St. James Family Gets a Helping Hand from Extreme Makeover

What does it take to demolish, rebuild, and furnish a home to fulfill the hopes and dreams of a deserving needy family? For the cast and crew of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” it took seven days, a lot of borrowed yard space, and a ton of heart.

John Vitale, a Police Officer in St. James, was planning a secure future with his wife for their three infant sons in a house that they soon planned to expand to accommodate their new family. But all that changed when John's wife succumbed to leukemia, leaving John with three kids, a too-small house, and not enough money for either.

Luckily, John's supportive family stepped in to help him bear the weight, and with the help of the wife of one of John's coworkers, the Vitale's story was brought to the attention of the producers of ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. Though technically a reality show, “Makeover” opts for a more humane and wholesome approach than rival reality TV series. With the help of a local home improvement company, it takes the lives of a family in great need of a helping hand, and turns their lives and homes upside down for one week. The family is whisked away on a vacation, while the show's cast, along with dozens of eager volunteers, completely remodel the family's home from scratch. On day seven, the family returns to find a brand-new home, and a brand-new start.

For this particular show, ABC contacted Alure Home Improvements, a remodeling company service that has been in the New York area for 55 years. Alure has worked in conjunction with ABC on several “Makeover” projects since the show's inception, and when ABC came calling, Alure once again answered the call for a family in need.

“The show's developers come to us with a short list, of what they're considering doing”, said Carl Hyman, CEO of Alure. “Then they ask us to help fish out which jobs might be more feasible to do, should there be any reasons why the project should not be able to be produced in time, for whatever reason. So we're a part of the process [of selecting candidates].”

Hyman holds a lot of faith in the samaritan series. “From what I understand, almost all shows have a shelf life, and very simply there's an awful lot of reality shows on TV right now, and I think this is about the most wholesome one that there is. It shows you a lot about the human spirit, on the positive side. People eating bugs doesn't particularly make me feel great. As far as its life, I'm sure that they're going to have to come up with some different twists, they may have to totally retool and so on and so forth, if they want to stay on for many, many years. But the producer of the show, Tom Foreman, is a very, very creative fellow, and I'd say they've got a chance to stay around for quite a few more years I don't think their time is anywhere near over yet. Every show, even Seinfeld, has its end; so it will have its end, I'm sure.”

When asked about “Makeover's” future as a long-running series, Hyman responded, “I think as long as the message stays the same; because what I'm doing here, and what my company and all the people here are doing, is really coming from the heart. When you talk about what the goal is, I guess the goal is to get viewers. That's what ABC's goal is, I would imagine. As long as the message is relevant, I think they'll reach their goal. The producer's job is to make sure it's relevent, and Tom has done a very great job up until now.”

Once the family has been chosen, informed lips are sealed and any other information is kept top-secret until the “Wake-up Call” on Day 1. Hyman was there for the big kick-off:

“I was on-site, and John [Vitale] - who doesn't have an excitable type of style- was totally overwhelmed, you could just see how moved he was, honestly I was totally in tears, most everybody was in tears. The feeling that you get when you know you're going to be able to really help somebody out like that is just... I can't get the words out properly. It just gives you a feeling in your gut and in your heart, and you're so busy crying you'll probably miss some of the pieces. When I saw the kids coming out, four, three and two, then I knew what we were doing this for. John the policeman, I guess he'll be alright no matter what, he's probably quite resilient, but looking at these little kids, you see this guy does need help, the kids need help, and it made me feel good that we were gonna do what we're doing now.”

Once the Vitales were sent off on their seven-day trip, Alure went to work. Dozens upon dozens of volunteers in clean blue EM shirts appeared on-site, a sea of blue ready to swallow up the tiny house. Mark Gilmore, like many Alure employees, has been a part of previous “Makeover” exploits.

“This is the second one that I've been a part of; the previous one was in Queens, Ozone Park,” Mark explains. “[The firefighters' house] was the first one we did, the previous one was the Ali family in Ozone Park. That was a big undertaking, but we finished ahead of schedule like usual.”

