Joy Junction Needs Our Help!

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, has an unexpected challenge with its laundry needs after a weekend fire destroyed its laundry room.

The burned area housed machines used for doing the shelter's "house" laundry. That's sheets and blankets used for the as many as 118 overnight guests who make use of Joy Junction's services on a daily basis.

With two sheets and a blanket provided for each person, on average that adds up to about 236 sheets and 118 blankets washed each night.

Tuesday afternoon a couple of local hotels reached out to Joy Junction with a helping hand. For a few weeks, Albuquerque's Residence Inn North and the Baymont Inn and Suites will allow Joy Junction use of their commercial washers and dryers as the shelter works on coming up with a permanent solution. The hotels will alternate use of their facilities.

Joy Junction Founder and CEO Dr. Jeremy Reynalds said, "I am so grateful to the managers of these two hotels. What a blessing to have members of the business community reach out in this way."

Reynalds said, "This is, of course, a temporary solution. We still need to work on a new building and commercial washers and dryers. I am hoping the community will reach out in the same generous fashion that has allowed us to help the homeless here for more than 26 years."

Joy Junction houses as many as 300 people nightly, and feeds as many as 16,000 meals a month between its South Valley shelter and its mobile feeding unit The Lifeline of Hope.

For more information go to www.joyjunction.org or call (505) 217-9586.