‘Makeover’ volunteers play key role

MILBRIDGE – Volunteers are vital to completing an “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project, and Mainers have answered the call this week as crews work to complete a home for the family of Brittany Ray, Ron Smith and their three children.

“There is no project without volunteers,” Denise Cramsey, the show’s executive producer, said Friday. “The importance of the volunteers can’t be overstated.”

As of Thursday, about 600 people had volunteered at the site and the count was expected to rise to 800 to 900 before Sunday when the house is completed. Coordinating and checking in the majority of volunteers at the site has been left up to the Washington Hancock Community Agency.

Feeding those who work on the project is no small task either, but it’s important to keep the crew energized to finish the build on its tight seven-day timeline.

To keep stomachs from growling, 75 students from Penobscot Job Corps have worked three 14-hour shifts every day, according to Renae Muscatell, Job Corps business and community liaison.

Students served an average of 750 meals each day feeding the work crew and nightly visitors to the VIP tent.

Job Corps members became involved in the Milbridge project after impressing Roy Boothby of R.H. Foster with their cooking and food service skills last August at the Senior Little League World Series in Bangor. R.H. Foster also is a large donor to the project.

“The more experience our students have the better prepared they are for the work force. Getting out of a classroom and into authentic work environments is a vital part of training,” Valerie Moon, lead culinary instructor at Job Corps, stated Friday in a press release.

For Job Corps student Bruce Steven, the experience has been memorable.

“This has been a great training opportunity for me,” Steven, 19, of Monson said in the press release. “I’m developing my leadership skills and learning the true meaning of teamwork.”

Welding, facilities maintenance and carpentry students from Job Corps also have pitched in every day to help keep the grounds clean, haul materials, and assist with installing vinyl siding.

In addition to Broughman Builders Inc. of Ellsworth, numerous individuals, businesses, and organizations have given to the project.

“People have been overwhelming,” Elizabeth Sutherland of Sutherland Weston Marketing Communications of Bangor said Friday. The public relations firm is assisting in organizing the production locally. “The response from the community has been overwhelming. I can’t say enough.”

For instance, Wal-Mart stores in this area started by donating a pallet of water bottles. That one pallet grew to five pallets and $10,000 in products to help stock the Ray-Smith house.

“The true community spirit is here,” Sutherland said. “It’s just that it’s happening so quickly and it’s happening so intensely, we don’t have time to tell the whole story the way it should be told.”

ABC comes to town with its production crew, and the project is created with the help of donations and volunteers.

“Here in Maine we were under the gun a little bit,” Cramsey said. “It’s not often that we have to go and make a general call during the week for volunteers, but it happened this week and Maine has really stepped up and answered the call.”

People from throughout Maine, and some from out of state, showed up at the site to help work on the project, but skilled trim carpenters, tile installers, drywallers, painters and siding installers still are needed, according to Cramsey.

“Help us bring this family home,” she said.

Schedule

Saturday, Sept. 15

Construction completed and furniture and appliances are moved in. Public spectator section open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 16

“Move That Bus” – new house revealed. The crowd will be filmed at 10 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. when the bus is moved.