Laundromat offers much more than chore

By Jasmine Peterson and Maria Yankova
BengalNews Reporters

               When you step into the Westside Value Laundromat, you see more than just washers and dryers. Colorful drawings the walls, a group of computers in the corner and a stack of Burmese books are hints of the business’ other functions.

                Located at 417 Massachusetts Ave., the laundromat brings the community together by offering workshops, open-mic nights, arts and crafts, and English as a second language classes. -

               Zaw Win, a Burmese immigrant, opened the laundromat with the help of Westminster Economic Development Initiative in 2010. WEDI, run by Bonnie Smith, helps immigrants, refugees and native-born Americans start and manage a small business.

              “We help them right from the very beginning, anything that they need,” Smith said. “Permits, business plans, handling their cash flow, we find mentors for them who stay with them. We help them to find finances if they need it and then we stay with them afterwards.”

               That was made possible when Win partnered with Buffalo native Barrett Gordon last November to create the Westside Art Strategy Happenings Project at the laundromat.

               The WASH Project offers an array of specific weekly and monthly programs and services, including tax-preparation classes, home-buying workshops and weekly acupuncture clinics at the laundromat. It has also partnered with Computers for Children to help high school students in the community learn how to use and fix computers.

                 “I do a lot of things for my people,” Win said. “People have very limited English skills. They can’t understand when they go to school. … I read and write, translate, make phone calls. Every day they come here, I help them. Anything they need, they can come to me.”

                Gordon’s inspiration to help with the project came from The Laundromat Project, a Brooklyn-based non-profit arts organization which helps bring art programs to low-income communities.

              “The main idea is to just do some community-building and give people an enjoyable, free art experience while they do their laundry,” Gordon said.

              Gordon said that because of the WASH Project, the laundromat has fulfilled the goal to provide a unique place for people to enrich themselves while running an errand.

              “There’s plenty of community centers where people can go,” Gordon said. “But this is a place where people just kind of have to go to do, you know, their business and their laundry. We decided it just made sense to meet them there in the middle, and kind of engage them for that hour while they’re doing their laundry.”

              Michael Smith, a maintenance worker at the laundromat, noted the benefits the WASH Project has provided the community.

             “It keeps them off the streets,” Smith said. “They’ve got a nice place to come to, keeps them occupied.”