TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Leto Alumni Give Cool Gift

CANDACE C. MUNDY/TAMPA TRIBUNE

(LF TO RT) David Patton, Troy Steele, Greg Patton and Jack Steele, with T & D Mechanical Services, Inc., work on installing an air conditioning system in the locker rooms (field house) at Leto High School. The business is run by two Leto HS graduates who recently learned that the sports teams couldn't use the locker rooms because there was no air conditioning. So they offered to install the necessary equipment for free to the school.

ADVERTISEMENT

By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 22, 2007

Updated: 09/20/2007 06:22 pm

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - The stuffy air, lingering ripeness and sweltering temperature inside - 90 degrees at 5:30 a.m. - told the folks at T&D Mechanical Services what they needed to know about Leto's field house.

The student athletes could use air conditioning.

T&D, a Tampa company founded by two Leto alumni, could provide it.

Leto's field house perches on the edge of the high school football field, but the football team tries to avoid it as much as possible. The single-story, windowless building has girls' lockers and showers on one side and boys' facilities on the other.

The building opened about four years ago while Leto was under renovation but was not wired for air conditioning, Principal Dave Brown said.

It provided a nice respite for the track team and soccer players who ducked inside to escape chilly wind in the winter, he said. It didn't do much for the football team, however, during steamy September games and practices. At halftime, the team gathered in the end zone instead of the locker room, Brown said.

'Now they'll be able to come in here and cool off,' Brown said.

Air-conditioning specialists T&D Mechanical offered its services after learning about the football team's situation. Business manager David Patton, a 1999 Leto graduate, suggested his employer reach out to the community and offer a remedy. Troy Steele and his father, Jack, founded T&D Corporation five years ago and had done some gratis work for Pasco-based Hope Youth Ranch. They sought more outreach opportunities, said Troy Steele, T&D president.

The company includes T&D Mechanical and T&D Construction Services and is on East Broadway Avenue. It has about 30 employees, about a third of whom graduated from Leto. Troy Steele went to school with Patton and graduated in 1998. Steele's father graduated in 1976.

The T&D crew arrived Monday morning and planned to complete the installation before football practice that afternoon. It included four air-conditioning units, two on the boys' side and two on the girls' side, which was a donation of equipment and labor worth $10,000, Troy Steele estimated.

Bruce Saul, of Thunder Bay Electrical Services, which works with T&D, provided the necessary electrical hookups, worth about $1,100.

The stifling heat that greeted workers when they opened the Leto building was enough to motivate them to get the job done quickly.

'I couldn't be more motivated,' Steele said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503 or cpastor@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT