Extreme Makeover

One of my favorite shows on T.V. lately is Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I love the show and I love Ty. The show ends up being a real tear jerker when they show the finished house to the recipients.

For those who have never seen it, let me quickly enlighten you. People write in to ABC telling them why they think they deserve a home makeover. From there a selection is made and the Crew comes in and surprises the people. Usually they send the family away for a week's vacation somewhere while they work on their house. Then at the end, the family comes home to a huge crowd of people, a completely new home, bedrooms designed with each in mind, and fully furnished. Many times other great perks are also included like a new car or truck, scholarships, mortgage taken care of, etc. Famous people often guest appear like Randy Travis, the muppets, or some sports celebrity. If you've never watched this show you should, as it is truly amazing.

Last nights show had a little girl who wrote in to ABC. I missed the beginning of the show, but apparently this little girl, I think she was 8 years old, had cancer at some time and spent a lot of time in the hospital. Since then she has been making beaded necklaces and bracelets for cancer victims. She asked if they could do a make over of the hospital ward where she had stayed. She figured that if the ward looked enjoyable, then people would have a better chance of getting better.

They decided to do something special for this little girl as she wasn't asking for anything for herself. They sent her family, her and a crew to the hospital to get the work done there. The little girl was in charge of the crew at the hospital. I missed most of that part. Anyway, they decided to surprise the girl and her family with a home make over of their own.

Besides making a five bedroom house for the 5 kids and mom and dad, they made the little girl her very own craft room - totally loaded with supplies and every kind of bead imaginable. They also found her a place that would sell her beads and donate the money for Cancer research.

There was a lot more but I'm not going to get into all of that. The house they made ended up being 5,500 sq. feet and I know they loved it. Then there was the furniture and all the extras including remodelling the hospital.

I look at that and think "Yes, it is extreme, but couldn't they spread the wealth out a little more?" I think we have nearly 1000 sq. feet in our home. It sure would be nice to have our home redesigned and about 500 - 1000 sq. feet added. Heck, I'd be glad if someone came in and painted it for me.

With what they spent on that show alone, they could have made about 4 or 5 smaller houses, fully furnished and made a lot more people happy. Mind you, then they couldn't call it "Extreme" make over.

In another show on television, they have some decorators go in to people's homes and they totally transform a room for only $1000.00. Imagine taking the money from Extreme Make over and putting that into renovating or redecorating some other homes. Before long we wouldn't have any homeless people or people living in poor conditions.

If someone came up to you and told you "I have $10,000 to give away. I can write out the check for the whole amount for yourself or I can write out 10 checks for $1,000 each but you have to give them to 10 different people? Which would you choose?

Have an Extreme day.