WASHINGTON, VA.—Heritage House, a small historic bed and breakfast in “Little” Washington is helping save lives while making the world a little cleaner and greener. As the first Virginia lodging partner with Clean the World (a new nonprofit foundation that recycles gently-used soap and shampoo donated by hotels and provides it to impoverished countries), Heritage House B&B is donating leftover amenities from their guestrooms that would otherwise end up in the local Rappahannock County landfill. Instead, they will end up in the hands of some of the world’s neediest people who—according to the World Health Organization—tragically lose their young children to diarrheal and respiratory illnesses due to lack of basic hand washing soap.
“Paul Till (Clean the World co-founder and managing director) didn’t announce that we were the first Virginia partner until after we signed the agreement,” says Heritage House B&B owners Gary and Michelle Schwartz. “It was a bit overwhelming because their partners in Florida are in the big hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriott. It is such a privilege for us to play a small role in their admirable, humane efforts to save lives. Our intent was simply to reduce waste when we became a Virginia Green Lodging this past spring but when we learned about this program and that it could save the lives of children in such a simple way, we jumped right on it.”
Clean the World, located in Orlando, Fla., collects the donated soaps, which are then processed by the Central Care Mission, a men’s long-term residential center in Orlando. At their factory, volunteers clean and sterilize the soap using a unique steaming process. The soap is then packaged for distribution. Recently, Clean the World delivered its first load of 2,000 pounds of soap to the village of Cap Hatien in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“We are pleased that our first, major international delivery went directly to those that need it most,” said Clean the World executive director Shawn Seipler.
With the donations provided by their lodging partners such as Heritage House B&B, Clean the World is a step closer to reaching their goal of preventing the millions of lives lost each year—and they are doing it one bar of soap at a time.
Go to Heritage House and Clean the World.
