About Fresh Connections
I Started as a Teacher
I've spent over 20 years in education. Middle school teacher, high school teacher, after school program coordinator, camp counselor, college professor, curriculum writer, researcher. I've worked in youth jails, inner city schools, community colleges, and universities. Most of my career has been dedicated to literacy and working with students who the system too often leaves behind.
In all of those years, in all of those environments, it was rare to find a space where people could learn in a way that also nurtured their humanity. As a student, the best learning experiences I ever had were in small, personalized settings — the kind you usually only find in private schools. But even then, the curriculum left little room for the personal and the emotional. You could be academically challenged and still feel completely unseen.
I carried that tension with me for a long time. What I eventually came to understand is that lasting learning happens when it occurs alongside meaningful relationships and human connection.
That insight never left me — and it led me to ask the question, "how can I create a space that nurtures learning and connection?"
What if Learning Could Happen Anywhere?
One thing I kept coming back to in my work with at-risk learners is the idea of literate environments outside of school — spaces where materials and opportunities that encourage thinking, curiosity, and growth are simply present. Not forced. Just available. I know that in a lot of communities, those environments are rare. Libraries help. Schools try. But there aren't enough of them, and they aren't always welcoming to everyone. I kept wondering — what if learning could happen somewhere unexpected? Somewhere people already had to be? Naturally, not as a requirement or a judgment of a person's value, but just because learning is actually fun and enriching.
Life Gets Full and Connection Gets Hard
Fast forward to my life as a mother. I raised two boys largely on my own while working multiple jobs. My closest friendships grew out of the parents of my kids' friends. I don't regret that at all. But it made me think — what about people who don't have children? How are they building community? How are any of us, really?
As adults, our lives get so full and so busy that meaningful connections are hard to start and to maintain. If we do make time to socialize, we have to do it at the expense of productivity in other parts of our lives.
We make choices like, do I clean so that my home is a refreshing sanctuary where I can rest, or do I go to this party and have much needed time with friends? We're constantly choosing between being productive and being present with other people. Honestly, it's all so exhausting.
Something Got Lost Along the Way
I also started thinking about how differently other cultures experience community. Women washing clothes together at a river — that image stayed with me. Yes, it's hard labor. But they're also swapping stories, giving advice, supporting each other, laughing together. The chore and the connection happened at the same time. We've engineered so much of that out of our lives for good reasons, but I don't think we've fully reckoned with what we lost.
What we're missing is what urban planners call a Third Space — not home, not work, but somewhere in between. A place to simply exist with other people. We need more multigenerational community spaces that are open, welcoming, productive, and enriching — spaces where anyone can walk through the door, feel like they belong there, and leave with a sense of connection and accomplishment.
Then One Day I Was Sitting in a Laundromat
One day I was sitting in a laundromat, watching everyone stare at their phones and carefully avoid eye contact, and I thought — what if this place was actually nice? What if people talked to each other here?
That was the beginning of Fresh Connections Laundry and Learning Center.
The Idea Is Simple
Come do your laundry. While you wait, take a class, join a conversation, meet a neighbor, learn something useful. The class topics and socials will be driven by what the community desires or needs — knitting club, coffee and chats for retirees, financial literacy classes, card game hours for teens, story hour for preschoolers, whatever resonates. The chore gets done. The connection happens. Neither one gets sacrificed.
What Do Teens Have to Do with Laundry?
I also have a very specific group of people on my heart when I think about this space — teenagers. Not the ones who thrive in every club and sport and already feel at home in school. The nerdy ones. The artsy ones. The ones who haven't quite found their people yet.
Fresh Connections will have dedicated teen programming — a club where young people can earn points and rewards for doing their laundry, participating in enrichment classes, and contributing to their community through volunteering.
This isn't just a fun idea.
Research consistently shows that teens who do chores and find meaningful ways to contribute to their communities grow into happier, more successful adults with stronger work ethic and higher self-esteem.
The Harvard Grant Study — one of the longest running studies on happiness and adult development ever conducted — found that among the greatest predictors of adult happiness and success were love and work ethic, and that having done chores as a kid was one of the strongest predictors of developing that work ethic.
I want Fresh Connections to be a place where that foundation gets built — naturally, joyfully, and in community with others.
April 2025 -- I Took the Leap
I bought a neglected laundromat in April 2025. It was rough — dirty, broken down, full of obstacles I didn't anticipate. There have been moments that genuinely broke me. A shutdown from the city. Broken equipment. Running out of money before the vision is fully realized. But I have kept going because I believe in this idea deeply.
Come Be Part of It
Right now the machines are running, the space is clean, and customers are thrilled with the changes I have already made. It's a great place to do your laundry right now — and it's only getting better. The renovation is ongoing — insulation, drywall, paint, and upgrades are all in progress — and every improvement brings us one step closer to opening the space up for classes, socials, and community gatherings.
I'd love your support in whatever form that takes — come do your laundry, follow along, share my story, or contribute to the renovation fund. Every bit of support — big or small — moves us closer to becoming the multigenerational community space this neighborhood deserves.