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Only a year after graduating from the South Country School District, 18-year-old Cameron Trent from Bellport has not only started college but also begun a venture into the laundry industry.
Trent and his business partner Derek Rountree, 25, also of Bellport, started up the Dirty Devils laundry business in 2015 with the concept of offering a critical service for employees spending long work days in fast-food uniforms.
Trent targeted this need after his own experience working at a McDonald’s.
“When you’re working and you’re around the grease and the sauces and stuff, [the uniform] gets dirty fast,” Trent said.
He thought it would be great if there was some kind of service that would allow employees to leave their uniform at work. The uniforms would be picked up and washed overnight and be right back waiting for the worker the next work day.
As with any start-up businesses, the challenging part for Trent has been getting his foot in the door.
“You have to really hunt them down to get that job,” Trent said.
To help make that push, Trent and Rountree push their business directly to companies, outlining their professional intentions and goals in order to put a perspective client at ease.
So far, Trent said Dirty Devils has received preliminary approval from a company that would bring their service into 15 McDonald’s locations in Suffolk County.
Once up and running, a Dirty Devils staffer would drop by the McDonald’s location after the workers have gone home, take the uniforms to an overnight laundromat and bring them back in the morning before employees return to work.
McDonalds employees that are interested in the service will pay $6 per week to Dirty Dogs. The hope is to partner with other restaurants and businesses in the near future.
Ever the ambitious teenager, in his free time Trent is a student at Suffolk Community College currently studying business administration.
He just finished an unsuccessful bid to join the South Country School District’s Board of Education and is in the process of forming an organization for local kids called “Better North Bellport.”
In his non-working free time, Trent said he likes to chill out by watching NCIS and building Lego blocks, which he says ends up fueling even more ideas.
Anyone interested in contacting the Dirty Devils business can reach them at their Dirtydevils.org website or by emailing Trent at C.trent@dirtydevils.org.
photo caption
Derrick Rountree and Cameron Trent at the Boys & Girls Club Thursday. (Michael Sorrentino)
