DENVER — When you're homeless, it's easy to feel forgotten and even harder to believe the moment you're finally seen.
Jennifer Kloeppel has experienced those powerful moments firsthand. She is the dreamer behind Showers For All, a mobile trailer that provides showers and laundry for people living on the streets.
"There was a woman who came up to us and she just started crying and she said, this is for me," Kloeppel said.
Allen Boe, who is currently living in a tent camp, expressed his appreciation for Kloeppel and her work.
"These guys are great, they come up, give us showers, clean clothes. You can’t ask for anything better to get back on your feet," he said.
Long before there was any of this, Kloeppel discovered a sad reality doing community outreach for her church.
"People were saying, 'I don’t have access to showers. I can find food, I can find shelter, but I just wanna feel clean,'" Kloeppel said.
That's how her idea was born. Together, she and her business partner launched an online campaign and in just 24 hours, raised the $40,000 they needed to buy and build out their first mobile trailer.
"We knew we wanted to build it ourselves because we wanted our bathrooms to feel like home," Kloeppel said.
Fast forward two years, and Showers For All is giving people without homes something invaluable — a chance.
"If they have a housing interview, a job interview — they’re clean, they got clean clothes, they don’t walk in smelling like they just crawled in from under a bush," Boe said.
Kloeppel said they get squeeze in 50 showers per day.
"We tell people they have 20 minutes. We actually give them 30, and everyone’s been so incredible with that," Kloeppel said.
Work is already underway on a second trailer, and services will soon expand to seven days a week. It's all because of an everyday hero who dared to dream.
"We forget that everyone has a story and every story matters and the way we show up in the world and love people, it comes back to us," Kloeppel said.
Molly Hendrickson anchors Denver7 in the mornings from 4:30-7 a.m. She also features a different 7Everyday Hero each week on Denver7. Follow Molly on Facebook here and Twitter here. To nominate a hero in your life, click here.
