New Jersey Graduating Senior Helps Peers By Offering Laundry Services At School

Bullying has become a major obstacle for school-aged children, and with the 24-hour nature of social media, some students have no reprieve from the criticism of their peers. When 18-year-old Jimmy Tomredle of Lacey Township High School noticed many of his classmates were absent throughout the academic year due to fears of being bullied for their clothing, he decided to make a real difference.

Drawing inspiration from Newark, New Jersey’s West Side High School Principal Akbar Cook, who captured the national spotlight for installing five washer and dryer units in the football team’s locker room so that students could have free laundry, Tomredle enlisted the help of school staff and local appliance stores to do the same. After several handwritten letters went ignored, the senior class president finally received a response from Anchor Appliance in West Creek, New Jersey, saying they were willing to donate one washer and dryer to the school. According to YourTango, “Tomredle’s Terrifically Tidy Laundry Services” are now available for needy students and accessible through the school’s custodian closet.

Tomredle financed detergent for the laundry service independently to kick things off; however, he is now taking donations to further provide resources for those in need.

His generosity is more than just good karma. According to Cook, over 85% of the students at West Side High School were missing three to five days of school per month due to not having clean clothes to wear, and rather than face the possibility of being ridiculed, they’d refuse to show up. “These are kids, good kids who want to learn, that are missing three to five days a month because they were being bullied because they were dirty,” Cook said. “I even changed the school uniform to darker colors so they could go more days without cleaning them, but even with that, students were struggling to have them look clean enough to attend.”

Approaching absenteeism from a compassionate place is imperative to creating a safe environment for young people to truly thrive in school systems.