A clean start
When Adah Nix volunteered to do a load of laundry for a woman name Frankie, she unknowingly took the first step to founding a free laundry service for those in need.
Photo by Milton Morris
Adah Nix
Age: 21.
Resides in: Greenville with her husband, Justin. Grew up in Pennsylvania.
Claim to fame: Founder of For Frankie, a free laundry service for those in need.
Making a splash: TV personality Mike Rowe profiled Nix in April on his Facebook show Returning the Favor. The episode got 4.4 million views in the first week.
Juggling act: Works with foster kids at Miracle Hill Children’s Home; student at Greenville Technical College.
Words to live by: “Making friends one wash at a time,” her charity’s motto.
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When Adah Nix learned at age 17 that her mom had been a homeless teen, she felt a calling "to be that person my mom never had” and soon jumped into helping kids on the streets through ministry work.
Three years later, while working at a Greenville thrift shop in early 2017, she saw another opportunity to make a difference thanks to a repeat customer named Frankie, who was struggling to get by.
Frankie only kept one outfit that she would replace weekly because it cost less in the short run than using a laundromat. Nix offered to do Frankie’s laundry, and with each bag of clean clothes she returned, she wrote “For Frankie,” on top. Before long, Nix was doing laundry for some of Frankie’s friends, and by autumn, she had organized regular Wednesday night gatherings at Coin Laundry on Poinsett Highway, providing quarters, detergent and even snacks, for people in need.
“It’s not just about doing their laundry. It’s about making a laundromat feel more welcoming,” says Nix, whose dimpled smile invites conversation as she greets people each week from 6–8 p.m. “It has turned into a family environment.”
Her charity, For Frankie, got a major boost in April when Mike Rowe’s web series, Returning the Favor, profiled her work—and surprised Nix with a custom van outfitted with washers and dryers to help her reach even more people in need.
She is rolling out the “mind-blowing” gift this summer as she balances college, her job at a children’s home and the demands of running a growing nonprofit. It’s a lot to soak in, but this 21-year-old is living her dream with the confidence “that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
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Get More
Watch Mike Rowe surprise Adah Nix with the gift of a mobile laundry center in the episode “Adah’s Dirty Laundry,” hosted on facebook.com/ReturningTheFavor. To learn how you can help, visit ForFrankie.org.