Partnership with P.S. 188
By Chloe Landau
On November 19th, an article by Eliza Shapiro was published in the New York Times titled “114,000 Students in N.Y.C. Are Homeless. These Two Let Us Into Their Lives.” One of the students Shapiro follows in her article attends P.S. 188, where I serve Thanksgiving meals to the school’s children with my synagogue each year. Then it clicked: our washing machine should serve these New York City public school students whom I’ve come to know throughout the years.
I arranged a meeting to speak with the principal at P.S. 188, Suany Ramos, about the school’s needs and how our invention could help. Ramos shared information about the student population: 47% of the students live in homeless shelters and 99% live below the poverty line. The school serves students experiencing a variety of struggles, including food scarcity, broken families and domestic abuse.
To eliminate added anxiety around clothing, P.S. 188 gives out uniforms. However, issues around washing clothing persist. “Our parent coordinator takes home some students' uniforms to wash once a week because some students simply don’t have access.” While the parent coordinator provides a stopgap out of the kindness of her heart, a simpler solution should be readily available: our sustainable washing machine.
In agreement, Ramos presented a plan that would allow our invention to serve in its fullest potential. She advised against limiting the machine’s use to just after school because 188’s students come from all over the city and many get on a bus shortly after the school day ends. “Our school is open from 6:30 in the morning to 8:00 at night and we serve our students three meals a day.” The long school day provides students and their parents the opportunity to use the machine throughout the day.
We asked Ms. Ramos how she would feel about the washing machine being powered by a bike, and we couldn’t have asked for a more supportive response: “Exposing students to new activities is essential to their development and growth.” Beyond the role of a principal, she believes her job is to help children that can’t yet help themselves, and we want to support her in this mission.
A young boy ran into Ms. Ramos’ office and a supervisor came in chasing after him. “He’s new this year,” Ms. Ramos said with a smile. “These kids have a lot of energy. Some of them have a lot of pent up anger due to being exposed to domestic violence.” She agreed that a bike would be a great outlet for some youthful energy and/or anger.
Ms. Ramos invited us to return to PS 188 to speak directly with the students to learn more about their needs. In addition, we will be speaking at a PTA meeting to present our invention and to listen to the requests of the community. We will allow this input to help guide the design of our prototype as we continue to refine it.
