What Happens When Extreme Makeover Home Edition Comes to Louisville, KY

Perhaps it was fate. Around 8 AM on a Wednesday, as I'm driving down Bardstown Road in Louisville, I saw cops at the intersection with Beuchel Bank Road. There must have been an accident, I thought. I got about half way down when my phone rang. I had to turn around because my daughter was having issues about going to school. I drove back again, this time getting caught in the same "accident".

Later that day my wife sent me a link to a website: eliteextremedream.com. Suddenly, I realized that what I got caught up in was not an accident, but rather the very first part of the taping of an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I was driving by either during or shortly after the family first was greeted by Ty Pennington and crew. Being big fans of the show, my wife and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to volunteer. Good thing we got a link to the website early, because by the end of the day, once word had spread around Louisville, there were no more volunteer slots open. My wife and I volunteered for Saturday.

Saturday arrived and my wife and I used our GPS to find the entry point for the volunteer parking lot, which was at General Electric, not far from the home. We parked the car and started walking toward the volunteer area. There were dozens of vans, pickups, and large trucks emblazoned with logos from businesses familiar to all in Louisville in the parking lot and in a staging area where the volunteer tent was. There also were dozens of people milling about in the familiar Extreme Makeover blue shirts. We went to the volunteer tent and gave one of the women our names. She couldn't find us on the list. Apparently the heavy demands on the website had partially crashed the volunteer list. Still, she let us proceed, handing us liability waivers that were slightly shorter than the 2007 tax code. I made a stab at reading it, realized that I was no lawyer, and signed it anyway. I think I committed to giving a kidney sometime in 2009.