“Habits are built at young ages. This is a great place to start.”
Ryland Adzich
SMU Sophomore
.…on creating the Scrub-a-Dubs library to encourage children’s reading in “everyday spaces.”
As a middle schooler in the San Francisco Bay Area during the pandemic, Adzich started a book drive with a friend to collect books for children who live in book deserts. That led her to create a nonprofit, The Creative Destination, which has established 10 “laundromat libraries” in the San Francisco area, where kids can borrow and read books as the washers churn and the dryers roll.
Now in Dallas attending SMU, Adzich has been working with groups like students from the Hockaday School who conduct book drives and raise $150 to provide a “bookshelf” for similar libraries around Dallas. Adzich has used that output to set up and maintain four Dallas-area laundromat libraries.
Ryland Adzich reads a book to three-year-old Noah at one of her “laundromat libraries” at one of her “laundromat libraries” at the Scrub-a-Dubs laundromat in East Dallas.. [Photo: SMU]
Giving kids a window into creative worlds beyond screens has earned Adzich accolades at SMU. A Dedman Scholar, a Tower Scholar, and founder of the Womens’ Innovative Network at SMU, she was the top winner of the Fall 2024 Big Ideas competition, where she was awarded $1,000 to support laundromat libraries plus an additional $1,000 from the Spears Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership for having the most inspirational idea at the competition.
One of her “libraries” is at the Scrub-a-Dubs laundromat in East Dallas, where her offering has helped spur additional business, according to owner James Franey. (Franey, by the way, has a Little Free Library installed in front of his home, making him an easy sell for Adzich’s pitch.)
A computer science, data science, and political science major, Adzich won’t stop hitting books herself when she graduates from SMU—she plans to enter law school after graduation.
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