Watch: Aging with dignity: laundry service

Jill Wolf is the administrator clerk treasurer for the city of Adrian. She previously worked for the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging, where she developed a passion for helping older adults. She's carried that passion to her work at the city, helping residents over the age of 60 with their laundry in collaboration with Rock County Opportunities.

"[Beth and I] both became aware of this chore and household grant that MNRAA had through the CARES Act funding," said Wolf. "Beth and I had a conversation that it would be great if we could offer laundry services to older adults, which would help them out on some of their day-to-day tasks of doing laundry, keeping them able to live in their homes longer with that assistance."

Beth is Elizabeth Schear. She's the executive director at Rock County Opportunities. RCO is a nonprofit in Luverne that serves people with disabilities. Using this grant money, the city of Adrian contracts with RCO because they have the washer dryer and do the laundering. Additionally, RCO received a separate MNRAAA grant to build a new laundry room.

"So the partnership that we have with Jill Wolf, Marriah Aggen and MNRAAA ... is allowing us to provide jobs for the people that we serve, who have disabilities, who otherwise would not necessarily be able to maintain their independence in the community," explained Schear. "It also has that double win of allowing the seniors a little bit more time in their homes because we've got somebody who can deliver, drive and go pick up and drop off their laundry."

A MNRAA grant also funds Marriah Aggen's business, Essential Senior Services, which she started in December of 2020. Aggen does personal shopping and errands for her clients and she's the one who picks up and drops off laundry at RCO. "It did not intend to be an intertwined grant process whatsoever initially," Marriah said, as she drove around, delivering laundry to RCO. "It was three separate groups hoping to do three separate things and then we found we could all really jive together and way we're serving more people."

Think of it like a Venn diagram: The city of Adrian, Rock County Opportunities and Essential Senior Services all have a number of programs they offer to their clients and not all of them overlap, but this laundry project just so happens to intertwine all of their organizations in this beautifully collaborative way.

"And in this instance, we have the collaboration of city government, a nonprofit agency and a private contractor and the partnership that we've created with the three, it's like a three legged stool," Wolf explained. "None of us could really offer this program on our own."

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This service is free for those who use it through the city of Adrian or as a client of Essential Senior Services, but the laundry service is open to the public through RCO and the cost can vary. Schear says that it averages to about $13 per load. 

Shear said that having Aggen as a partner also helps with deliver fees. "We were charging customers an additional fee to pick up and drop off their laundry and that actually deterred a couple people from either having their laundry done by us, or they would bring it in when it ... looked like it was maybe not safe for them to be trying to carry their big loads of laundry in here."

Aggen serves clients within a 50 mile radius of Rushmore, and that also applies to laundry delivery. She says that clients' needs can come up on a moment's notice. "It's really about helping people have their needs met and I think the part that I really love is building that relationship with my clients ... knowing that I'm helping someone that can't do these things on their own," Aggen said. 

Aggen highlighted the different need of some of her clients. "I have one client that doesn't allow me to see him at all. I drop his laundry off outside of his door and he waits until he sees me down the hall before he comes out. He just has a little bit of fear with COVID."

That client is Robert Israel and for whatever reason on this day, he came out of his apartment to chat. Aggen said that this was the first time that's ever happened. "Well for old geezers like me, we can't get out there much to go to the laundromat. It's a good service; come right to your door. They deliver it, it's perfect," said Israel. "No matter what I put in there. I even tell her to put those rubber bands around my socks, you know, cause I don't like them rolled up, they lose the elastic," Israel said with a laugh.

Schear said that RCO is just about at laundry capacity with the number of machines they have. "We can fit one more washer and dryer in that new laundry room, but then that's it and so if we ever wanted to add more machines, we would need a different facility," she said.

And finding enough staff is hard for everyone across the board right now, but Shear's confident. "We'll be able to hire again and build back up to full steam. We might even be able to hire people without disabilities, to work strictly in the laundry, just doing laundry, alongside people with disabilities, which would be a great integrated community employment," she said. 

She said that she thinks one of the biggest successes is the sense of accomplishment felt by the clients of RCO. "And the sense of purpose and the pride that our individuals are able to take in the work that we bring to them to do. ... They can see that, you know, 'I did laundry today for somebody who wouldn't be able to do their own laundry.'"

This story was made in partnership with the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging. Compass has been producing stories about people and programs in southwest Minnesota — and throughout the state — designed to help people age with dignity. To watch all of the stories in the series, visit www.pioneer.org/compass/agingwell.