Legacy House: Building a Home, One Donation at a Time
By Ellen Paquin

Just as individual boards are nailed to a framework to build a house, small acts of charity are being assembled to create a place of sanctuary for women in a donated house on the corner of Marley and Goudreau streets in St. Ignace. The new volunteer project, inspired in Kathy Lawnichak and Maureen Brady following ministry visits to young women in jail, is called Legacy House.

Volunteers from all faiths are converting the oncedelapidated rental house into a home for up to five women.

"We want it to be a precious place, like a sanctuary, where the older women can show skills to the younger ones," said Mrs. Brady. "The idea came from working with young women at the jail who really had nowhere else to go. Later, you'd see them in town, maybe living in bad situations. Whatever you've accomplished, you have to know you have hope. Using resources already in town, we want to make a safe, home atmosphere. We want to enjoy knowing these women, and have them realize this is what a home should be like."

Making the four-bedroom house an appealing place to live is the first step for the volunteer group, headed by Legacy House board members Kathy Keaton, Shirley Sorrels, and Catherine Colburn in addition to Mrs. Lawnichak and Mrs. Brady.

"The house was trashed when we went in there," Mrs. Brady said. "We had to sort through trash, and we took 10 truck loads to the dump. The upstairs bath has now been gutted and needs to be redone, and the half bath downstairs, too. But it is really starting to look nice."

Volunteers have painted and decorated the bedrooms, hauled trash, installed new kitchen and laundry room flooring, torn out old carpeting and broken paneling, paid for plumbing repairs, put up wallpaper, and raked the yard. Ongoing donations have been pledged from the St. Ignace Ministerial Association, supported in part by income from the Hope Chest resale store. Mrs. Lawnichak is working to develop fundraising ideas for the house. Grants are being sought to provide new mattresses for five twin beds.

"Someone is donating gravel for the driveway and a St. Ignace business has offered to donate dining room furniture," Mrs. Brady said. "People have been so gracious to us. How precious it is to have such support from the community."

Sometime this summer, the group hopes to see its first Legacy House tenant move in. The place will house up to five women in crisis, with a volunteer supervisor living on site. Women in need of a place to live will be able to approach any church leader to be considered for up to one year of occupancy in Legacy House.

"We will be open to consider any women in need, and interview them," Mrs. Brady explained. "We will want to see regular church attendance and a sincere effort. We won't expect any fellows to be at the house. This has to be something the women are doing for themselves, not for anyone else. And there has to be a spiritual component, an encouragement that the Lord does have plans for each of them."

Tenants will be required to be employed and willing to set aside part of their income for maintenance of the house, which was donated for the purpose in December by former St. Ignace pastor Greg Rowan, now a pastor at Judson Baptist Church in Burton.

The five-member Legacy House board has yet to choose a live-in supervisor for the home.

"It has to be someone who has a real heart for it," Mrs. Brady said. It would not be a paid position, but the person would have a place to stay, and maybe would work part-time somewhere. It will be interesting to see just how it all comes together.

"After all, we're not really supposed to know everything at once, but just be willing to take that next step."

To make donations to Legacy House, contact Pastor Tari-Stage Harvey of Zion Lutheran Church or Mrs. Lawnichak at 643-7185.