Every November, in addition to cleaning and pressing thousands of garments, our team stays late and comes in on the weekends to fill the washers with coats of all colors and sizes. Each one goes through careful inspection, cleaning, stain removal and pressing as needed to ensure each recipient can feel proud to wear a beautiful warm coat that was thoughtfully donated to them. 

Our Customer Service team loves seeing families come into our stores to donate coats together. We are in such a unique spot – we get to see the story from beginning to end. We see the smiling faces of the friendly people who reached in their closet to help, we see the hard work of our production team, the loving care that goes into each coat, the volunteers (clients and team members) who help sort and decorate the “store front” at the Salvation Army Christmas Distribution Center where families shop at no charge, and finally those faces filled with joy that their families will be warm this winter. 

We love visiting schools who help us outfit our littlest neighbors with hand-me-down coats, we love having fun with our friends at the Flying Squirrels Ballpark Warming Party – the first event the team ever had in Richmond. We love seeing our community come into our stores – offices dropping off coats they’ve collected together. It’s all part of the magic of Coats for Kids. It’s part of the magic of the Greater Richmond community. 

For more on the program, events or how to get involved, visit: https://www.puritancleaners.com/community/coats-for-kids/

Mr. Jennings was born to a free family in New York and skillfully crafted a career as a distinguished tailor and businessman. His clients trusted him and would often ask for advice on caring for their clothing. After years of his clients asking him for advice on cleaning and caring for their garments, he decided to invent a method that would clean them effectively without damaging them; traditional dry cleaning was rough and abrasive. His experiments led him to create a process he called “dry-scouring”. He applied for a U.S. patent in 1820 and he was granted patent no. 3306x in 1821 when he was just 30 years old. It was a historic moment – historians agree that as a free man he was the very first African-American man to be granted a U.S. patent. Later he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

His greatest achievements however were much more personal in nature. He used the money he earned from his tailoring and garment cleaning business to purchase the freedom of his wife Elizabeth and their children who were born into a form of indentured servant-hood after New York’s gradual abolition law of 1799. A champion of the oppressed, Mr. Jennings’ was a founding member of Abyssinian Baptist Church, became a secretary for the First Annual Convention of the People of Color in Philadelphia in 1831, and was a key player in organizing the Legal Rights Association in 1855. He fought hard against segregation and raised money to aid in helping people of color fight for justice in segregation court cases. Most famously, his daughter Elizabeth (a schoolteacher and church organist) was forcibly removed from a “whites only” streetcar in New York City. With the aid of her father, Elizabeth won her court case in 1855. The lawyer he enlisted was a young man who would later become President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur. Within a decade, every streetcar company in New York City stopped practicing segregation.

While the industry has evolved in cleaning methods and garment care, Thomas Jennings’ sense of leadership and integrity lives on. We’re proud to be part of the industry he helped shape and follow his legacy.

To read more on Thomas Jennings’ life and achievements, visit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_L._Jennings

https://www.invent.org/inductees/thomas-jennings

https://www.becreative360.com/nationaldrycleaningday

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/first-african-american-hold-patent-invented-dry-scouring-180971394/

Your favorite perfumes or colognes make you ‘scent’-sational, but their high alcohol content can stain your garments. When you apply the fragrance, the alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving the oil scent base.  If your clothing comes in contact with the alcohol before it’s dry, a chemical reaction can occur, leaving faded or discolored spots. On white clothing, it can leave yellow or brown spots caused by oxidation. (Think of biting into an apple and leaving it sit for a few minutes). The best way to prevent staining caused by perfumes or colognes is to apply them before getting dressed and then waiting until completely dry, and have the garment cleaned regularly.

Dates

This year our 100,000 Meals for Kids campaign begins Sunday May 6th and continues through Saturday May 19th. For more information and printable tools to help spread the word or organize your own food drive, go to puritancleaners.com

$10=40 Meals

FeedMore can provide 40 nourishing meals for every $10 that you give. Funds can be donated through our secure online donation page. Non-perishable food donations can be dropped off at all of our Puritan Cleaners locations and through our Home Delivery service.

Every Donation Makes A Difference

Whether it’s a few dollars, a jar of peanut butter, or a can of tuna, every donation makes a difference in the lives of needy children right here in our community.   If you’ve never been, we highly recommend taking a tour of the Community Kitchen at FeedMore to see for yourself the difference they make every day in our community and in Central Virginia.

Thank you for your generosity

1. Allow perfumes, lotions, deodorants, antiperspirants, and other toiletries to dry before you get dressed.  These products can contain ingredients that can cause discoloration.
2. Bring a garment in for professional cleaning as soon as possible after becoming soiled.  Stains and soil left too long can be impossible to remove and will shorten the life of your garment.
3. Don’t iron freshly stained or soiled clothes. The heat may set some stains.
4. Discuss any spills or soiled spots with your dry cleaner.  Be sure to point out light-colored or invisible spills, such as those from soft drinks, fruit juices or white wine.  The sugars and/or acids in these will turn into a brown-colored stain if not treated properly.
5. Protect your garments from excessive perspiration, especially silks, because it can cause many dyes to discolor.
6. Have matching pieces cleaned together, including pants/skirts and matching jackets, so that normal color fade will be uniform and pieces will still match over time.
7. Protect your garments from prolonged exposure to direct sunlight or strong artificial light. Keep in mind that even indoor lighting can affect some dyes.

• Don’t overload the washer or dryer with too many clothes.  They won’t get as clean as they should, and they won’t have enough room to move, leaving them wrinkled in the dryer.
• Pull them out of the dryer and hang them or fold them as soon as that dryer buzzer sounds.  Leaving them to cool in the dryer can cause unwanted wrinkles.

To get those unwanted wrinkles out, use a water bottle to spray them lightly with water (just a spritz) and put the garment back in the dryer for a few minutes, or hang the garment in a steamy bathroom just long enough for the wrinkles to fall away.

To save the most time and keep your favorite garments looking newer longer, not to mention wrinkle-free, find a quality local dry cleaner like Puritan Cleaners and take advantage of our Free Home Delivery and Pick-up service to your front door.

Our tailors can hem, cuff and finish.

We specialize in helping maintain your professional image – from crisp shirts and blouses to impeccable jackets, suits, skirts and trousers.