{"id":202,"date":"2019-12-16T03:30:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T03:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faith-in-waterville\/?p=202"},"modified":"2019-12-17T18:52:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T18:52:25","slug":"sally-melcher-mckeagney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/2019\/12\/16\/sally-melcher-mckeagney\/","title":{"rendered":"Sally Melcher-McKeagney"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"by Kris de Luna ’20<\/em><\/p>\n

Quarters. Something so small, but for some people, it can make all the difference in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sally Melcher-McKeagney, a native Mainer, is the quarter lady. Once a week, she goes to the Waterville Highlander Laundromat and gives away quarters to everyone and anyone. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Laundry Quarters Program<\/a> started as an initiative of the Waterville UCC after a news channel reported that some schools had installed washers and dryers as a part of their facilities. <\/span>For many people who don\u2019t have access to a car, getting their clothes to the laundromat can be very difficult and time-consuming. On top of that, paying for laundry gets expensive, especially for an entire family. <\/span><\/p>\n

For the past three years, Sally has gone to the laundromat on her days off and given quarters to anyone who wants them. She doesn\u2019t have a system to her giving method\u2014there\u2019s no \u201clook\u201d or requirement that people need to fit. \u201cSometimes people take them and sometimes people don\u2019t. You can\u2019t tell by the way people dress if they need it or not,\u201d she says. Although this initiative first started as a way to help people who are struggling financially, it has turned into a communal program that offers resources to anyone. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why quarters specifically? Something so small, why does it matter? For people who don\u2019t face any financial instability, they wouldn\u2019t think twice about their quarters, but for some, those quarters could cost them their meal for the night. Giving quarters is about recognizing a need within Waterville and helping people as a church without any \u201cstrings\u201d attached. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When offering coins , Sally always makes sure to tell them that it’s Community Quarters day. \u201cI want them to know that there\u2019s a community, even though they can\u2019t see it, that\u2019s got their back.\u201d <\/span>Community is something that can lift a person when they\u2019re down and don\u2019t know where to look for help, and something small like quarters can really make someone\u2019s day. Even $10 can cover their laundry so the money they brought can then go to something like food. \u201cIt\u2019s really about being there when someone needs something,\u201d Sally says. For her, going to the laundromat means interacting with people, not setting yourself apart from them. It\u2019s through that personal connection that people can feel seen and feel comfortable accepting the gift. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sally spoke about the challenges she had to get over, the first being her shyness (though you would never peg her as an introvert). \u201cI learned to check my ego at the door and I was able to just be myself. That\u2019s how you really get to just be<\/em> with people,\u201d she said. The second hurdle was the stigma around people who receive aid. Through her work, Sally\u2019s learned that everyone needs help once in a while. There have been people of all kinds that take her quarters; some of them needed it and some of them probably didn\u2019t, so at the end of the day it comes down to serving the community. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sally stressed the importance of the programs that come out of churches like Waterville UCC because she believes that churches should help the most vulnerable. Though the Quarters Program is small, it represents a deeper network of people who are actively working to help the community.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kris de Luna ’20 Quarters. Something so small, but for some people, it can make all the difference in the world. Sally Melcher-McKeagney, a native Mainer, is the quarter lady. Once a week, she goes to the Waterville Highlander Laundromat and gives away quarters to everyone and anyone.  The Laundry Quarters Program started as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7980,"featured_media":196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7980"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/faithinwaterville\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}