While many people are impacted by the current crisis, one group you do not hear as much about is the homeless. Unless you are Dave Wood, owner of Lapels Dry Cleaning of Littleton. The dry cleaner located at 6709 Coal Mine Avenue in Littleton, CO, made the half-hour trek to Denver recently to donate a van full of clothing to Impact Locally (www.impactlocally.org), a Denver based nonprofit serving 5,000-plus homeless men, women and children in need every month.
"We make one or two donations to Impact Locally each year. These are items that have not been picked up by customers for more than a year and items donated by our customers. This year, given the current situation, the donation is a bit more meaningful," said Wood.
Part of this donation included 50 masks created by Anna's Tailoring (http://annastailoring.net/) of Denver. Run by John and Anna Piotrowski, Anna's Tailoring has focused its attention to making masks during the COVID-19 crisis.
"Anna's Tailoring is one of many small businesses in our industry hit very hard by the crisis. Essentially, two of their biggest seasons have been wiped out—weddings and proms," said Wood. "Thank you to Anna and John for their contribution to this cause."
In addition to the clothes and masks, Wood donated $25 to Impact. That money from the proceeds of Lapels Dry Cleaning of Littleton's hangar recycling program.
"Dave has been a generous donor to our organization over the years. We are particularly grateful—and not surprised—that he stepped up at a time like this to bring much needed masks and clothing items for our volunteer center and our Humanity Clothing Store," said Travis Singhaus, CEO of Impact Locally. "It's also a great relief to know that when the clothes come from Lapels Dry Cleaning, they are very clean and virus-free."
Lapels dry cleaning process features environmentally friendly GreenEarth®, the dry cleaning industry's only non-toxic cleaning alternative. GreenEarth dry cleaning solvent has the highest flash point of any of the alternative solvents (170F) on the market. The GreenEarth dry cleaning process allows clothes to be dried at the highest drying temperature, 158F, which is equivalent to 70C. Lapels Dry Cleaning's wet cleaning services clean clothes at temperatures exceeding the recommended 160 F to kill virus germs.
"Dave Wood has a long history of generosity in the Littleton area and beyond," said Kevin Dubois, CEO of Lapels Dry Cleaning. "His store has a longstanding policy of cleaning soldier uniforms and hats for free and a similar offering for flags."
In June 2019, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #4666 in Littleton, Colorado recognized Wood for his philanthropic efforts.
In addition to cleaning with GreenEarth and in higher temperatures to eliminate viruses, Lapels uses the world's ONLY 100 percent environmentally non-toxic dry cleaning process along with 100 percent wet cleaning that offers a sustainable and hypo allergenic process.
Since a trip to the dry cleaner might not be in line with your social distancing, Lapels Dry Cleaning of Littleton also offers free pickup and delivery. Lapels also offers a "car hop" service where customers can drop off and pick up their clothing without ever leaving their cars.
Lapels Dry Cleaning of Littleton's hours of operation during the COVID-19 crisis are on the store's website at http://mylapels.com/locations/lapels-dry-cleaning-littleton-co/. For more information on Impact Locally, visit www.impactlocally.org.