Also, come on out on Thursday and be a part of our next Laundry Love Santa Ana event.

It’s that time of year and love is in the air. I am not talking about the totally lame and manufactured  holiday known as Valentine’s Day. We are talking about something much bigger, much more profound and a heck of a lot more fun! In fact, you don’t even need flowers or a card for this kind of love. All of this can only add up to one thing: Laundry Love Santa Ana!

That’s right. Next week, Feb. 16^th, we will have our Laundry Love, Valentine’s Day addition!  Come on out to see what real love looks like! There is so much love, you can feel the warmth radiating out a whole week in advance.  Oh, and maybe we will have a special couple dance by the jukebox for you romantic types.

November 

November Pictures… Great month. We had some new friends out who were researching in preparation for launching a Laundry Love Project in the city of Huntington Beach. Also, we had a great month in sales of our laundry bags (all proceeds support Laundry Love Santa Ana).

December

December Pictures… Rained most of the day. Stopped minutes before we started. Still had an incredible Christmas event. LoveMash came out and did some casual portraits for the families who were out and printed them out onsite. It was a very inspiring scene. People were stoked. Some frames were donated to send the pictures home in as well. A little girl’s Christmas wish was to have a Christmas tree. A group of volunteers gave one fully decorated to her family. Lots of great food was donated as well. We had a reporter out for a story still in development with a major regional publication. A great month for online donations as well! Make a donation

January

We had one of our lowest volunteer turnouts ever. Amazingly, the event went extremely well regardless, a testament to the hard work and dedication of our volunteers. Over the next couple months the lines will start to get longer as the winter shelters close up and we will need to ramp up our volunteer efforts. Please consider inviting your friends, coworkers, family, faith community members, rival gang members, etc out to upcoming events. It is because of you, our volunteers, that Laundry Love Santa Ana is possible.

February 

Please join us and invite folks to join us at Laundry Love Santa Ana on Feb 16th!

Have a great week! ~Scott Overpeck

This was not our tree..but close.

Christmas has so many memories for so many of us. Things like food, family, more food, and sometimes more family, the exciting expectation of a long road trip to the grandparent’s house. Going and picking out a tree, then coming home to drink hot chocolate while we decorated it. For any kid, the best part was waking up on Christmas morning, rushing to the tree and finding a large stash of presents waiting just for you. It makes for the fondest of memories.

That is, unless you don’t have a Christmas tree, or presents, or even a family to celebrate with. This is so often the case for so many living in Santa Ana. I for one can’t imagine being homeless, especially at Christmas. You wake up in the shelter, no presents waiting for you, no family to greet you. Some nice, well off, families come to serve you a Christmas dinner, it is a nice gesture, but you will never see them again. Somewhere in the world you may have relatives, but you can’t even call them. Tough life, huh?

What if you are a little girl with no tree or no nice presents? Your family can hardly even afford the new shoes you need?  So it was with one of our regular families at Laundry Love. Anyone who volunteers will know this family and ever body loves the little girl to pieces.

Fortunately, we had a group come and decorate two artificial trees to give away. Complete with lights, ornaments, and those fancy Christmas balls as well. The little girl thought they were beautiful. We asked her dad if they had a tree, and he responded that they did not. So we gave one to them.

The little girl was walking towards the tree and I asked her if she liked it. She said she did. I then told her we were giving her one. She stopped a second, stared at the tree, and with wide eyes said, “it’s a Christmas dream come true!”

So there you have it. Somebodies Christmas got better.  When you can’t afford laundry, you certainly can’t afford trees, or gifts or any of the other luxuries we are blessed with.  Will a tree change their lives? No. Will it provide work and rent? No. But was a connection made? Was community built and was loved shared? Absolutely.   Do they know they have friends who care about them now? Most definitely.

So to all those who have supported Laundry Love and volunteered faithfully over the months and years, we thank you and share this story to let you know your labors aren’t in vain.  Thanks for dedicating so much time to us and the community of Santa Ana. Thanks so much for helping us with the Christmas party. I think it is safe to say it was a hit. Oh, btw, the tamales were authentic, handmade ones and the money we used to buy them went to support another family in need.  And while now it is a new year, some things will never get old. We hope you have a happy new year and we look forward to another great 12 of Laundry Love with you!

Hey everyone, just a reminder! Laundry Love Christmas party is THIS Thursday night, December 15th.  If you haven’t been to one you are missing out. Just look at what others are saying about it,

“It’s a Christmas party,” OC Weekly.

• We still could use drinks, food, snacks, etc. Please sign up here
• As always soap, quarters or general donations are appreciated
  
  

• Love Mash will be out doing a Help Portrait event for the community
• A great way to celebrate the holiday’s with your friend’s at the event is to buy them a laundry bag. It will make a tangible difference in their lives and help Laundry Love Santa Ana to continue running the event. Purchase a bag today and we will have it for you at the event!