Alure employees weren't the only ones who offered up their time and energy to help- Neighbors, relatives and friends were eager to offer their assistance, overwhelmed by the effort of the workers. Mr. Hyman described the scene: “We've got neighbors here but the relatives are also helping, and they are raising money at a dollar, five, ten dollars at a time, for a fund for John. And by the way, there are going to be a couple of twists with this show before it's over, a couple of surprise things that I can't tell you about.”

Often, the community will pitch in and help by donating money, clothes, and other items to the family. Many times a large force in the community- businesses, celebrities and local organizations, offer to partner with ABC to give the family an extra-special gift: payments on the mortgage, cars, even space in a building for aspiring entrepreneurs. This show was no different, and although there were no celebrity spottings during the construction, it's safe to say that the Vitale's will be coming home to more than just a new house.

The actual construction process took about four days to complete, although finishing touches were still being added on Day 7. Contrary to popular belief, the house was not built in seven days by a group of cast members and a few helpers. While the show's cast did their partin creating the show, the actual rebuild was handled by the volunteers and Alure. “You wanna hear a secret? We basically design the house,” Hyman revealed. “They [the cast] put on a lot of the decorating finishes, so when they say “This is my room” and “These are my finishing touches”, they certainly are, but what you're seeing now, for argument's sake, the basic structure and so on, that's done by us. We have a fellow named Doug Cornwell who put that together, and did on the last project we did also.”

Robert Bonerba, Smithtown's Chief Building Official, was on-site to oversee the project and ensure the construction followed proper procedure. “Originally you had a 2-bedroom, 800-sq. house. They added a total house of 2400 sq. ft, it's going to be four-bedroom- three bedrooms for the children on one side of the house; kitchen area, laundry room, family room/living room combination in the middle of the house, and on the right-hand side of the house a master bedroom with private bath, and a lounge area. Also on the right side of the house there's a one-car attached garage, and on the back of the house there's a 60 by 14 ft. sunroom. In addition to that, they're [installing] a 6 ft. wide vinyl fence around the entire property, and building a gym set for the children. This is basically a brand-new house. They ripped everything down to the existing foundation. This would normally take a builder roughly four months of working every day- but not around the clock. Control, supervision, coordination, getting everybody to come and volunteer their time 24 hours [a day], and scheduling the work that had to be done and everybody working as one team.”

Completing such a noble undertaking takes a lot of sacrifice from everyone involved. By Day 4, the sea of blue shirts had been colored a muddy brown as the volunteers braved the uncooperative elements, fatigue and exhaustion. “Duty calls, we're here,” said volunteer Mark Gilmore, on-site on Day 4. “Unfortunately I had to miss yesterday, I was home with a stomach virus- that was ugly, we won't get into that- but before that, on Friday, I was out here with these guys hauling lumber and shoveling and doing anything I could wherever I could pitch in. I was here through eight o'clock at night- I had some leg cramps and foot cramps all night long; I can imagine what these guys go through being here 24/7; most of these guys, they go the entire night and two or three days without sleep, these are real iron-men right here. I take my hat off to them, it's just amazing to see what they do, and it all starts from the top: from Sal and Carl and Bob [Alure executives], and they just put a structure together and put their heart and soul into everything, and everyone that they get to come onboard sees eye-to-eye with them.”

Everyone involved with the event, from the workers to family members to total strangers watching from the street, felt the enthusiasm radiating from the site. Watchers from the street came over to help unload lunch for the workers from a catering truck; onlookers drew signsand banners in support of the volunteers. “It's awesome,” Gilmore says. “I've only been with the company a year now, and when you first come into the company everyone talks about the environment, the culture that they try to keep, all good people and things of that nature, and it's true. Being there and living it, and then this is like, just to see it actually manifest all those good feelings and the vibe that they try to mainatain throughout from thwe bottom to the top, it's always the same.”

