Sisterhood Spotlight

Puritan Cleaners maintains a strong outreach ecosystem throughout Central Virginia, giving back in various ways to communities in need. What have you found to be the most impactful aspect of your current position as the lead of community relations at Puritan Cleaners?

What an honor to have a front row seat to so many giving, so many helping hands and so many grateful neighbors indeed getting the help they deserve!

Puritan Cleaners started Coats for Kids in 1988 - it’s one of several community programs that have become the foundation of our team culture. It’s not its own program, but just what we do at Puritan Cleaners in addition to quality dry cleaning, laundry and more. We’ve seen our clients and community donate and our team clean over 500,000 coats over the years - if you laid them end to end they would wrap our Commonwealth in a warm hug. It’s a true labor of love for our entire team! What a joy it is to see so many colorful coats of all sizes donated at our stores or at school drives, make their way through our facility - spinning through washers and dryers as they go. I love seeing a large batch line up on the rails, each coat getting inspected by a caring member of our team and a special “compliments of Puritan Cleaners” tag attached on the right sleeve. Then we know it’s almost ready to take a ride to the Salvation Army Christmas Center. In one day, our customers help us load in and organize thousands of coats onto department store racks for families to “shop” at no charge when they pick up their Angel Tree gifts.

Being in the midst of that much cooperation that truly spans our community - is a true gift.

How did you get to where you are today, and are there any specific people or events that played a major role?  

I’ve worked in different environments but love the atmosphere of a small business. There is so much room to try new things and opportunities to make meaningful connections with people. At 16 years old, it was exciting for me to meet new clients at our front counters. Everyone and every garment has a story to tell. Nothing is closer to us during the day than the clothes we wear. I remember helping tie a freshly cleaned and pressed bowtie for an elderly gentleman who came into our Staples Mill Road location before heading to an award ceremony. As we talked, I learned he was one of a few survivors from a town in Germany during the Holocaust. We talked for a while and I learned so much. I value that connection and ability to help one another. These moments happen everyday in our locations.

I've been fortunate enough to be a part of the Puritan Cleaners team for about 17 years. I've witnessed our team rightfully winning awards for their dedication to quality dry cleaning and clothing care. I've observed changes in fashion and improvements in techniques to meet our clients' evolving needs. My own role has evolved as well. Beginning in Customer Service at our stores, I've taken on various responsibilities, from hiring to managing a division of our stores to assisting in our production area when hands are scarce. I've even sat in on our Alterations shops, although anything more intricate than a button is best left to our talented Tailors, in my opinion! Through the years, I’ve enjoyed helping with Coats for Kids, 100K Meals, Thank You Patriot, Pledge of Allegiance and more of our community programs. These days I love being in the center of the action, connecting good people to wonderful causes.

I'm grateful for leaders who cared enough to let me learn from various areas of our business and were there to support me when needed. Gary Glover, the Owner and CEO of Puritan Cleaners, has always been supportive, offering wisdom and sound advice when necessary. It's also an honor to work alongside my Dad, Norman Way, Vice President of Puritan Cleaners. He has been my cheerleader and coach since day one. I'm fortunate to have wonderful parents who instilled in me from an early age that people matter, and giving back is not only the right thing to do but a reward in itself. My Mom is a treasure. Bob Weirup, a friend and mentor, has also been a tremendous source of encouragement in my life. I’m thankful for so many women along the way who have led by example and look for ways to lift each other up!

What advice do you have for Virginia's Women+girls in the workforce, specifically those in the social impact sector like yourself?

You don’t have to know everything - learn all you can and surround yourself with good people - you’ll do more good together than you ever could have alone. We all can feel pressure to be the expert in any given situation, but none of us will ever know everything.

Be genuine. Lean in to what makes you, YOU. So much of our God-given nature as women translates flawlessly into making a positive impact in our community. Cultivate what gifts you have been given. If you are leaning into the social impact sector, you likely have a set of “soft skills” that are an asset to you. Maybe “kind” or “thoughtful” are words that have been used to describe you. Positivity and active listening often come from a place of great strength.

Develop a toolbox for yourself. I’ll share a silly example: The clothes don't make the man or woman, but when you feel confident it’s easier to act that way. A member of my team years ago noticed that the harder my work day, the higher my heels. They didn’t keep me from getting the work done - ask anyone: I’ve climbed ladders, worked assembly, assisted clients with their orders - they helped me feel more confident as I handled the tougher stuff behind the scenes. What’s something that makes you feel confident? Put it in your toolbox, no matter how silly it seems. Show up and keep going even when it’s hard. That being said, it’s easier to keep going when you truly believe in what you are doing. 

Find and listen to the wise men and women in your life who have gone before you. Glean from their experience, then make your own mistakes. There’s the saying “there’s nothing new under the sun” - it’s true. Things may look different, but so much remains the same. That’s where you find timeless, winning ideas.

