Buffalo ready for 'Extreme Makeover'
4,500 volunteers await family's ID
One lucky local family will open their door Saturday morning to a reality TV camera crew, but 4,500 other local residents already are opening theirs to help.
ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is coming to Buffalo, bringing some Hollywood-style buzz and CIA-level secrecy with it.
Since word of the visit got out last month, about 4,500 people — far more than usual for other “Home Edition” cities — have signed up to volunteer.
“We have been amazed at the response,” said Mark Lazzara, the founder and chief executive of Western New York AmeriCorps, the service organization that is coordinating volunteers.
Saturday's “door knock” kicks off eight frantic days of around-the-clock home demolition and construction — all with donated labor and materials.
It will be a scene of controlled chaos, and fans of the show and curious members of the public will have the chance to check it out over the next week.
“We are figuring out how to do it,” David Stapleton, president of David Homes, said of the tight schedule. “Fortunately, I thrive on pressure.”
“Home Edition” each week selects a family that is struggling for financial or other reasons as the recipient of a new or significantly refurbished residence.
The Buffalo area family's identity, along with most other project details, is shrouded in the code of silence typically reserved for military maneuvers or the witness protection program.
Even Mayor Byron W. Brown insists he doesn't know where the house will be built, while those who are in the loop say they can't blab about it to nosy reporters.
The producers have “kept me completely in the dark,” Brown said Thursday.
The traveling “Home Edition” road show is stopping in Buffalo for the first time, a visit that the show's staff, city and police officials, contractors and others have planned for weeks.
Producers from the show narrowed a list of nominees down to five finalists, who were told to be prepared for a visit Saturday by Ty Pennington and a “Home Edition” crew.
Stapleton said the “door knock” will “probably be one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life.”
The winning family will appear at a news conference later Saturday before being whisked away for a week's vacation to Walt Disney World — Disney owns ABC — under the watchful eye of show chaperones.
Workers will remove the family's belongings and place them in storage before starting to tear down the home Sunday.
Fifty volunteers from Buffalo ReUse will work during the demolition to remove framing lumber, flooring, windows, doors and other salvageable items from the home, said Vince Kuntz, president of the not-for-profit group's board.
“The whole building has to be gone and the site clean by noon Monday,” Kuntz said.
Construction begins after that and will continue around the clock until Nov. 14.
That's when the show's celebrity designers will return to reveal the completed, environmentally friendly structure to the family.
David Homes and a legion of subcontractors and suppliers are donating their employees' time, building materials and other resources to the “Home Edition” project. “They're eager to show the world that Buffalo can do this quicker and better,” Stapleton said.
About 500 skilled laborers will take part, while 4,000 members of the public have signed up to assist.
“I just like to give back to the community and help out,” said Angelo McKnight, a security guard, Town of Tonawanda volunteer firefighter and “Home Edition” fan who registered.
Not all of the volunteers will work on the house, but organizers said they will put as many people as possible to good use.
“There are very few people who will be building the hero house,” Lazzara said. “The rest will be working on other houses in the neighborhood, helping serve food, parking, doing cleanup and landscaping.”
Volunteers, curiosity seekers and reporters will meet at a staging area about a mile away and be bused to the site.
There will be a spectator area set up from Tuesday to Nov. 14, Lazzara said.
Buffalo police will be at the scene day and night for traffic and crowd control, Capt. Mark Makowski said.
The city will pick up police overtime or other costs, but the show's good work, the national publicity and its estimated $1.4 million economic impact make this worthwhile, Brown spokesman Peter K. Cutler said.
Residents in the Finger Lakes went through all this about a year ago when “Home Edition” came to Geneva.
Mahoney Design & Build constructed a 6,200-square-foot home for a family there.
Tim Mahoney, owner of Mahoney Design & Build, has talked extensively with David Homes about what to expect and was asked by the ABC crew to be on the scene in Buffalo.
Mahoney cautioned that it may be difficult to manage this many volunteers, but he said Buffalo should look forward to its “Home Edition” experience.
“This is an awesome opportunity to put the city on the map in ways that you haven't been before,” Mahoney said. “Have patience and embrace the show. The show will make sure they leave the city much better than they found it.”
News Staff Reporter Brian Meyer contributed to this report. For more details on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in Buffalo, visit www.davidhomesextreme.com
swatson@buffnews.com and jrey@buffnews.com
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