Laundry Service Owner Helps Residents Hit by Flooding

When torrential rains flooded basements Sunday night, Jessica Rastu thought about a way to respond and then put her skills and compassion to work.

The owner of Wash Upon a Star, a pickup and deliver laundry service, recognized that people whose basements were flooded might have trouble getting their wash done if their machines were soaked or inaccessible because of the rain. She said residents worried about the cost of recovering from the flooding shouldn’t have their problems made worse by the price of laundry services.

So she put out a call on social media to offer her laundry pickup service, for free, to Huntington residents who were hit by the flooding.

Eight people responded, she said, though ultimately, three decided they didn’t need help. She’s assisting the other five.

“Sunday was a horrible storm,” she said, thinking of her grandmother whose washer and dryer are in a basement. “The community is always in need,” she said, as well as always ready to help others.

The lifelong Huntington resident is a go-getter, starting her business a few months ago while also running another business and taking college classes online.

Her Wash Upon a Star service includes picking up laundry, cleaning and drying in commercial machines and returning it to customers.