Wife and mother are my absolute favorite titles. I’ve learned to look not for work/life balance but harmony in the things I spend my time on. All my best at work is wasted if the people I love so much are not thriving. I love being with my kids but when we’re apart, it brings me joy to know that time apart was spent in helping a neighbor have a better quality of life. Showing them videos on our Puritan Cleaners YouTube channel of kids of all ages donating coats or food for our 100K Meals program helps give them perspective and I hope one day they look for a way to help others too.

Around the holidays, many individuals and families are forced to go without. How have you seen the Central Virginia community step up and support each other this season and throughout the year?

Central Virginia is a jewel of a community. Year after year, I’ve had a front-row seat to thousands of people donating to our Coats for Kids program supporting the Salvation Army. This particular November was special.

Now that we’re 36 years into our Coats for Kids program, we’re starting to see a generational impact. More than once this season, I’ve been brought to tears as a student or client has shared that they would like to donate a coat because their coats as a child came from our program. Their parents registered for Angel Tree gifts with the Salvation Army when times were tough, and when they came to pick up gifts, they were blessed with coats for the whole family.

When I was 16 or 17, I was working at our Staples Mill location, and a mother came to pick up her dry cleaning and donated her daughter's red and black fur-trimmed wool coat. She was emotional that her baby had outgrown this special coat. I urged her that we would understand if she wanted to keep it! She left the coat with me, and I carried that sweet coat to our Production Team for it to be cleaned. Later that month, I happened to be at the Salvation Army’s Christmas Center helping unload and sort coats by gender and size onto department store racks. (We want the parents and guardians to have the full shopping experience, even though the coats are donated for them to have at no charge.) We placed that red and black coat on the front rack because it was absolutely adorable. As the doors opened and the first parents came in, a mom and her mother came through the coat center and picked up that sweet coat. The mother broke down crying on her mother’s shoulder that her baby would be able to have something warm that was beautiful. It was a gift that was more than a coat to her. Someone cared enough to share what they no longer needed in such a special way.

Our team joyfully puts in overtime cleaning and repairing roughly 16,000-17,000 coats every November. They do this on top of caring for thousands of clothes and household items for our clients because it matters. It’s truly a labor of love. We are all one major life event away from needing help, so we look out for others as we hope they would for us. So often these coats are a blessing not only to the child, but also for mom or dad. Not only do we outfit the entire family, but they have the freedom to take that $20-30 per coat that they would have spent otherwise and put it toward food or home expenses. Maybe it’s enabling a child to build a snowman in a real ski jacket instead of a sweatshirt. Most often during distribution, I hear, “Thank you, we don’t have heat in our home.” What a sobering reminder.

Since 1988, Puritan Cleaners has spearheaded the Coats for Kids campaign to ensure families in need across Central Virginia are kept warm throughout the holiday season. While the deadline to donate jackets has passed, are there still ways for people to get involved and support the mission as the winter months approach?

There’s always a need! While the deadline for this year’s distribution has passed, we encourage people to donate to the Salvation Army of Central Virginia. For years, they've been our partners for coat distribution because they know the most needs in our community and have such a wonderful network. At puritancleaners.com, we have a link on our Coats for Kids page to our virtual Red Kettle if you are looking for an easy donation option. If you are going through your closet and happen to find a coat that you’d like to donate, we happily accept them year-round. We’ll save it for when a need arises. Our local Salvation Army leads so many local programs for those neighbors who are going through hard times - meal assistance, jobs, family support, men’s, women’s, and family shelters.

What are you looking forward to in the new year?

As we approach the new year on a professional note, I'm looking forward to delving into advanced training for our team leaders. It's a chance to share some of the wonderful moments that unfold during our community programs. Working alongside such caring individuals is a true blessing; we really do make a great team. I look forward to sharing more about them on our social media. Additionally, I'm excited about our team's upcoming support for Feed More in the spring through our 100K Meals program. The impact they have in Central Virginia is significant, and I'm hopeful we can exceed our annual goal of 100,000 meals. The efficiency of the Feed More team, where $1 can provide 4 meals, is truly remarkable.

On a personal level, I'm eager for a New Year filled with opportunities to create special memories with loved ones.

About Sara Moncrieff

Over the past 17 years of her career, Sara Moncrieff has served in several roles within Puritan Cleaners - a locally owned dry cleaner dedicated to quality service and positive community impact. In that time, she has served in a variety of roles including Customer Service Representative, Restoration Insurance Liaison and Retail Division Mentor. Most recently, as a Marketing and Community Relations Specialist, she has led Puritan Cleaners’ community initiatives such as Coats for Kids, 100K Meals, and more. Through these programs, the Puritan Cleaners community of team members and clients have collected over 1.5 million meals and over 500,000 coats for local families in need.

Sara graduated with honors from Brightpoint Community College where she majored in Business Administration and served as Public Relations for their chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. Her work has garnered international recognition through numerous industry publications and has been featured in local media outlets. She also leads national marketing round tables, inspiring others to grow their business and give back to their communities.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Sara cherishes her personal life. In her downtime, she finds solace and joy in the great outdoors alongside her loving husband Sean and their two young sons.