I Helped Move That Bus!

Today’s guest blogger is our current freelance designer Craig, you may remember him as our beloved slam dunking, penguin surfing, and competitive eating intern.

If you caught last weekend’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, you saw the results of hard work from thousands of individuals and dozens of companies in the Northwest Illinois region, including me! The house build was only a few minutes away from my hometown and I was excited to help out those in need. I worked on the house for a few days and the amount of progress from day to day was incredibly inspiring.

Watching the show Sunday was a great recap of the build, and it was interesting at how all the footage was edited down. Although, the program itself didn’t totally convey the huge push for volunteerism and action across the community that was raised in the excitement of Extreme Makeover. Volunteers came out of the woodwork, both locally, with support raised for the local Sportsplex, local food pantries, and other local charities, as well as nationally, with volunteers signed up to the Be The Match marrow registry (watch the episode to see why). Even today, months after the filming, the region has seen an increase in volunteers as a result of Extreme Makeover.

If you missed the episode, you can catch it on Hulu. And for a behind the scenes view, you can check out the build’s Flickr page here. It was truly inspiring to see the outcome of everyone’s efforts and how seemingly impossible things, building an entire house in 7 days, can be achieved when everyone pitches in and helps out. While the TV spotlight on Northwest Illinois lasted only 1 hour on a Sunday night, the impact on our region will hopefully remain for months and years to come.

Have you ever helped on this show? What do you do to volunteer or hope to do soon?