Two friends provide ‘laundry service on wheels’ for the homeless

[The best friends have an idea they hope can change the world/TakePart.com]

Two friends in Australia had the inventive idea to help their country’s homeless population by providing them with a laundry service on wheels.

Lucas Patchett and Nicholas Marchesi, both 21, came up with the inventive idea of packing washers and drying machines into the back of a van to provide a laundry service to homeless people in the city of Brisbane.

In less than two years, the two have seen their business grow The pair have gone from helping out one city to helping out five all over the country, reports the Huffington Post. But they couldn’t do it without the help of the community, local corporations, government funding, and of course, the 400 volunteers.

The laundry service is named Orange Sky Laundry. On their website, they write that they hope to “raise health standards, restore respect and reduce strain on resources.”

“Our vision is a world where people who are homeless are positively connected with the community,” the site reads.

The pair says that they got their name for the project from Alex Murdoch’s song of the same title. The pair said they found inspiration in the lyric: “I had a dream I stood beneath an orange sky, with all my brothers standing by.”

“The entire message of the song is about helping your brothers and sisters. These values are imperative to us and central to our project,” they wrote.

And, when it comes to customer satisfaction, Marchesi told the Sydney Morning Herald that it’s through the roof.

“People are surprised, they are really blown away,” he said. “Our friends on the streets may have been done once over before and we have their most valuable possessions. We really feel privileged to chuck their clothes in our washing machines.”

According to Homelessness Australia, there are more than 100,000 homeless people in the country.