Building Relationships Issue #9 March 2014 | Seite 6

JCHS SNA Takes On The Clothesline Project

Each home built by Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley currently comes equipped with a brand new set of appliances generously donated by Whirlpool. However, several Habitat homeowners would prefer to hang their clothes out on a clothesline instead of using their clothes dryer. Why? There are a few excellent reasons that using a clothesline to dry your clothes is beneficial:

1. Clothes dryers can wear out your clothes much quicker than air drying. In some cases, the harsh heat from a dryer, even on a low setting, can ruin fabrics.

2. An average clothes dryer costs approximately 75 cents every time you run it. Now, that may not seem like much initially, but if you have a large family, you are probably running your dryer quite a bit--maybe even on a daily basis. If you have a clothesline, you can save money.

3. Using your dryer less will not only save you money, but it will help save the planet. Conserving energy is a very important part of environmental protection.

So, for the families interested in having clotheslines built, we offered volunteer groups the opportunity to take on this project and the Student Nurse's Association at Jefferson College of Health Sciences decided to kick this project into gear! They will be funding and building the clotheslines for 9 families in the Mountain View neighborhood on April 5th and 6th!