As a kid, Tina Rusiski figured every family had an Aunt Peg.

"I asked my classmates, 'Who helps you build things and make things and helps you bake cupcakes, and who walks you to the library?'

"They were looking at me like I was nuts," she recalled.

Margaret Lawless, more commonly known as Aunt Peg, was developmentally delayed. The sister of Ms. Rusiski's mother, she became a loving fixture in their lives.

"My grandfather had four daughters, and the arrangement was, the last daughter to get married inherited the family home, but she was also to assume the care and nurturing of Aunt Peg," she said.

"My mother was the last to marry, and my father agreed to care for the sister."

The family settled into the house in Homewood, where Aunt Peg played a big role in all of their lives.

The dawning that some disabled adults didn't have fulfilling lives came as a shock to Ms. Rusiski.

"I thought, 'Where do all the Aunt Pegs go? What do they do all day?' " she recalled. "There are some group homes and programs that are excellent, but there are some that are not ideal, that leave a lot to be desired."

By law, the state of Pennsylvania must provide education and special needs services to anyone up to age 21. But some people are concerned that past that age, little exists in terms of structured programs that stress life and/or social skills.

"My Aunt Peg celebrated every day of her life. She loved the sunshine and she loved the rainbows and every little budding flower," Ms. Rusiski said. "There has to be a way to provide more people with these kinds of simple pleasures."

In the midst of 10 years of research, Ms. Rusiski went back to school and obtained a master's degree in public nonprofit management from the Heinz School of Carnegie Mellon University.

Two of her former professors and two classmates are now on the 18-member board of The Celebration of Life.

The group was conceived to address the issues of disabled adults, their families and caregivers. In a nutshell, it tries to help disabled people find more meaning in their lives.

"I'm a widow, and this is what I'm doing with the second half of my life," said Ms. Rusiski, whose enthusiasm spills over into every conversation.

The Celebration of Life has ambitious plans to create a campus on land leased from The Sisters of the Divine Redeemer in Elizabeth Township.

According to the group's Web site, the campus would offer workforce training and development, university collaborations of work-study student interns, and a place for early retirees and senior citizens to become involved with special needs clients as mentors and job coaches.

Its initial project would be a hydroponic garden in four greenhouses. The Celebration of Life, which received its tax-exempt, charitable organization status last fall, has signed a 10-year lease to rent a portion of the sisters' rolling, leafy 65-acre property.

Sister Ligouri Rossner, executive director of the Jubilee Foundation in Pittsburgh, initially suggested the site to The Celebration of Life.

"We would be serving 30 individuals, each in three-hour shifts. Initially, we would need a transition period and a training period, time for the clients to get accustomed, just knowing their schedules.

"That's very, very important for those with special needs," Ms. Rusiski said.

Ideally, she said, the garden facility could be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. The operating hours of many social service programs don't make it easy for caregivers who have jobs or long commutes to participate. A typical day at the greenhouses eventually would include an open, communal dinner in the evenings featuring fresh produce from the gardens.

"We also want to organize transportation teams: I envision a sea of caravans, a driver and proud partner beside him, carrying the goods they just produced [to restaurants and markets]."

The first phase of the operation involves securing the funding through donations large and small. To that end, volunteer parent Barb Balcerek, of Irwin, will be working on clerical writing, which includes sending out the thank-you notes.

The Celebration of Life has a professional grant writer on its board as well as several lawyers, teachers, a health care professional, professors, counselors, a municipal department authority and an ordained priest.

Ms. Rusiski estimated the group will need roughly $500,000 to get four hydroponic greenhouses up and running, set up other work stations, plus provide the salary for a gardening expert.

Hydroponic crops are not raised in soil but with nutrient solutions.

The second phase involves the renovation of a building formerly used as a day care center. This building might have changing rooms for the workers, a lunchroom and meeting rooms. Doorways would be widened to accommodate wheelchairs.

The group hopes the construction could be family-centered, Ms. Rusiski said.

"We want everyone to have a part in it. One family who might have a plumbing business could, of course, do the plumbing, another might work on the HVAC, the fixtures, the kitchen fixtures, the ceiling tiles.

"We've already received our first donation of carpeting."

"It's all based on funding," Ms. Rusiski said. "We're accepting small and large donations. We can even name a row of plants within the greenhouse in honor of someone."

"I think we've gotten a good beginning on it," said Sister Rosemary Horvath, provincial superior of the sisters' community, which has 23 members.

"We're such a small community now, some of our sisters can't go out into the community anymore.

"Why not minister on the property?"

The Sisters of the Divine Redeemer have branches in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. In Slovakia, they maintain a home for mentally challenged women.

The Celebration of Life isn't limited to helping its clients. The board is hoping to attract both older people and students as volunteers to work in teams of three.

"In this country, we have a lot of early retirees or the elderly, home alone," Ms. Rusiski said. "These people are leading lonely lives and they could be spending one or two days a week, side-by-side with an individual who could benefit from their help and experience."

"It's going to be huge," Ms. Rusiski said. "Think of the thousand people you know who are retired ... some of those people don't have those connections any more with work or the family that were their lives.

"These are the people we'd like to hear from."

For information, call 412-513-6438 or visit www.thecelebrationoflife.net.