The storytimes give parents a chance to do a chore while their kids learn. Organizers hope people will turn out for the next event May 30.

By Jordan Barbour

Between whirling linens and rumbling machinery, stories can come to life. 

That’s the hope at King Street Laundry. The small laundromat just south of Church Street Marketplace has teamed up with the Fletcher Free Library to entertain Burlington’s youngest residents with a series of read-alongs.

The “Literacy at the Laundromat” events aim to enthrall kids up to 5 with snacks, bubbles and read-aloud stories such as “Pete the Cat” or “Allen and His Scary Teeth,” all under a plethora of colorful ceiling tiles. While the children listen, their parents can run a load of laundry for free. 

Organizers’ good intentions haven’t seen success — no one showed up to the first two events in March and April. But they hope the next outing, set for May 30 at 4 p.m., will be different.

King Street Laundry has transformed into a community hub since its owners Hannah and Andrew Christiansen purchased the abandoned laundromat in 2022. 

The space, once a site for open drug use, has become a family friendly space featuring monthly group events, such as financial literacy presentations for new Americans, ceiling painting parties and CarShare Vermont info sessions. 

Rebecca Thompson, the early literacy outreach coordinator at the Fletcher Free Library, approached the Christiansens with the idea after she and Library Director Mary Danko saw similar events at other libraries, like the “Wash and Learn Initiative” offered by the New York Public Library. 

“It’s really this idea that not everyone can come to the library, and there’s a lot of different barriers in place that prevent that from being an option for people,” said Thompson. 

“We really want to do the most we can to reach people where they are,” she said, “and the laundromat is a place where people go and if you have young kids, you have to bring them with you and you have to spend time.”

That presented an opportunity to help kids learn reading skills while their parents handle a chore, she said.

The Christiansens loved the idea and were excited to add another program to their business’ busy schedule. 

“Part of our vision for the laundromat is that an empty laundromat is an unsafe laundromat,” said Andrew Christiansen. “And so, we want to have as many things going on here as possible so that it doesn’t invite the less-safe kind of activity that can sometimes happen in open buildings.”

Each storytime so far, he pulled out a big rug to the front of the laundromat, thinking kids could sit on it with their parents as they listened to stories. But the rug has yet to welcome any guests. 

The lack of participants may have been due to bad timing, the organizers figure. The first two sessions on March 21 and April 18 were 3 p.m., which Christiansen and Thompson think might’ve been too early for families. They pushed back the start time an hour for their third try on May 30, and Thompson hopes it will better align with the end of the school day and boost participation.

In the meantime, Thompson has donated coloring pages and children’s books to the “King Street Laundry’s Community Library,” a small shelf in the leftmost corner of the laundromat. 

The small collection of literature, the creation of which Christiansen attributes to a “few good Samaritans,” serves to create more foot traffic in a corner where, as he puts it, “bad decisions were made.” 

“Our North Star guiding vision is creating a community around equal access to the dignity of clean clothes,” he said. That sense of community can come from art, literature, education or anything else bringing people into the laundromat, he said.

Christiansen and Thompson plan to continue the series into the summer. Thompson hopes that once kids are out of school they and their parents will have time and energy to attend. She said she’s also exploring options for transportation so families can travel without needing to drive. 

Even if the program doesn’t end up drawing crowds, Thompson said she feels grateful to have a relationship with the Christiansens and will continue to promote books there.

“We still have made a valuable relationship and are getting more books out there into kids’ hands as much as we can,” she said. 

To Thompson, that’s the most important part.

The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.