DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - A church near Fair Park has opened a laundromat in an effort to reduce school absences and spark economic growth.
Cornerstone Baptist Church, in the Forest District south of downtown, opened the laundromat Saturday.
The program director at Cornerstone Baptist Church says the church and State Fair of Texas had been working on a study to figure out the main reason students in elementary and junior high school were missing class.
"We found out a lot of kids weren't going to school because of a lack of clean clothes," says Donald Wesson. "That kind of got us started on this mission to build the laundromat."
Wesson says the storefront near the church had been a laundromat 20 years ago but had been empty. He says the opening of a new laundromat can create jobs, give people a place to clean clothes and give people a community space.
"Something as simple as clean clothes can have many subsequent effects that go with it," Wesson says.
"You bring one ray of light into a community and people say, 'Well, this is the beginning of some change. We feel like this is a safe and secure place to go,'" says Real Estate Council Chief Executive Linda McMahon.
The Real Estate Council has also been working in other parts of the neighborhood. The council renovated a bicycle shop that is now the headquarters of Recycle Dallas.
McMahon says small projects like that can spark a change in the mindset of residents and draw more commercial interest.
"You bring one ray of light into a community and people say, 'Well, this is the beginning of some change. We feel like this is a safe and secure place to go,'" she says.
