June 25th, 2009 
joel UPDATE (from a press release): On June 25, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” travels to Erie, Pa., to meet the indomitable Clara Ward, who has cast the adversity of her health and surroundings aside to run a nonprofit youth development and family center from her home. Team leader Ty Pennington, his designers and hundreds of volunteers will rebuild Clara’s home in seven days, enabling her to continue her big-hearted work in support of the neighborhood’s underprivileged children.” The design team for this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature team leader Ty Pennington and designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis and Grammy-Award-winning, R&B recording artist, Mary J. Blige.
The location address is: The Ward Family, 650 East 21st Street and will be opened to the public starting on Saturday Sunday. Warning: the streets are closed around the construction site and traffic is snarling in the area.
Helpful Links:
Sometime Thursday morning, Ty Pennington will grab the noticeably low-tech bullhorn to rouse an Erie family and tell them that their lives would be changed forever. The deserving family will be sent on a amazing vacation while Ty and his crew build the family a new home in seven days.
Here are the latest details:
- The family will be revealed to the public about noon Thursday, and interviews with the family will appear on the Thursday evening news. Sometime after 4 PM the family will embark on their vacation
- Friday will be a construction setup day
- Saturday demo occurs
- Sunday the house framing and construction begins
- All slots for volunteers are long taken, however Grace Church in McKean is looking for help for the accompanying neighborhood side projects that will be happening. Some $20,000 in cash will be needed and you can donate by clicking here
- Donations for the build, as well as for the Maleno Family-to-Family fund are also needed
You can follow the project’s progress at www.malenoextremehome.com. We will update you later Thursday on this post as the family’s name is released.
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Deep Background for June 21-27, 2009
This is going to be another big week for Erie media. I mean when was the last time a national production company set up shop for a week to produce a one hour feature completely on site locally for one of the broadcast networks?
That’s what’s happening beginning Thursday morning when Extreme Makeover: Home Edition begins its eight-day construction odyssey for ABC television with a door knock on one Erie address. The Press and Tower plans on reporting the “behind the scenes” of how a production of this magnitude takes place.
You can discuss the project and just about anything else related to the Erie and national media on this open forum. Please send any private messages to joel@nataliemedia.com or tweet @pressandtower.
Embrace the chaos!