Baltimore's Child

Living Legacy: A Baltimore Mom Gives Hope, Motivation, and Jobs to Teens

Teen Column - Sept 2007

By Amy Landsman

Schoolteacher Erica McCullough is a woman in a hurry.
In such a hurry, she didn’t wait for others to help her finance her dream. Instead, she took matters into her own hands.
“I went back to Smyth [Jewelers] and took my wedding ring and my engagement ring, and I sold them,” she says.
But McCullough didn’t stop there. |
She also took out a second mortgage on her Charles Village home to finance a new business venture that would hire at-risk Baltimore teens.
“These kids don’t have time. You look at the police blotter—every day a child is being lost. I just had to find something,” says McCullough.
Motivated by the shooting death of one of her former students, 16-year-old Antonio Hill, McCullough founded a residential and commercial cleaning service called Living Legacy Development, LLC. Her first employee was Hill’s brother, 16-year-old Larry Hill. In short order, 19 more young people were also on board.
Eugene Thomas, 18, says he joined Living Legacy to take advantage of a good opportunity, even if the work is, well, just that—work.
“It’s an exhausting, messy job,” notes Thomas.
McCullough’s nephew, Aaron McCullough, 17, has been on board since day one.
Three of her workers—Larry Hill, 15-year-old Jeanè Baker (who works scheduling and reception), and 15-year-old Robyn Myers—had McCullough as a writing teacher back when they were in fifth grade at Mt. Royal Elementary School in Baltimore.
“She helps us learn about the business world… She’s a great role model for us,” says Baker.
Timothy Reed, 16, says he knew cleaning would be hard, but it doesn’t bother him. (He also admits his own room is still pretty messy.)
McCullough pays her employees $8 an hour. (Maryland’s minimum wage is $6.15 per hour.) If they work fast and perfect, they earn a dollar-an-hour bonus.

About the Business
McCullough chose to start a cleaning service because the job is easy to learn, and her young team members could readily see the results of their hard work. Her own mom worked as a cleaner and her dad was a taxi driver.
“My mother’s been cleaning for 30 years,” notes McCullough. “She sent me to Bryn Mawr [a private school for girls in Baltimore] on a day worker’s salary. I had no idea that we were poor. I had no idea.”
She promotes the business through Angie’s List, by word-of-mouth, and through flyers the teens hands out at local fairs and festivals.
“The phone is always ringing,” she says.
Living Legacy’s world headquarters is down a steep flight of stairs in McCullough’s tiny but tidy (of course!) basement. With her 22-month-old son Carter in her arms, she gives a quick tour.
Living Legacy uses eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products. Several vacuum cleaners stand in a neat line, paper towels are stored in one corner, and mops and brooms are stored in another. A wipe-off calendar lists upcoming jobs.
Computer equipment is perched on makeshift office furniture. The holder for the mail was rescued from the dump.
McCullough describes how the company name, Living Legacy, has special meaning for her: “My mother always said, ‘Give people their flowers before they die.’ And that’s something I’ve always, always listened to. These kids—they are our living legacy and they need to be developed. They have some of the best survival skills out there. They have what Fortune 500 companies want. They just basically have to show [the world] they have what everyone wants and needs.”

Wanted: Scholarships
When asked about her wish list, McCullough doesn’t ask for proper office space or big-budget contracts. Instead, turning her head to hide the tears that have welled up in her eyes, she replies, “Scholarships for my kids.”
She hopes to get the ball rolling by asking Living Legacy commerical clients to collect a dollar from each of their employees to help finance these scholarships for her young workers.
If the crew is cleaning for a lawyer, nurse, or other professional, McCullough urges them to take a brief break and start asking questions.
“I don’t want them cleaning for me forever… I have so many kids who are college-bound and so close to getting there. We do college applications together in between jobs.”
She is also willing to give the kids second chances.
“If they need a little bit of extra help, I can deal with it,” McCullough says “If that means [a young worker] has to start practicing on my house first before I take him out on a job, that’s fine.”
“I’ve never turned a kid away. I had to let one kid go, and that hurt me in my heart, but one out of 20 is a good record. I hated to lose that one, but he wasn’t reliable. We have to be reliable to our clients.”
“A lot of our kids, especially in the city, are falling through the cracks… Yes, we hear the bad things that are going on, but we also have some wonderful kids in Baltimore,” smiles McCullough. BC

Contact Information
You can reach Living Legacy Development, LLC, by phone, at 410-419-3554. Or send an email to: choctaws1976@verizon.net.