“Extreme Makeover! Extreme Makeover!”
Those words were shouted by an auditorium full of volunteers at the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s pep rally at 8 a.m. Tuesday at Journey Church in Norman.
ABC’s TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will begin filming the rennovation of their 178th house Feb. 1. Volunteers will help tear down and rebuild a house in the Norman-Oklahoma City community in 106 hours.
Ideal Homes was the company chosen to build the new house.
“This is a community effort,” stated Todd Booze, Ideal Homes president of construction, in a press release. “In addition to the home we build for a deserving family, the entire metro area will benefit through the food and blood drives we are planning as part of this extraordinary week ... We hope that people from across the area will answer our call for support.”
And people did answer the call.
In the first 24 hours, online volunteer sign-ups had more than 1,000 applications.
Booze stated the Ideal Homes Web site was so overwhelmed they had to temporarily shut it down. When they reopened the Web site, 1,200 more applications were received within 48 hours.
Conrad Ricketts, Extreme Makeover executive producer, spoke at the pep rally.
Ricketts said he not only wants as many volunteers as possible, but also wants people to show up with cans of food and their sleeves rolled up to donate blood.
“You can watch this show and see the heart and soul of America,” Ricketts said. “Oklahoma is a great place to be. We couldn’t do what we do without all the people who stand up and make a difference.”
Hundreds of people attended the rally. Among them were Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleaders and mascot, athletes, OU ROTC members and many other people from the community.
Andre Hechinger, criminology sophomore, said there was a lot of energy in the room.
Hechinger said he doesn’t regularly watch the TV show, but was touched by all the good it has done. He is planning to volunteer next week.
“It just seems that getting a community to come together to work together if one of their members are down on their luck or need helping out is an awesome idea,” Hechinger said. “It’s really uplifting to see stuff like that because it’s not something you see very often, especially today.”
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
uppervalley 2 years, 4 months ago
I feel so sorry for this community--this show came to my town not too long ago and it was a disaster. People were divided between those who think the TV show is awesome and those who think it is the stupidest thing ever and the nasty comments and rumors that flew around were so hurtful. Furthermore, the house they built is already having structural problems--you cannot build a house in less than a week! Don't trust the TV people--they lie. If a family needs help in your town, DO IT YOURSELVES. Don't let them get their Hollywood hooks into you. Good luck and God Bless You.
JJanowiak 2 years, 4 months ago
Is this going to be like the last time these people came to Oklahoma, rebuilt a family's house they couldn't afford to maintain, forcing them to take out a mortgage and eventually lose their house? Call me conservative but this show really enables people who can't afford to live in a house to get in way over their head.
luscioushippie 2 years, 3 months ago
Have either one of you obvious go-getters ever faced adversity or seen the face of disability. Have you ever stoped to ask a parent of a child with a disability about their credit scores. I wish EHM would come weekly so that the consevative public would see the struggles these deserving families go through. There are 1000's of families locally that live in pain and squalor to keep there children with a disability/s in therapies, appointments and the lights on. Grab your hammers and man up and maybe you will save them a few dollars. Then when the time comes for repairs they will have your contact information. God Bless
Madisyn 1 year, 3 months ago
We need to have discipline for a safe and a secure living. Information dissemination is a good way for the public to know. In one week, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition makes large changes to several lives. A two-hour special show was focused on a family that was in need of help with their foundation and their home. The anti-texting pledge of the RAB foundation got some star support. Both Roberts and Justin Bieber took the pledge and went on-record as supporters.