Keep your tissues handy when watching the extremely satisfying two-hour episode of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” set in Buffalo.



And check your cynicism at the door. Delores Powell and her four children set an unofficial record for saying an enthusiastic “Ohmigod” during the inspirational, Emmywinning series, which makes a weekly dream come true by building or rebuilding a home for at least one deserving family. It airs at 8 p. m. Sunday on WKBW-TV Channel 7, after a one-hour special by the local ABC affiliate at 7.



Host Ty Pennington and the design team of Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney and Eduardo Xol had me well before they said “hello” to the Powell family on the West Side of Buffalo.



The episode skillfully follows the “Extreme” model of humanizing the family, celebrating volunteerism and having some silly fun along the way—with uplifting music often playing in the background.



As an added bonus, the Talkin’ Proud spirit of Buffalo is displayed via the thousands of volunteers who descended on the neighborhood



to build the Powell home, help repair several others, build community gardens, pour sidewalks, put up fencing and plant trees.



“We’ve never taken on a project as ambitious as this one,” says Pennington early in the program. “This could be more volunteers than I’ve seen anywhere.”



Delores’ journey 22 years ago from the poverty of Jamaica to the hope of Massachusetts Avenue is quickly detailed in a contestant video the cast watches on the “Makeover” bus with local activist Eric Walker, organizing director of PUSH (People United for Sustainable Housing).



The video tells the story, detailed in a 2008 Buffalo News article, of a strong mother and PUSH board member who bought a West Side home for $12,000 without realizing it was condemned and on a demolition list. To prevent demolition, Delores needed to bring up to code a house with foundation problems, raw sewage backing up in the basement and open windows leaking so much heat that Delores slept in the same room as her two daughters for body heat — while working double shifts to support her family.



“It was like camping in a house,” said Pennington.



Part host, part cheerleader, Pennington builds on a moving metaphor that Delores creates for the program.



“I consider myself as a butterfly that can spread its wings and fly,” she says. “I need to come out of that cocoon.”



The cocoon referred to the house in disrepair where she and her children lived; the butterfly represents her new family home.



“Delores feels like she’s been trapped in a cocoon,” said Pennington in explaining his plans for the home. “I want her to see and feel a butterfly coming out of its cocoon.”



The butterfly-cocoon metaphor isn’t the only poignant part of the program. A program called Soles4Souls also sends 1,000 pairs of shoes to the elementary school in Jamaica that Delores attended when she walked eight miles to school without shoes as a child. Don’t miss the closing credits or you’ll miss the end of the story.



A carpenter by trade, the enthusiastic Pennington does a beautiful job constructing his thoughts when putting Delores’ incredible journey in perspective. And the Jamaican immigrant is an impressive spokeswoman for her family, her neighborhood, her city and the American Dream.



The dreams of the four Powell children are movingly detailed: Joel, 18, the football player; Gabrielle, 16, the reader and aspiring writer; Deborah, 15, the aspiring singer, and Anschel, 10, the future architect.



The designers use those details in planning the children’s rooms, with Delores’ room the big finish. Naturally, there are symbolic 3-D butterflies everywhere in her room.



The side stories about the neighbors who were helped with their properties also illustrate the diversity of a neighborhood where several languages are spoken and helping each other is the universal language. There are neighbors who have lived there all their lives, as well as recent immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Burma, who came to Buffalo looking for the American Dream.



With the Powell family vacationing away from Buffalo while their home is being built, several neighbors are spotlighted to illustrate the area’s diversity and the extra work being done in the neighborhood. The neighbors include longtime West Side resident Jim Strach and Burmese emigrant Myo Thant.



There also are some fun side trips. The Powells travel to Disney World for their first family vacation; Joel’s teammates at Lafayette High have a ball picking out sporting equipment at Sears; and several lesser-known Buffalo Bills arrive to deliver furniture inside the house.



One of the unsung heroes, David Stapleton of David Homes, is featured several times, and deservedly so. He gets a chance to defend Buffalo’s weather and sing Buffalo’s praises, noting the cooperation exhibited throughout the program is “what Buffalo is all about.”



Walker, the impressive local activist, also gets his share of air time, joining Delores early in delivering the PUSH motto, “real people, real power.” Representatives of WNY Ameri-Corps and Buffalo ReUse also are part of the program.



You can almost hear the cheers for all the locals when a community screening of the program is held Sunday at Shea’s Performing Arts Center.



There are also occasional news shots of Channel 7 anchors Keith Radford and Joanna Pasceri and reporters Julie Fine and Jenny Rizzo and Channel 4 anchor Don Postles to illustrate the “Extreme” local coverage the program got during the November construction.



And then there’s celebrity volunteer Ashanti, the singer from Brooklyn who is a Powell family favorite. She also illustrates that she can handle a power drill and turn a symbolic phrase as well as Pennington.



At two hours, the program only sags ever so slightly in the second hour. But the big “Move That Bus!” unveiling near the finish — when the Powells shout their OMGs practically before they enter their rooms and see all the special goodies — may give even the most cynical viewer some butterflies.



TV Review



“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in Buffalo



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8 p. m. Sunday,



WKBW Channel 7 Locally produced special at 7 p. m. on Channel 7