Jill Steffey, who in 2016 started Bowling Green’s Rock Steady Boxing to help people with Parkinson’s Disease, has now started a new nonprofit called Pieces of Hope that will work with Parkinson’s patients along with people afflicted with other diseases.

Jill Steffey and the local Rock Steady Boxing nonprofit she founded were nearly floored by the 1-2 punch of the COVID-19 pandemic and the December 2021 tornadoes that struck Bowling Green.

But Steffey, a retired teacher who started the Bowling Green Rock Steady affiliate in 2016 to help those afflicted by Parkinson’s disease, has picked herself up off the mat.

With a little help from some friends, Steffey has launched a new nonprofit she’s calling Pieces of Hope, setting up shop on Morgantown Road property she purchased last year.

Pieces of Hope, Steffey explained, will provide therapeutic physical activity for Parkinson’s patients as well as those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

She is no longer affiliated with Rock Steady, an Indiana-based nonprofit that now has locations throughout the country and continues to operate in Bowling Green.

Located in the Live Active 50-Plus fitness center on U.S. 31-W By-Pass, Rock Steady grew from the six clients Steffey had when she opened to more than 30.

Then the pandemic hit, cutting participation in half. The tornado dealt another blow, damaging the building owned by Sandy Boussard.

Steffey left Rock Steady in March 2022. That organization was founded in 2006 with the idea that training exercises for boxing could help slow the progression of a disease that often starts with minor tremors but leads to debilitating problems with balance, posture and speech.

Boussard continues to operate Rock Steady, providing classes three days a week, but Steffey didn’t give up her goal of working with patients battling a disease that affected her father before his death in 2020.

In June of 2022, Steffey purchased a 1,400-square-foot home at 8895 Morgantown Road that sits on 1.9 acres and included a three-car detached garage that could be converted into a gym.

With financial help from a friend of her late father and donations of equipment from friends and local businesses, Steffey now has a gym outfitted with boxing equipment, exercise bicycles, weights and other tools needed to help her clients.

The new gym will allow her to broaden her clientele, Steffey said.

“I wanted to start working with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, but Rock Steady is strictly for Parkinson’s,” she said. “I also want to open it to special needs adults and kids.”

Whatever disease or disability her clients are battling, Steffey said they will get help from the physical activity available in her 1,200-square-foot gym.

Exercises designed to improve agility, speed, muscular endurance, accuracy, hand-eye coordination, footwork and overall strength can help her clients physically and mentally, Steffey reasons.

“The goal is to get them moving in any form or fashion,” she said. “I want to help as many people as I can.”

Trying to get the new nonprofit off the ground, Steffey is promoting it through the Pieces of Hope Bowling Green Facebook page and the piecesofhope.net website.