My Extreme Experience and Thoughts

As many of you know, the Extreme Makeover Home Edition recently filmed an episode here in our Twin Ports area (South Range, WI to be exact). Five area families were competing for the spot but the Huber family was chosen. Rumors have it that one of the reasons the Hubers were chosen was because Duluth was uncooperative in pushing through the permit requirements etc to meet the show's schedule. Once again, Duluth -- and Minnesota in general -- pushes away a big money making opportunity and a boost to our economy (think Leatherheads and Public Enemies).

I didn't take many pics, but here are a few. The people in the red shirts are the paid employees from Builders Commonwealth and their selected family/friends. The blue shirts are the regular volunteers from the community. The black shirts are the stars of the show... well, except for Paige who wore pink right down to her hard hat.

First let me tell you what I liked about the show being here in town...

I went out to the site twice. The first time was with Jenn and because her employer donated goods, she had passes to the VIP tent. Parking was in a giant mowed field that a neighbor had donated. Because of my broken leg, they let us park up close and then shuttled us in to the site with a golf cart -- impressive! The VIP tent had free food and places to sit in the shade -- the food was okay at best; the view was better in the general spectator area; but the opportunity to sit was awesome. Standing on one leg gets tiresome pretty quickly.

We were there on Day 3 and watched them spend oodles of time filming one scene with Ty placing the first part of the houses frame. After they finished filming it, a crane took the wall piece away and the workers continued doing something else. Ah, hollywood...

Ty Pennington was quieter than I expected. I expected him to be running around the site with his megaphone encouraging people to work faster. Instead he came out, waved to the small crowd of fans once in awhile, ran through his scene a couple times, had a pic taken with someone, and then headed back to his trailer. But what impressed me most was that on his way off the site -- and off camera, I might add -- he shook every volunteers' hand as he passed. Good job Ty!

Other than the filming, it wasn't very exciting. Lots of volunteers standing around doing next to nothing, and a smaller group actually building the house.

The second time I visited the site was this past Sunday. Jeff and I took the kids to see the site. This time we saw Paige and Eduardo from the show being filmed. The house was up and the landscaping was in. Other than that, it was again a lot of volunteers standing around, and a smaller group fervently working on the house.

I personally like the show. I think what they are doing is basically a very good thing ala Hollywood style. I liked it better when they would simply renovate the older house to better accomodate the family living there, rather than build brand new massive homes. The house done here was one of the smaller homes built, and it was also the greenest -- this makes me happy. I understand that many families had run into trouble later because they didn't know how to keep up with the money involved in living in a mansion. However, I heard that now people are brought in to teach the families money management etc before they are handed over the keys... nice to see that they have learned from their mistakes.

Okay, here is what I don't like.... keep in mind that this is just my own piddly personal opinion...

In my opinion, the communication was lacking at best. People who wanted to volunteer were directed to an email address. They were then requested to fill out an application and were told to expect a phone call. The show has certain requirements of i's volunteers (no cameras, work shoes were required, no asking of autographs etc.) but according to the facebook page dedicated to this event, many of the volunteers never received this important bit of communication. After they reached the number of volunteers needed, they closed down the email. Which left oodles of frustrated volunteers no place to go with questions. After a few days of this, they announced on the website for them to call the office at Commonwealth. But sadly, they had a teenager manning the phone who was unable to answer most of the callers questions. All of this seemed easily avoidable with a little common sense and planning. And by the way, I saw 6 volunteers wearing flip-flops, one in high spiky heels, and too many to count who were taking pics and asking for autographs...

The community was continually told to go to the website for up-to-the-minute changes in scheduling, announcements, and news and yet most times what was communicated was too late to matter. For example, until sometime after noon on Sunday they were not letting spectators in because of the "knee-deep mud puddles" from the rain the night before. We saw hundreds of cars drive out there and then have to turn around and head home. I wondered how many had driven further than Two Harbors to see the site and had to drive home disappointed. This announcement wasn't put on the website, facebook page, or Twitter, until much later. We were able to get in because we knew someone, and yes, it was muddy, but I saw no puddles that were knee-deep, nor did it seem necessary to send people away because of it.

I am impressed with the number of people that volunteered their time, and the number of businesses that donated supplies and equipment. Apparently, our small community had more people volunteer for this episode than any other episode in the history of the show. This is one of the reasons why they have decided to make this episode their 150th episode and the 2-hour season premier. This is something to be very proud of! But where are all these people when the cameras and tv-stars are gone? There are so many places in our areas that are desperate for volunteers year round and come up short. This saddens me. I've seen how some volunteers have let this opportunity take over their lives, leaving their own kids on the wayside nothing short of being forgotten. The Huber family benefits, but their own kids are neglected and feeling unimportant and left out. This saddens me most of all.