A Life in Motion
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Angela Tozzi
Team Luster
Sylvia Chloupek, 44, moved to the U.S. from Slovakia as an international student during high school and chose to stay. Since she arrived in Maryville, Mo., with her husband 12 years ago, she has built two successful businesses that brought big-city convenience to the small town.
She had a tough couple of years trying to fit in the community. “You brought me to the middle of nowhere,” she said to her husband, Brett, who teaches geography at Northwest Missouri State University. It was only when their oldest daughter, Vilhelmina, started preschool that Sylvia realized the more she gave to the community, the more she received in return. Her Slovakian desserts soon became famous around town, but at a cost: last-minute orders took time away from her daughters, and Sylvia wanted motherhood to mean giving them stability, opportunity and peace of mind.
She wanted a business that could serve her community without taking away time for her family. She pivoted from a bakery to a door-to-door laundry service. She feared she would lose her connection with customers, but they kept coming back, sometimes still requested baked goods. Serving busy mothers, single men, older residents and local businesses, Sylvia’s laundry was recently named New Business of the Year by the Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce. Now, as she drives around town, the trunk stuffed with piles of shirts, she feels at home.
Sylvia Chloupek, 44, and her youngest daughter Flora, 5, leave their house in Maryville, Mo., to head to school.
It’s Sylvia’s turn to bring snacks to school for the class and she has prepared some apples, but Flora starts crying, saying she would prefer something different. “This morning Flora just needed an excuse to cry. She wanted to be squeezed a little. I knew I shouldn’t fight her in this situation, it’s just a Friday morning.”
Sylvia comes home at 6:30 a.m. after a ride for laundry pick up. She picks up her daughters, swaps the cars and is on the go again. “Taking care of kids and driving them everywhere is a full time job“ she says.
Sylvia separates tablecloths by color at the laundry facility. She folds items manually and charges per pound, so orders that contain heavy items that are easy to fold are the best. “You can tell so much about people just by looking at their laundry. It’s really interesting to see — oh they’ve just have been on vacation! Or they clean their mother’s house and send me all the curtains. There’s always a story behind every set of items. It’s like being part of people’s life without being part of it.”
Sylvia checks her emails while the laundry cycle is running. “This is often the only peaceful time I get,” she says.
Sylvia picks up dirty laundry from a customer’s home in Maryville.
Sylvia accompanies her daughter, Antonia, and her friend, Chase, to tennis class. Flora comes along bringing her plushie, which she is inseparable from.
Sylvia helps her oldest daughter, Vilhelmina, prepare for a tennis match in their kitchen.
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