Hyman agreed; “It's extremely exhilirating when you begin, and you've got a glow throughout the whole thing. To be honest with you I don't physically work as hard as a lot of the guys here -- many of them don't get more than an hour or two of sleep in a two or three-day stand, and then finally catch a little bit of a glow, and catch a few more.

“There are so many people giving from the heart that it's just incredible. I've run into quite a few of these guys, whenever we do this, that I say, “You look beat. It's time to go home,” and plain and simple, they're fighting to stay. They're just absolutely, positively fighting to stay- ‘No, I'm not gonna go home till...’ some certain point is reached, that makes them feel truly comfortable; ‘I'm just gonna see this through’. So it really makes you think an awful lot about the human spirit.”

Through their shared purpose, the cast of “Makeover” and the crew at Alure have gotten to know each other fairly well between shows. Hyman vouched for the effort of the cast members: “I know Paul very, very well, and I know Ty reasonably well. They both do have hands-on skills, and could do a lot of what we're doing. They could do pices of it. They probably do certain little pieces, but quite frankly they have a very grueling job themselves, so if they were working through the construction, then could we expect them to smile on camera and be able to do what they have to do? So they really don't do much of the work themselves but they do have the background, they do have the knowledge, and they could actually be doing a lot of it themselves, it would just be physically impossible.”

“They're actually pretty cool,” Gilmore admitted, “we have a wrap party at the end of it all, and they comne down and hang out with us.”

Said Hyman, “We're pretty unique people at Alure. Once we make a bond, we kerep that bond. We did one of these shows for two 9/11 firemen about a year ago, and we stay in touch with them. We did one that aired on Halloween night, and and then they did the behind-the-scenes show the night after, and we see [the cast] probably every month and a half or two. We have certain events in our showroom -- there's a wrap party when this thing is over, and the firemen should be there. So we honestly do stay in touch, andf on our end we feel that they've got a lifetime guarantee. So while we could just walk away from it -- because after all, they didn't pay for the thing -- so you don't really have to give a warranty to somebody who didn't pay for it, but that's not our style. So we form that bond, and we stay close.”

Finally, Day 7 arrived. After six grueling days and nights, the final preparations were made. The well-known bus pulled into position, and the onlookers gathered, and were treated to several dry runs of the camera dolly sweeping across the scene. Despite the maelstrom of precipitation running the gamut from hail, to rain, to snow, to sleet, the atmosphere remained electrified as the cast and crew got ready for the big unveiling.

Arinna Vitale, sister of John Vitale and a volunteer at thew site, shared her feelings.

“I think they'll be very excited. These boys deserve it, so does John, they'll be so happy that all these people are volunteering their time and doing all this stuff, which makes you just appreciate everything.”

Speaking of the unveiling, Gilmore said,

“That's probably one of the most exciting parts of the show, the crowd is totally into it and everyone's hyped up. That's the part we all look forward to is when the crowd starts screaming out “Move the bus! Move the bus!””

And so the big unveiling happened at last, and there was much rejoicing: Crying, laughing, and a sopping wet smile on every face. The Vitales went inside their new home for the first time, and the crowd took shelter from the harsh weather. But the pride of the volunteers' accomplishment will never be washed away. What was once a tiny cottage now stood as a cheery testament to the kindness of strangers.

When asked about the possibility of another Long Island “Makeover”, Hyman replied simply: “I am what they call ‘sworn to secrecy’. But I certainly wouldn't bet against it.” But Gilmore, apparently not sworn to secrecy, gives a better answer:

“We have another one, actually, scheduled down the road sometime later in the summer- we don't know [where] yet; we only found out the location of this one about two days before. Of course, the upper echelons know ahead of time.”

The episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” featuring the Vitale family will air on Sunday May 15 at 7:00 P.M., on ABC Ch. 7.

Special thanks goes to Seth Salesnow at Alure, for making this story an Extreme possibility.