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Cleaning ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ Birthplace Takes Special TLC

Fort McHenry is Key Account for Coverall Cleaning Concepts of Northern Maryland

BALTIMORE, MD – (April 10^th, 2007) – Every day, by the dawn’s early light, a crew from Coverall Cleaning Concepts of Northern Maryland arrives at the historic Fort where the national anthem was written to clean everything from the visitors’ center to the soldiers’ barracks. Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore has been Franchise Owner Kevin Thomas’ cleaning account for three years, and it presents an entirely different set of challenges than the typical client.

“Usually we clean offices or other businesses. Here we clean things like a bomb shelter, a stockroom where they used to store gunpowder, and glass displays that hold historic artifacts,” Thomas says. “I’ve had dozens of accounts in 18 years of owning this franchise, but this is the only one that dates back 200 years, has 630,000 visitors a year, and where I get a history lesson every time I visit.”

Until he added the Fort to his roster of clients, Thomas had been there only once on a field trip with his Washington, D.C. high school class. That’s when he learned the basic history of the site — including its role in defending Baltimore from British naval attacks during the War of 1812, and how the attorney Francis Scott Key penned the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner” after he saw the flag still waving over the Fort during heavy bombardment as he sat on a ship in the harbor waiting to negotiate the release of a civilian prisoner of war in 1814.

But Thomas forgot most of the history until he started visiting the Fort three or four times a week on business. He began hearing more of the story from the rangers whom he calls “walking encyclopedias” on the Fort’s past, and he developed a personal as well as professional interest in maintaining the property.

From October through May, Thomas dispatches a four-person crew to clean the Fort every morning except Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Years Day. From June through September, when traffic soars and battle reenactments bring in hordes of extra visitors, he sends three crews a day in morning, afternoon and evening shifts.

Each team cleans the Fort’s museum, theater, offices, administration building, bathrooms, parking lot and picnic area as well as the historic areas. These range from the officer’s and commander’s quarters to the underground rooms where the soldiers took shelter during bombardments and the paved V-shaped “ravelin” that protected the entrance of the star-shaped Fort from direct attack.

Thomas’ other accounts range from banks, private schools and healthcare facilities to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, the Mid-Atlantic Coca Cola Bottling Company and Rukert Terminals— a 16-year client that is one of his most challenging cleaning jobs because of the nature of the business. “They unload huge ships of raw materials like magnesium, pig iron and road salt,” Thomas notes, “so we’re constantly switching mopping and cleaning methods based on the kinds of chemicals and associated debris that arrive on any given day.”

Coverall Cleaning Concepts’ Franchise Owners provide cleaning services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Service offerings include routine cleaning as well as a menu of specialized and premium services including hard floor care, carpet cleaning, window/blind cleaning, restroom sanitation, ceiling and wall cleaning, and fire/flood restoration. All technicians meet U.S. standards for minimizing risk of disease transmission through proper cleaning techniques.

About Coverall Cleaning Concepts

Coverall Cleaning Concepts is one of the world’s leading commercial cleaning franchising companies, servicing nearly 50,000 customers in over 90 metropolitan cities. Coverall’s extraordinary growth is attributed to its system-wide network of regional Support Centers, Franchise Owners and support staff that are dedicated to serving the needs of its customers. Small and large office buildings, industrial complexes, medical facilities, banks, department stores, and corporate headquarters are among the many types of accounts Coverall Cleaning Concepts services. When it comes to value, quality and responsiveness, Coverall Cleaning Concepts is the company facility managers have trusted for more than 20 years. For more information about Coverall Cleaning Concepts, please visit www.coverall.com.

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