Eggleston Services, a subsidiary of The Louise W. Eggleston Center in Norfolk, VA, is a leader in providing laundry services to Federal customers under the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Program. Paul J. Atkinson, Executive Director of Eggleston Services, shared the accomplishments of Eggleston's laundry operation at the Committee's February meeting.

Since 1992, Eggleston Services have provided superior laundry service to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. The Hospital requires a 24-hour turn-around on all of their laundry-meaning that employees must process 10,000 pounds of laundry per day on Mondays and Tuesdays, their busiest days. Eggleston's facility boasts a "continuous batch" laundry-a sophisticated, hi-tech system that consists of several modules connected together that pass the laundry along in an assembly line fashion. This impressive setup allows laundry to be cleaned 24 hours a day, and minimizes worker injury since it eliminates the strenuous lifting that is required to transfer heavy loads from washer to dryer. In total, Eggleston Services processes over 1.75 million pounds of laundry per year.

Eggleston Services also provides a linen service to the Naval Station Norfolk Bachelor Quarters. As a Contractor-owned, Contractor-operated (CO-CO) service project, Eggleston owns the linens it rents and cleans and is responsible for their care and replacement.

Under the JWOD Program, Eggleston's laundry and linen services provide steady employment for 34 people with severe disabilities. Obtaining these JWOD contracts have also enabled Eggleston to enter into commercial laundry services, allowing the creation of even more jobs for people with severe disabilities.

The Louise W. Eggleston Center (formerly the Tidewater Vocational Center) was established in 1955 to provide quality services in the form of training and employment to people with disabilities. Today, the agency has evolved into a multi-program organization serving over 250 individuals with disabilities.