RISING FROM ASHES: MATT COLANGELO OVERCOMES OBSTACLES TO REOPEN AFTER FIRE

BY DANNY LINSNER

Along with helping Colangelo nancially, Mark said he would host an event to help further. Colangelo didn’t think Mark was serious about the fundraiser idea, and a er not hearing from Mark for a month, Colangelo thought the idea was moot.

However, to Colangelo’s surprise, Mark came back around Christmas to say the Legion had set up the upcoming February spaghetti dinner/fundraiser.

In February 2020, the Wayland Laundry Services building burned to the ground, giving the laundromat’s owner Matt Colangelo a lot to think about and a lot to worry about. Now, as the three-year anniversary of the re approaches, Colangelo is nearly ready to reopen Wayland Laundry Services.

e laundromat was started in 2005 by Colangelo’s father and stepmother, who have been involved with running the laundromat most of the time since, until the 2020 re. Colangelo originally worked in the laundromat part-time, helping clean and maintain the washers and dryers.

en, everything changed in February 2020, when a regular customer came into the laundromat in the middle of the night to wash rags from his work in the area, cleaning commercial ovens as he usually did. at February night, however, while his rags were in the dryer, they caught re, which then led to the whole building burning down.

A er the insurance companies did their work, the Colangelos had to decide what to do. Colangelo’s dad, who spent winters in Arizona, came back to New York to help with the dilemma.

Colangelo’s dad and stepmom, who were considering retirement even before the re, told Colangelo he could take over the laundromat if he wanted to. Colangelo accepted without hesitation. However, he did not have enough money to rebuild the laundromat as of anksgiving 2021, so he had to gure out what to do.

Fortunately for Colangelo, one of his friends, Kevin Mark, head of the Wayland American Legion, gave him a sizable amount of money. Mark said he’s always willing to help a veteran such as Colangelo, and Mark didn’t like the idea of a local business shutting down over conditions out of their control. Mark could also relate to the damage re can cause due to a house re Mark himself had previously experienced.

Colangelo said he is in the nal stages of rebuilding the laundromat. He has nished most of the cleaning and replacing of equipment and recently nished painting. Final steps involve a code o cer inspecting the laundromat and setting an occupancy limit, and the creation of an LLC for the laundromat.

Colangelo hopes to reopen the laundromat in March, hopefully allowing him to heal the re’s wounds and start anew.

“It’s going to be a big relief getting the laundromat rebuilt,” Colangelo said. “It’s been a few years of hard work, and it’s been amazing the amount of help the Wayland community has given me during this time.”

Wayland American Legion will host a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on February 11th from 2-6 p.m. at the Legion (102 N Main St, Wayland).

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