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“Extreme Makeover” Pep Rally Hosted By The Abbey A Success

The Wheeler Center was packed with nearly 1500 enthusiastic supporters.

By Amanda Memrick, staff writer of the Gaston Gazette

Host of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Ty Pennington wasn’t at the Wheeler Center at Belmont Abbey College for the show’s pep rally on December 1. But the packed house showed plenty of enthusiasm for one lucky area family without him.

This Friday, one family living in the Charlotte metro area will find out their well-worn home will be demolished and replaced with a modern, new abode. They’ll get a knock on the door on December 11 and have a fully furnished replacement Dec. 17.

“This family is so deserving,” said Frank Hereda, co-owner of Bellamy Homes, the builder that will make a new home a reality.

The pep rally on December 1st aimed to rally the community around the build and seek out donations of time, money and skills to make the home renovation possible.

This makeover will be the 206th episode for the hit show, now in its ninth season on ABC.

Crews will have four days to build a new house, said Milan Vasic, senior producer at Lock & Key Productions, the company that produces “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

People often ask Vasic if the show will build a home for them, but he hoped no one in the Wheeler Center gymnasium would ever get a knock on their door from a show representative.

“If we do come it means that you’re going through some incredibly hard times,” Vasic said.

The show started off as a way to put home designing and repairs shows into prime time. But it wasn’t until a show executive found the Powers family living in a dilapidated home that the heart of the show was born. The Powers planned to renovate their home. They put all plans on hold when their daughter Olivia was diagnosed with a life threatening form of leukemia.

“What the show is looking for is heroes,” Vasic said. “A hero is someone that can simply help out when she sees a need, when he sees a need. I think that everyone here has a chance to be a hero.”

Vasic urged the crowd to be a part of what the show is doing by volunteering, donating or just spreading the word about some of the show’s needs. The show needs 2,000 to 3,000 volunteers, he said.

“This is like the barn raisings of the 1900s,” Vasic said. “The house is really a metaphor for the impossible. It is a monumental task.”

The show will air in a two-hour Christmas special in December 2012. Once it airs in the U.S., it will have voice overs in 50 languages and be distributed in 185 countries. A billion people will have the chance to see the heart and soul of this community, Vasic said.

To read the story online at the Gaston Gazette, please CLICK HERE.