Shower and Laundry Trailers

Once the decision is made to establish a volunteer worksite at a particular church the most immediate need is for shower facilities. No showers = no volunteers. Most LCMS church do not have shower facilities within their physical plant, and many time places to find adequate showers is either impossible, hugely time consuming, or places a large inconvenience on volunteers to go off-site to shower after a long work day.

The primary mission of the shower unit is to provide hot, safe, and refreshing showers for disaster ministry volunteers and disaster victims. The needs of volunteers remain the same – a place to sleep, food to eat, and a means to clean up. The work is often hard, strenuous, and hot. Volunteers often work 12 or more hours a day. They sleep in church Sunday School rooms, gyms, fellowship halls, school classrooms, or some such place. Most of these types of facilities do not have showers. Without a nice warm shower, it is difficult to rest when it is time to lie down at night. By their nature, chainsaw and muck-out are very difficult and dirty types of work. In the case of muck-out, volunteers are handling many kinds of unknown materials and substances and need to clean up.

The victims in disaster-affected communities are also caught without many of the basic necessities of life. They are also working to recover. Often, they are salvaging their belongings or camping out on their property. They also need a means of taking a warm shower.

Having a laundry trailer, either separate from or in a shower trailer, can be a blessing. Disaster ministry volunteers wash, dry, fold and minister to anyone needing this service, basically victims and volunteers.

Both the shower trailer and the laundry trailer are tools that God uses to break the hard ground of people’s hearts in order to prepare them for the seed of life.

How It Works The quickest and best means to provide showers and/or laundry service is with a

portable shower or laundry trailer. Trailer deployment teams act as specialized LERT teams. There should be two shower trailers and one laundry trailer in each state or District. A church team would be responsible for the trailer – purchasing, building, storing,

maintaining, and transporting.o Purchasing

Securing funding. LCMS Disaster Response, LWML, and Thrivent may have grants available. At typical shower trailer costs between $20,000 and $35,000 to purchase or build.

o Building A common design plan is used for construction so all trailers are similar in

design and function. Can be built by the church or purchased as a complete unit

o Storing

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Shower and Laundry Trailers

Providing a safe and secure location to store the trailer between deployments.

o Maintaining Ensuring all systems are operable Cleaning after each deployment Repairing or replacing anything broken Insuring the unit

o Transporting When called upon, driving it to the set-up location Setting it up on site and ensuring it is functioning. This team may either stay

to operate the unit, or will “train” someone on-site to operate it. Driving it back from the location to the church

The expectation is that if there is a disaster the District Disaster Response Coordinator can request the trailer be taken to a location.

A DDRC may request units from another District. Basic design – shower unit

o 16’ – 20’ tandem axle enclosed trailero 1-2 shower stalls for meno 1-2 shower stalls for womeno OR 3 separate shower stalls (see diagram below)o 200+ gallon pressurized water tanko Pump to pressurize systemo Propane instant hot water heatero Storage for cleaning supplies

Basic design – laundry unito 20’ – 25’ tandem axle enclosed trailero 2-3 commercial grade washerso 2-3 commercial grade dryerso Propane instant hot water heatero 3 large propane cylinderso Shelf for folding clotheso Storage for supplies

Basic design – combined shower/laundry trailero 20’ – 25’ tandem axle enclosed trailero 2 showerso 1 commercial grade washero 1 commercial grade dryero 200+ gallon pressurized water tanko Pump to pressurize systemo Propane instant hot water heatero Storage for supplies

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Shower and Laundry Trailers

Sample Shower Trailer

3-stall shower trailer

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Shower and Laundry Trailers

Combination Shower/Laundry trailer

Laundry trailer – but would have only 3 washers/3 dryers

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Shower and Laundry Trailers

Commercial trailers:www.gatormade.com/mobile-shower-trailer

www.portablerestroomtrailers.com/property/comfort-series-custom-laundry-trailers/

www.activedeployment.com/shower-trailer.html

Plans might also be able to be obtained from the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Ministry.

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