It was started by a retired Frederick Police Officer.
Frederick, Md (KM Since May, 2025, there’s been a laundry service called Fresh Step for homeless people in Frederick County. It’s run by Wade Milyard, a retired Frederick Police Officer who had been on the force for 19 years
He says he got the idea after answering a domestic call at a campground. As he was leaving, Milyard says he asked the individuals at the site about their laundry. They told him they wash their clothes in a nearby creek, and dry them on a fence post. He says he explored the idea a little further. “That began kind of life my investigative work and to see if other unhoused individuals would be interested in mobile laundry, and everybody I spoke to said yes. That kind of started it,” he says.
After his retirement from the Frederick Police Department in January, 2025, Milyard says he began the process of designing and retrofitting a mobile laundry vehicle, a bus named “Lucy,” which had washers and dryers. It went into service on September 4th, 2025.
“We set up two days a week behind On Our Own which is in the downtown at 121 South Market Street. If you need your laundry done, we wash, dry and fold it for you. wrap it back up and get it back to you,” Milyard says.
The bus also stops at the Moose Lodge on East Patrick Street on Wednesday.
Milyard says clean clothes can make a difference in people’s lives. “Having clean clothes gives them the opportunity to feel better about themselves which might be that next step into being able to go apply for a job, being confident enough to apply for as job because they know that their clothes are clean and they’re going to be looked at differently,” he says.
Milyard says one of his goals for the future is getting a second vehicle to wash, dry and fold clothes for the homeless population,
By Kevin McManus