Monday, January 11th, Ty Pennington and the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team will knock on the door of an Horry County family to change their lives forever.
Their home will be built by thousands of volunteers in less than a week. While the family's new home will be the focus of the show, the community involvement was the focus of a pep rally Tuesday.
The theme for the build is "Building on Faith."
Extreme Makeover Home Edition was here before. They built a home for Renee Wilson and her four grandchildren in Horry County in 2007.
"Without this community willing to volunteer, the subs and trades willing to come together, volunteers of unskilled labor coming out just to hand out water bottles, we couldn't be able to come back, but we are coming back," said Conrad Ricketts, the executive producer of Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
This is just the second time the show has returned to an area. The biggest reason for that is community involvement.
Nancy O'Connell volunteered in 2007 for the build of Renee Wilson's home, and she'll be there again this time around, doing what she can with members of her church, Union United Methodist Church in Conway.
"We probably want to volunteer to do some cooking. Have no other talents but that, so that's what we plan on doing," O'Connell said.
It also takes builders willing to put their business and lives on hold - to build a home for a family in less than seven days. Sterling homes has answered the call again. This will be their third Extreme Makeover Home Edition project.
"We've just said we can do it with everybody's support, and the support is there. The big hearts of Horry County are alive and well," said Clinch Heyward, Sterling Homes.
And for the builders, this goes beyond building a house, it goes to the heart of a community.
"It changed me forever, and it changes everybody. Being a small part of something that can, this is a life transformation. This isn't just helping this family, this is turning their life around," said Harry Dill, Sterling Homes.
The process brings together thousands of volunteers, most don't know each other or the family. Many of them are competitors in the business world.
"I often say the house is just a metaphor for a greater statement about who we are as a nation. Everybody comes to it thinking they're going to change a family's life, but they change their own life in the process," said Ricketts.
Volunteers, professional trades and skills, and supplies are still needed. For a look at what's needed and how you can help, click here for Extreme Makeover Home Edition Horry County.
