You probably know that we built the Extreme Makeover house for the Hughes family in November. If you kept up with the newspaper and TV you know a lot of details. We built the house in 4 days with the help of hundreds of local companies who stepped up and donated their time and materials. Here are some things you may not know.

First of all, how did this all start?
Not very long ago our President, Joe, got a call from the associate producer of the show asking if he would be willing to be the builder for the Louisville Extreme Makeover project. Joe quickly got our employees together, showed us a video of one of the episodes of the show, and asked us if we wanted to do it. We all were very excited. Within days, producers from Extreme Makeover were in our office. Soon after, six of us went to Baltimore to witness another builder’s Extreme Makeover project that was underway. That trip was very useful— it got us very excited and confident by seeing it actually being done.

Besides building the house, what else did Elite Homes have to do?
A lot! We not only had to get all the materials donated for the house, but we also had to find local companies to donate 5 meals a day. We had to provide the workers a 6PM, 10PM, and 2AM meal and lunch and dinner for our VIP guests. We also needed snacks, coffee, energy drinks, sodas, and water at all hours for the workers. We had to procure company shirts, hats, jackets and rain gear for all the Elite employees so we could be quickly identified. We also arranged transportation by limousine (Xtreme Transportation) for all our invited guests, and shuttle buses for all the workers and spectators. Tom Stinnett agreed to donate four RV’s so our guys could sleep at the site. We had to have 2 huge tents, and several smaller ones (Rental Depot & Rent ‘n Rave) for food
service. We had to coordinate all the rental equipment (United Rental) such as light towers, cranes, forklifts, and generators. We had to quickly build a new website (Network Louisville) for the project. We had to find photographers and a video company to do a behind-the-scenes video (Videobred). We needed safety equipment like dust masks, safety glasses, hard hats, and gloves (Orr Safety). We had numerous planning
meetings with utility companies, government officials and all our subcontractors and suppliers. And finally, we planned a wrap party at the Muhammad Ali Center for
600 people to celebrate the successful completion of the project. Did I mention we had to figure out how to build a house in 4 days?

It would be impossible to mention in this article everyone that donated their services and products for this project. That’s because the number of companies (around 270!) and individuals is enormous. So see page 5 for a list of those companies and please support them by using their services.

Hughes' home under construction with the American and Elite flags proudly flying in front.

Customers Lend a Hand
There are many remarkable stories. Many of our customers were extremely helpful. Teri DeMunbrun (our Customer Selections Coordinator) and Dale Mowery (who had just joined Elite Homes 2 weeks earlier as our Customer Care Manager) were in charge of the food and drinks. They brainstormed about connections we have in the community. Teri started by calling some past and current customers. She called Victor Vrbancic
(who sells Boar’s Head deli products). Victor called Louie Karem who owns Karem’s Deli and Catering and he agreed to provide 2 meals for our VIP tent. Louie knew Mark Grant at Sam’s Club, who donated $1000 for food which included stocking of the Hughes’ refrigerator. Victor also talked to his contacts at Doll’s Market and Lotsa Pasta, both of which also donated food.

Snacks were available for all in the catering tent.

You see how this works in the Louisville community? Here’s more. Teri called Donna Hughes, another Elite customer, who works for Yum Brands. She had connections at Pepsi and Frito Lay. Soon we had huge donations of bottled water (10,000 bottles), sodas (7,000), energy drinks (5,000), and snacks. Donna also arranged free food donations from KFC and Pizza Hut.

Teri called Shawn Kendrick, another customer, who works for Thornton’s. He directed Teri to Melina Hall in public relations, who told Teri they were already supplying coffee, energy drinks, snacks, and gas cards for the guys from Dogwood Homes (who were re-doing the U of L band field for Extreme Makeover) and would donate a $500 gas card for the Hughes family.

Another customer, Brent Rexroat, called. He said his mother would make meatballs and cookies for the workers. Two other customers, Darrell Current and Tim Pifer, volunteered their time for the entire week to help us coordinate volunteers during the build. Another customer, Katie Hart (who is a professional photographer) called me during the build and donated a framed print of a photo she took of Trafalgar Square in London.

We needed 2 semi-trailers for storage of building products on the site, so we called Dan Lockard of Pegaus Trucking (you guessed it, a past customer). When we still needed one more meal for the last day of the build, Teri called past customer Bruce Loeffler, who owns FireFresh BBQ in Hikes Point.

When you watch the show, tentatively set to air on February 17th, you will notice we are all dressed in black. Those great looking shirts, coats, and hats were donated by Preferred Marketing Solutions (whose parent company is Papa Johns) courtesy of Brian Bloom (another Elite customer!). They also delivered pizzas to our office staff each day during the build. Wow, we really have some amazing customers!

Community Connections
We also reached out to other connections we had in the community. As Teri was making calls, Joe was also making calls to some of the food service people he knew in the community. He called Junior Bridgeman, who is a soonto- be customer. Bridgeman Foods ended up taking care of all the meals for the workers each day, including having
a Wendy’s trailer on site and providing meals from Chili’s and Fazoli’s. We also called Vincenzo’s, Ferd Grisanti’s, Outback, and Texas Roadhouse, and Ky Cattleman’s Association who all agreed to furnish meals in our VIP tent. Teri called Joey Pusateri, Joe’s son. Joey works for Gordon Food Service, who made large donations of snacks,
condiments, and all paper products needed to serve the workers throughout the week. Dale was busy arranging other items such as 125 five-gallon water jugs for coffee
(Mountain Valley Spring Water), rain ponchos (JHL supply), propane tanks (Empire Gas), and many other items. Dale also was busy taking phone calls from community groups and company employee groups wanting to volunteer their time (Boy Scouts, Ft. Knox soldiers, Commonwealth Bank, Southeast Christian Church, Papa Johns, The Free Enterprise System, Northeast Christian Church).

Ty Pennington with the Hughes family when their new home was revealed.

So how is it that a project of this magnitude was accomplished in such a short time?
A project like this is possible when the purpose is not just using our skills to make a living, but to help another family with no expectation of receiving anything in return.
When we work with this spirit, then extreme passion is created. And that is how this project was accomplished. In some of the first discussions we had with the producers
of the show, they told us that not only the Hughes’ would get something out of this project. They said that everyone involved would walk away changed forever. They were right. When any of us thanks one of our partners for their help in this project, the response is always the same: “No, thank you for letting us be involved”. We were very fortunate to have been chosen as the builder for this project. We are so grateful for the support of the entire community. To all the contributors to this event and the City of Louisville: