A motorcycle raffle and a display of helmet artwork are teaming up this Saturday to raise money for a Tampa-born nonprofit that provides free laundry services to families who can't afford them. The Soap N' Hope Charity Helmet Art Show runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at VooDoo Brewery in St. Petersburg, with proceeds benefiting Current Initiatives, the organization behind the long-running Laundry Project.
Tampa Bay artists are chipping in to support the cause, according to Creative Loafing Tampa, which reports that the event will feature helmet artwork alongside the motorcycle raffle. Artists contributing work include Derek Donnelly, Saori Murphy, Josh Pearson, Zulu Painter and the Vitale Bros., the outlet notes. VooDoo Brewery sits at 220 4th St. N in St. Petersburg.
Creative Loafing Tampa describes Current Initiatives as a Tampa-born nonprofit that has spent the last 17 years providing free laundry services to families, per the same report. The organization is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit incorporated in Florida, according to Current Initiatives, and Jason Sowell serves as its founder, president and CEO.
The Numbers Behind the Laundry Project
Sowell told Creative Loafing Tampa that the Laundry Project has now held 1,241 events across 76 cities in 22 states, working with 183 laundromats along the way. The organization says it has served nearly 34,000 families and processed 357,562 loads of laundry weighing close to 3.6 million pounds, according to the outlet's report.
A 2018 Creative Loafing article put the totals at 120,511 loads washed for 12,282 families across more than 60 laundromats in 30 cities at that point. A later Creative Loafing piece describing a 15-year milestone for the project put the footprint at 144 laundromats in 60 cities across 18 states, before the 2026 figures brought those numbers up to 183 laundromats, 76 cities and 22 states.
A Model That's Spread Beyond Tampa Bay
The Laundry Project's community events have drawn local institutional partners before. In November 2023, the St. Petersburg Police Department teamed up with the Laundry Project for a three-hour free-laundry event at Soapy Laundry, according to a St. Petersburg Police Department account. Officers logged roughly 634 loads and helped 37 families that day, the department reported.
Running one of these events isn't cheap. A day of free laundry costs Current Initiatives between $1,500 and $2,000 for machine coins and soap, Sowell told FOX 13 Tampa Bay. The concept has also found traction outside Florida — a Nashville Predators Helper Grant funded a free-laundry day at the Wash House in Madison, Tennessee, according to NewsChannel 5.
Saturday's helmet art show and motorcycle raffle gives St. Petersburg residents a way to support Current Initiatives, with the proceeds benefiting the organization.
