Benton Harbor Area Schools will be the recipient of free washers and dryers, courtesy of Whirlpool. Speaking to the board of education this week, Whirlpool’s Laura Fletty said the company’s Care Counts program provides those appliances to 124 schools nationwide. That’s after it learned many children will miss school if they don’t have access to clean clothing.
“I’m here today to offer to provide units for all of the schools,” Fletty said. “We usually only do Care Counts within elementary schools because of them being the right location to not only get families in, but those kids are the ones that have the greatest potential impact from the program. But we’d like to make sure this goes through the entire community so we want to bring them to all of the schools.”
Superintendent Andrae Townsel said Whirlpool previously donated washers and dryers to the district, but it appears they were never hooked up and the program was never implemented. Trying again, he said he believes Care Counts will make a difference. So do trustees, who thanked Fletty and Whirlpool. She said the company has found students exposed to the Care Counts program receive 18 more days of education, on average, per year.
