It’s an issue that must be solved by recruiting more volunteers, and service manager Alison Neale is hoping her appeal to the community will boost volunteer ranks.

The Orange Sky Laundry van, affectionately named ‘Maddy’ sets up at Kempsey Neighbourhood Centre in Kemp Street, every Tuesday from 10am until 1pm – volunteers permitting. Sadly, Alison recently had to cancel three shifts because there were not enough volunteers to run the service.

It is one of the busiest sites in the region, setting up for three hours, with most sites in Taree, Port Macquarie, Wauchope and Laurieton only setting up ‘Maddy’ for a two-hour shift. The extra hour in Kempsey means around 11 loads of washing can be washed and dried, as opposed to around six or seven on a two-hour shift.

Alison says she needs more volunteers to ensure the Kempsey service is not cancelled, and her goal is to try to grow the service to two shifts a week.

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“Demand has been good for six to eight months, so it's definitely a service that is needed. I know the shifts would be busy but we can’t commit to a second service until we can recruit a large enough pool of volunteers that can ensure service delivery,” Alison said.

The service that volunteers deliver to the community is simple. Orange Sky Laundry offers a free laundry service to homeless people and its volunteers also support people with conversation. 

“It’s an opportunity to have conversations, and to connect with people who are less fortunate, and to also have them feel as though they are just as important as us.

“It's an opportunity to give back to the community, and there really does come a feeling of appreciation and gratitude for what you have when you sit with somebody who is less fortunate than you; everybody always feels good when they are giving.

“There is always a level of professionalism, after all we are here to offer a service, but our friends who use the service do actually become quite close to you.

“They may have achieved something and want to tell you about that, and they are going to look forward to telling you about it the following week. You may be the one person they are looking forward to seeing because they feel valued after talking with you. That is important.”

Alison urges people to find out more on the Orange Sky Laundry website and to also lodge their interest in volunteering.

“Ideally we want people that can commit, whether you commit weekly, whether you commit fortnightly, whether you commit monthly, we can make it work, but we need people to commit so we are not chasing volunteers at the last minute.”

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