Students at Sumner Elementary School are getting a helping hand to make sure their basic needs are being met, one of those needs being clean clothing.

Principal Shelia Berger said a washer and dryer housed in the school’s basement this year is helping students whose families might not be able to physically do laundry, get to a laundromat or have the financial ability to do laundry.

School officials can also wash soiled clothes for students in the morning and have them back to them by the end of the school day.

“So with the needs of the families we serve here, there became concern about how to help students for which laundry is a real challenge,” Berger said. “The need’s probably been around for a while, it just became more obvious in the more recent years.”

Berger, nurses, custodians, secretaries and other staff all pitch in with the laundry. It’s a collective group that oversees the machines and the loads.

“Whoever is available to do laundry, they all take turns,” Berger said. “We want the kid to be comfortable and feel good about themselves while they are here.”

Several of Austin Public School District’s buildings have washers and dryers, but Sumner added its units in November with the help of a few individuals. The catch was the school didn’t have enough money to hook them up and get it running.

The school asked the United Way of Mower County for assistance with getting the machines hooked up and were granted the funds. Their pop can fund pays for detergent and no school money was spent buying it.

“I’m grateful that we work in a community that’s receptive to needs and values the importance of taking care of their youth,” Berger said.

They’ve also helped with students who just need a fresh set of clothing, which comes from the clothing bank. Sumner accepts donations of used clothing that would fit elementary students.

The donated clothes are washed and dried and put in a closet for any student who may need a fresh set of clothes.

“It started with more winterwear, coats and snow pants and boots and that type of stuff and it just kind of has blossomed to which we have taken in a lot of T-shirts and sweatshirts and pants,” Berger said. “We’ve gotten donations of new underwear and new socks.”

Berger added they used to keep a small supply in a few cupboards in the nurses’ office but it exploded out of that and they revamped a basement office into a large closet that is now filled with shoes, boots, pants, T-shirts and other clothing items.

“It’s an awesome resource to have,” Berger said. “And then being able to clean their things up and send them home. It’s been a great, great opportunity to have that.”

Berger said they were fortunate to be given two well-working machines and though they don’t do loads of laundry constantly, it’s been a big help to students and even the staff. They can now wash their own custodial and kitchen linens rather than shipping them out to other schools that have washers and dryers.

“We firmly believe here that if students’ basic needs aren’t taken care of, they’re not going to be able to concentrate on reading and math and writing,” Berger said. “And part of that is feeling comfortable in your clothing.”