PSSA players recently renovated the kitchen at Legacy Founders Cottage.
(Photo courtesy of Brooke Henderson with Legacy Cares)

Softball Association remodels kitchen at Founders Cottage

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Pegasus Slowpitch Softball Association remodeled the kitchen at Legacy Founders Cottage in Oak Cliff earlier this month. They completed the entire redo in six days and unveiled it on July 20.

Legacy Counseling Center, now known as Legacy Cares, opened Legacy Founders Cottage in 1996 as a hospice for people with AIDS. As new medications became available that allowed people to live with HIV, the cottage became more of a respite facility. And by 2006, the cottage was doing more respite care than hospice work.

Brooke Henderson ran the cottage for 10 years and is now executive director of Legacy Cares. She said PSSA got involved when members of the teams were volunteering at the facility, doing work gardening around the house. They noticed then how badly the kitchen needed to be remodeled.

Troy Steakley, who plays on the Woody’s Crew team, spearheaded the work. Steakley, who has 20 years’ experience as an art director doing TV, film and print work, designed 10 of HGTV’s dream homes. He was at the cottage with the team of PSSA volunteers who were pulling up tall weeds and dead bushes and replacing them with new plants. They also replaced pillows and blankets around the house.

When they toured the house, it was obvious to Steakley the kitchen needed to be remodeled. Not only had more than 25 years of wear-and-tear taken a toll, the basic configuration of the space was a big problem. An island of cabinets sticking out into the living room impeded access to client rooms for first responders as well as making it more difficult for wheelchairs and even walkers to get through.

“Once we saw the need, we had to do more than just blankets,” Steakley said.

He said they were able to work with existing plumbing, but some of the electrical wiring needed an upgrade. Floors were worn, and so were cabinets. And after 25 years, appliances desperately needed to be replaced.

The work took six days. While they were at it, Steakley said, they also replaced a dryer that no longer worked and installed an ADA-compliant toilet in the house.

PSSA has added community service work to its bylaws as a requirement for member teams. Each team must complete 40 hours of community service in order to qualify to participate in the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance World Series. Steakley and his crew have far exceeded the requirement.
Henderson said she was very grateful for the work done on the cottage and that her clients are benefiting from it. She added that PSSA’s new community service requirement will benefit not just her agency, but organizations throughout the community.

As for the cottage, Henderson said, they still provide hospice care when needed. While people with HIV are living full lives, she said this fiscal year, they’ve lost two clients who had co-morbidities. One had complications from COVID and the other had lung cancer.

But most clients recover at Legacy.

Henderson repeated how grateful she was for Steakley’s work and PSSA’s contribution: “They thought of everything,” adding that during the six days of construction, PSSA even catered in lunch and dinner for the residents.