About Us
The idea for NHLS came about in 2013 when one of our board members read about the Evergreen Laundry in Cleveland, Ohio. Later she had a chance to visit that enterprise, and on her return wrote a letter to the editor about her experience. The Amarillo Area Foundation and United Way picked up on the idea and invited the organizer of the Evergreen Laundry, Ted Howard, to visit Amarillo three times over the next year to see if a similar venture could work here. Nothing happened for the next few years but in 2017 the AAF brought up the idea again.
Several interested citizens went to see Evergreen first-hand and committed to helping make it work. North Heights Linen Service was created as an LLC with two members, The North Heights Advisory Association and the St. Anthony’s Legacy and Redevelopment Corp. One of our area hospitals agreed to be the pilot customer. The Amarillo Area Foundation and the Harrington Foundation committed to invest in the Laundry (its first Program Related Investment) , and a consortium of Amarillo banks (Amarillo National Bank, FirstBank Southwest, First Capital Bank, First United Bank, Happy State Bank, and Interstate Bank) agreed to fund the rest of the construction and start-up costs.