Photo Scan: BaltoBoy Steve
Donation gets Legacy project off the ground
4 rooms being added to Founders Cottage;
Round-Up’s Christmas Stocking auction provides money
A local special care facility for people in the critical stages of AIDS will be able to start adding rooms immediately, thanks to $30,000 raised by the fifth annual Christmas Stocking Auction at Round Up Saloon.
Legacy Founders Cottage, operated by Legacy Counseling Center Inc., received a $101,000 Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS grant from the City of Dallas in April 2001.
The money will add four rooms to the cottage, giving them a total of eight beds. Laundry and bath facilities will also be added.
The project was delayed three years by rising costs, and Legacy C now required to contribute $16,000 initially to get the project started.
Funds raised at the stocking auction are just enough to get the project started, according to Melissa Grove, executive director of Legacy Counseling Center Inc.
“We were hoping in these tight economic times we could match last year’s amount of $ 63,000,” Grove said.
Marcon Construction Inc. is slated to start physical construction Jan. 19, Grove said. More than 200 people bid on about 75 auction items, including backstage passes for Bette Midler and a vacation to gay day at Disney World in Orlando.
Also sold were several Christmas wreaths handmade by a Round Up employee, as did gifts provided by area merchants and liquor distributors. Some items were sold for $50, while others went for $3,000,” said Alan Pierce, an owner of Round Up Saloon on Cedar Springs Road.
The Dec. 12 auction brought the total of charity money raised at the Round Up this year to about $90,000, Pierce said.
Pierce said he does not know how much the bar raised last year, but it has brought in as much as $120,000 in charity dollars in previous years.
Other major charity efforts of the Round-Up Saloon include Texas Gay Rodeo Association fund-raising shows, Razzle Dazzle Dallas and Home for the Holidays.
