Extreme Makeover Home Edition is a reality show on ABC television that focuses on home makeovers for less fortunate, deserving families and individuals. The reason it is extreme is because they tear down a home or facility and rebuild it in a week. Yes a week! That’s pretty extreme. The painter who was heading up the painting effort heard that we do good work and asked if we wanted to participate. Of course we did.
The founder of the Fishing School was actually donating his time on an Extreme Makeover in Maryland, which was rebuilding a home-based community center. One of the television personalities discovered that this gentleman had a very similar center in DC and went to tour the facility. The facility was in a small, run down home which was formerly a crack house and was now filled to capacity with students and turning people away. The television personality was so floored with the similarities that he decided on the spot to try to get them a makeover. He succeeded and both projects went on simultaneously. Wow! Learn more at http://abc.go.com/shows/extreme-makeover-home-edition and http://www.fishingschool.org/.
Here is a quick story about my experience. I actually got to meet Ty Pennington. And yes he is that adorable in person. Ty and the camera crew came into the basement where we were working. Conditions in the basement were truly extreme. Due to hundreds of workers being in the house at one time it was extremely hot and extremely humid. That, coupled with the humidity in the air from our paint sprayers, made a camera shot virtually impossible. They kept trying to wipe off the camera lens and do a shot-no go.
Meanwhile, Ty sees that I am sweating profusely. Ty yells out “Somebody please get this man some water.” No one responded. So Ty just darts out of the basement and disappears up two flights of stairs. I was like, “That’s odd.” Not 30 seconds later you hear someone rumbling down the steps and into the basement. It was Ty. He had brought me a bottle of water and said “Here you go man.” I proceeded to have a pleasant conversation about the upcoming camping trip in Nevada that I was taking with my parents. It’s not everyday that a TV star runs up and down two flights of stairs to service your needs. It was so cool. What an experience.
