Salt Spring community members are being asked to participate in an anonymous survey around laundry needs while the Wagon Wheel Housing Society continues to explore possibilities for establishing a facility in Ganges.
Salt Spring has been largely without laundry services since Mrs. Clean Laundromat closed its doors after 25 years in business at the end of February 2016. The lack of publicly accessible facilities spurred weekly protests in Centennial Park in 2018, with islanders turning out to wash their clothes in buckets.
Wagon Wheel Housing Society is an offshoot of the Copper Kettle Community Partnership that is specifically dedicated to finding housing and laundry solutions for low income islanders. Society founder Cherie Geauvreau reports the group has located a site with potential in the downtown area. The volunteers are just waiting for permission to conduct a water supply test to see how much capacity there is for their machines.
In the meantime, the society is compiling information about community need. The deadline to complete the online survey has been extended into July. It can be accessed at https://ingamichaelsen.typeform.com/to/qIDvQU.
The Wagon Wheel Housing Society is also collecting donations toward the project. Look for their distinctive collection tins with washing machine windows in local stores.