Living Legacy Development, a “green” cleaning company that exclusively hires public school students, is hanging in there after two years, despite financial woes that nearly forced founder Erica McCullough out of business last spring.

Now, in an effort to secure its future and expand its services, the for-profit company based out of McCullough’s house in Charles Village, is transitioning to nonprofit status.

“We’re going to try to start our nonprofit side of the company in order to really pay for what we’ve been doing all along,” she said.

McCullough is hosting an open house and fundraiser March 13 at 7 p.m. at 34 E. 26th Street.

McCullough, a former teacher at Mt. Royal Elementary School teacher and now a part-time teacher at Frederick Elementary in west Baltimore, founded Living Legacy after the shooting death of a former Mt. Royal pupil and the birth of her son, Carter. She currently employs 25 students at Living Legacy.

Her mission to give public school students jobs, and keep them off the streets and out of harm’s way. Students must maintain a ‘B’ grade average and are fired if they run afoul of the law.

Last April, Living Legacy nearly had to shut down because it didn’t have $6,000 to pay its bonding and insurance premiums.

The company was also being hampered by skyrocketing gas prices and the increasing cost of cleaning supplies.

The Abell Foundation stepped in with a grant that paid the premiums and kept Living Legacy afloat.

In addition to giving students jobs, Living Legacy provides employee services, including tutoring and help with applying for college.

If all goes well, McCullough hopes to give jobs to 50 students on a waiting list.    

For students, the upcoming fundraiser and open house is important as an affirmation of Living Legacy’s goal.

“It’ll be a great chance for the kids to see the volume of people that are working for them, and care about them, and are  actively involved in their lives,” McCullough said.

She said she hopes to raise $500 at the event to pay for Living Legacy’ application fee to be a nonprofit.

Although the $500 may not seem like much, it would allow McCullough to continue to pay her employees.

“The choice has been payroll or (applying for) nonprofit (status),” she said.

Because the needs of some of the students she employs is so great, she fears that some would quit if she delayed a paycheck.

But McCullough is more confident of Living Legacy’s future than she was at this time last year.

“We’re not worried about the nonprofit status situation because we’ve been able to maintain the company so far,” she said.

Competition for donations also doesn’t concern her, she said, because a little money goes a long way at Living Legacy.

“Even with something as small as a donation of $10  that supports a child for an hour possibly enables us to give that child a meal,” she said.

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