My Experience at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

by Kate Catlin

I am a huge fan of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I think it is one of the best shows on TV right now, so positive. It always makes me cry. I did not realize they were coming to Raleigh until one of my clients, Jack Astor’s Bar and Grill, had some of their amazing new management team come in for headshots. They approached me with an excellent idea. If you are big readers of this blog, you will know that the chicken fingers at Jack’s are second to none. Their idea was to make up boxes of chicken fingers and bring them down to the Extreme Makeover build site. Our only problem was getting in…

As soon as the idea was mentioned, it became my life’s mission to get Jack Astor’s into the build site to feed some of the people. I mean it is my fave show ever and Jack Astor’s has recently added some awesome new people to their management team. After a few phone calls I finally got in touch with the person in charge of food. I told her we wanted to donate some food and she proceeded to ask if we could feed 200 people at 10 p.m. the next night. I was a little nervous as I dialed Jim Mallon at Jack Astor’s to see if that was possible. I mean 200 is a lot of people. Evidently not for Jack’s, they did not hesitate for a second before stepping up to the plate. Before I knew it all of the details were worked out and I was driving through police checkpoints onto the build site with new manager Erich Hauptman and April, Ivy and Darcy of the Jack Astor’s team. It was so cool! At check in we received the signature blue t-shirts with the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition logo on the back and were told to put them on over our coats to gain access to the site. The weather was miserable, cold and raining. As we drove through we discovered this was a hungry bunch, the officers at each stop asked what we were feeding everyone. Once we arrived at the catering tent we realized why – the previous caterer had run out of food. Thankfully Jeff Small, the kitchen manager at Jack Astor’s, had prepared 250 half-pound fajitas. We were more than prepared for this crowd. As soon as we opened the truck people just appeared to help unload. We had a buffet for 250 people set up in ten minutes. It was unbelievable. Being there was such a great experience, I am so glad Jack Astor’s came up with the idea. I now know that the show is not fake, the house really is built in one week. More importantly though, the spirit of the show is real, everyone comes together to work toward a common goal without expecting anything in return. The rain was pelting down and the temperature was very low, yet the roofers were flying across the top of the house working as fast as they could. While they worked other volunteers helped us make 40 plates of food to send over to them since they did not have time to come down to the catering tent. Everywhere on the build site people were helping each other. I am so glad I got to be a part of such a positive experience in Raleigh.

Check out more pictures from the experience in our Photo Gallery.

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