Powells' homecoming includes more than just new home
Project restored hope — not just homes — in a neighborhood that sorely needed it
Published: November 15, 2009, 5:31 pm
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Delores Powell and her four children might have thought their new house and refurbished neighborhood and the excitement of a TV show was enough of a shock.
They had no idea.
Today, one day after the family returned to have the first look at their new "Extreme Makeover: Family Edition" house, they were presented with paid, four-year scholarships to Canisius College, and the keys to a blazing red, 2010 Ford Fusion.
The family's refrigerator and pantry were also stocked with food provided by Tops Markets, and the freezer was packed with frozen foods supplied by Rich Products, which announced it was donating a year's worth of products.
"I cannot tell you how my heart is feeling right now. I realize that a human heart is stronger than we ever believe," Powell said, with her children grouped around her outside the home's entrance.
"This joy that has flooded my heart since the 7th of November is unexplainable. I can never, never, explain what I am feeling inside, but you can just imagine ... All of what has happened has made me to be very humble."
The family doesn't own a car, and Deborah, the second oldest child, shrieked when the car pulled into the driveway, moments before everyone eagerly climbed inside. The mid-sized sedan was provided by West Herr Ford of Hamburg and West Herr Ford Lincoln Mercury of Amherst.
Powell said her older children want to attend college, but with limited financial means she has worried about how to make that happen, especially with her oldest, Joel, graduating next June.
"I will make sure that all my children do not take for granted this opportunity that has been given to them. I am going to stay on top of them as I always do," Powell said.
"I just want to thank Canisius College for giving them the opportunity that I couldn't afford to give them. God bless you."
Powell, who said she wanted a college education "so much" when she came to the United States, and then later thought she was too old to attend, said she would pursue her dream to go.
Powell expressed her gratitude one day after Buffalo's eight-day odyssey with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" came to its dramatic conclusion Saturday with several thousand people packing into the little block on the Lower West Side to welcome the awestruck mother to her new home.
Just a week after leaving their Massachusetts Avenue house in the hands of a legion of builders and volunteers, Powell and her four children stepped from a limousine Saturday afternoon as the neighborhood erupted into cheers.
Then, after a brief huddle with host Ty Pennington, the Powells led the crowd in the show's signature chant:
"Move that bus! Move that bus!"
And with that, the luxury bus blocking 228 Massachusetts moved out of the way, revealing a sparkling new, green and white two-story home where the Powells battered yellow house with green trim once stood.
Powell, 49, covered her mouth with her hand as her jaw dropped.
The facial expressions of her children — Joel, 18, Gabrielle, 16, Deborah, 15, and Anschel, 10 — ranged from shock to disbelief to jubilation, as the family ran through the front door anxious to see what it looked like inside.
The single mother of four who came to the United States from Jamaica determined to make a home for her family certainly got her wish.
"It's amazing," said Andrea LaMacchia of Buffalo, one of the spectators. "It's uplifting."
Police estimated 5,000 people flocked to Massachusetts Avenue Saturday, many showing up in the morning and standing several hours on a beautiful fall day, anticipating the unveiling. They watched from porch roofs, snapped pictures with their camera phones and cheered whenever Pennington appeared.
"It's a fun event," said Tim Sherry, of Lancaster, who came to watch the moment with his daughter, Alexandra. "My daughter watches the show all the time."
This episode of "Extreme Makeover" is expected to air sometime early next year, maybe as soon as six to eight weeks from now, according to one source familiar with the filming.
Media wasn't allowed inside the home Saturday or today, but those involved in the construction described the house as a four-bedroom home with a finished basement and large corner windows from which Powell can keep watch over the neighborhood she loves.
In fact, what started out as a TV project focused on the Powells has become so much more.
Builder David Homes, Western New York AmeriCorps and PUSH Buffalo, a nonprofit community housing organization, pumped tens of thousands of dollars into the rest of the neighborhood this week, unleashing 4,500 volunteers on 50 other properties.
They painted, installed roofs, sided homes, planted trees, put up fencing, rebuilt porches and landscaped lawns.
More importantly, though, they restored hope to a neighborhood in desperate need of it.
"This has inspired me," David Stapleton, president of David Homes, told the crowd. "I hope it's inspired all of you."
Josie Gandolfo, who lives on Massachusetts, got new siding on her house and now enjoys a community garden on the vacant lot next door.
"I feel like I won the lottery," Gandolfo said.
Jim Strach, of Normal Avenue, got help painting his house and rebuilding his front porch.
"This is what I was striving for and to have it all happen in two days, it's beyond belief for me," Strach said.
Marie Maraschello now has a beautiful community garden next door to her home on Plymouth Avenue, where she was sitting and talking with neighbors on Saturday.
"Look around. Look how beautiful," said Pamela Gangarossa, who lives nearby on Normal. "I can't imagine how much this cost."
Before the Powells' dramatic moment, Harvey Garrett, executive director of a collaborative of housing and community organizations working to revitalize the West Side, walked up and down the neighborhood pointing out all the work that was done this week.
"It's not just a property transformation," Garrett said. "It's hope, which this neighborhood hasn't had in a very long time."
Even after the cameras have left, volunteers are expected to continue working this week.
And this is just the beginning for the neighborhood, Garrett said.
"It's going to continue," Garrett said. "Neighbors who didn't know each other are meeting and they're talking about how they don't need "Extreme Makeover' to make this happen. They can do it themselves."
Garrett pointed to a house that had already put out its Christmas decorations.
"They put up Christmas lights," Garrett said, "because Christmas came early to the West Side."
msommer@buffnews.com and jrey@buffnews.com
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