to clean clothing, which makes them more likely to miss school. It also says kids who miss school are seven times more likely to drop out.
Fletty told us the Care Counts program was not officially in Benton Harbor Area Schools until recently. Whirlpool approached Superintendent Andrae Townsel about making the district a partner in the program, and he was enthusiastic. Townsel spoke about Care Counts to the board of education, which was also supportive. It wasn’t long before the washers and dryers were being delivered to the district’s buildings.
“We are ecstatic that we were able to get all of the schools new laundry pairs in time for back to school,” Fletty said. “Everything was actually installed the week before back to school the week before August 30. So everything is up and running and ready to go so students can get access to clean laundry as they need.”
Benton Harbor Area Schools Superintendent Andrae Townsel said in a promotional video released by Whirlpool that he’s glad to welcome the program to Benton Harbor.
“Care Counts is very important to bring to Benton Harbor Area Schools,” Townsel said. “Any way that we can minimize young people not coming to school, we’re all for it. I’m so excited bringing this to Benton Harbor because we have a great opportunity to support kids, keep them in school, and keep them achieving.”
Fletty says Care Counts has placed the needed appliances in all of the buildings of the Benton Harbor district, which is somewhat unique.
“Historically, the Care Counts Laundry Program by Whirlpool had a emphasis on K through fifth grade and elementary education specifically,” Fletty said. “We know that being able to assist at those ages has a greater impact on longitudinal education. So we’ve always been very focused on the elementary age groups, but because of the fact that Benton Harbor schools are in our backyard because of our commitment to this area, we felt that it was our obligation to bring it forth and to bring it through all the way from kindergarten up until that senior year of high school.”
Fletty says each building is now equipped with a laundry set and Whirlpool also replaced some commercial grade washers and dryers that were already at Benton Harbor High School. How the laundry program will work and matters like scheduling use of the appliances is being handled by school building administrators and staff. You can learn more about Care Counts at Whirlpool.com/care-counts.
