October 29, 2007
Extreme Kindness | More than 100 Maine businesses became philanthropists when ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" stopped in Milbridge
By Douglas Rooks
Compress a construction job that normally takes several months into just six days. Add around-the-clock hammering and sawing and carpenters kneeling elbow-to-elbow. Stir in 36 hours of rain and shoe-sucking mud.
Sound like an ideal business opportunity? It did for Mike Wight.
The co-owner of Broughman Builders of Ellsworth, a medium-sized Down East construction firm, was the lead contractor for the 104th installment of ABC's hit tear-jerker, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Beginning five weeks before the September build, Wight and his Broughman office staff of four spent between 12 and 14 hours a day rustling up subcontractors and materials suppliers to build a $500,000 home for the Ray-Smith family of Milbridge. The volunteer effort, Wight says, was all-consuming. He and his crew worked round-the-clock to build the house. Wight himself lived that week in a donated camper along the edge of the property. The effort taxed his family and his business ˆ Wight put several paying projects on hold, halted construction on his own home, and bid a temporary farewell to his wife and children. The job was so tough, Wight says he probably wouldn't do it again.
The construction of this supersized gift is now indelibly linked to the more than 100 Maine businesses that donated time and money to make the Ray-Smith's dream house a reality.
"This was a big thing, a unique thing, for most of the companies that participated, including ours," says Cary Weston, a partner in Sutherland Weston, the Bangor public relations firm that coordinated planning and on-site details for the Milbridge show. "It was seen from the start as a community endeavor, and businesses that want to be part of the community needed to join in."
Besides the warm-fuzzies, volunteering on one of television's hottest shows also can have its bottom line perks. Wight says he met subcontractors on site who he's since hired, and admits the free exposure he'll get when the episode airs sometime this winter did influence his decision to take the gig, although it was "in the back of my mind."
"You'd never do it expecting that it will pay off for your business," says Wight. "But there will be benefits because so many people see what you can do on a job site."
Postponing pay
Normally, it's hard to find a builder who's willing to indulge the show's craziness, which ˆ for the uninitiated ˆ involves tearing down a dilapidated house and building a new one in exactly one week. For another show, in a run-down neighborhood in Camden, N.J., Extreme's production company, Lock and Key, had to call 31 contractors before it could find a taker. Wight says he was the first contractor called for the Milbridge show, and he took only a few minutes to convince. Why did he agree? "It's a challenge," he says. "We've done some difficult projects, but this one promised to be different than anything we'd ever done before. There's a part of you that really wonders if you could do it."
The 28 independent carpenters Broughman usually employs descended on the Milbridge location the second week of September. They were paid for a typical workweek of 40 hours, but the overtime was all volunteer. Broughman was joined by up to 150 other carpenter volunteers, some of them trained, some not. Some were walk-ons; others came from programs at the Penobscot Job Corps center in Bangor (see "Pitching in," page 30).
It rained for much of the 108 hours Broughman needed to build. "Normally we don't try to work in the rain. It's hard to get things done, and it can be dangerous," Wight says. Despite the crowd and conditions, though, White says there were no major injuries ˆ nothing that wouldn't happen in routine work.
The Maine businesses that volunteered to make "Extreme" host Ty Pennington's bullhorned vision a reality not only offered their services for free, some supplied the material with which to build.
"The budget is zero," says Weston. "Everyone who participates has to do it all themselves."
That included Sutherland Weston, which contributed $33,000 in billable hours, according to Weston.
Atlantic Landscape Construction in Ellsworth and its vendors contributed about $96,000 in labor and supplies to the home, according to Sam Francis, who co-owns the company with her husband Tim.
Tim Weston doesn't worry too much about any immediate return on investment. "We're a local company," he says. "We're not going to get a job in West Texas, say, because someone sees the show and calls us up." Still, "having our name out there like this doesn't hurt. It really shows what we can do, the quality of our work, and how organized our crews are."
Atlantic, one of the largest landscaping firms in Maine, usually employs up to 50 people during peak construction season. But for this job, Francis needed more than 100 professionals and volunteers hammering away to keep on schedule.
Tim Francis remembers a moment in the middle of the night when he looked at the trees and plants in the ground, then at a truckload of sod that needed to be laid. About two dozen onlookers were in the roped-off area across the road, and he asked if anyone wanted to help. He soon had another sod crew, and the work moved forward.
Giving, and receiving
For Mike Wight, one of the benefits of building the Extreme house was that it allowed him to stay on one job site with his crews ˆ usually he moves from job to job to keep things moving ˆ which allowed Wight to meet subcontractors he'd never worked with before ˆ plumbing, heating and electrical workers. "We've worked with them on some other jobs since then," he says. "They're good, and they have good prices." The new subcontractors charge up to 10% less than the subcontractors Wight had worked with.
The build couldn't have happened without locals like Bobbi Harris, an administrative assistant at the nonprofit Washington Hancock Community Agency in Milbridge, who dedicated eight hours a day throughout the week leading up the build and worked round-the-clock during the workweek to coordinate over 1,000 volunteers. The bus company First Student, based in Ohio, ended up driving participants a total of 6,000 miles.
One of the major suppliers was the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Brewer. Don Emmons, director of community involvement at the store, said producers were scouting locations when they stopped in and asked for help. The store produced a $1,000 gift card to start, for "extension cords and fans and that sort of thing," says Emmons, who began to follow the build with increasing interest. When the rain was followed by unseasonably hot weather and water supplies ran low, Wal-Mart responded to an SOS with six pallets of bottled water trucked up for free by Agronick Farms from its mammoth Lewiston distribution center. All told, Emmons says the store donated $14,000 worth of supplies to the build.
"We always need for exposure," he says. "Everyone knows Wal-Mart, but not necessarily what we do for the community. This helps get the word out."
Weston of Sutherland Weston says the area economic impact of the build has yet to be documented, but he has quantified some benefits: 100 rooms were rented in the Ellsworth area, and Hannaford and other local supermarkets noticed a boost in sales. Weston expects more boosts will occur when the program airs in late January or early February.
It wasn't difficult to get businesses to contribute, any more than it was to get volunteers to participate, Weston says. He refers to it as "a Superbowl for the building trades. We saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Wight agrees. "All our suppliers stepped up to the plate," he explains. "There's something about the goal, about helping this family that just seems to motivate everyone."
The crews finally finished their labors 12 hours before the scheduled move-in.
Atlantic Landscaping's Tim Francis says he was intrigued by the opportunity to execute such a demanding job, but once was probably enough: "I don't think we'd have anything more to prove."
Sound like an ideal business opportunity? It did for Mike Wight.
The co-owner of Broughman Builders of Ellsworth, a medium-sized Down East construction firm, was the lead contractor for the 104th installment of ABC's hit tear-jerker, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Beginning five weeks before the September build, Wight and his Broughman office staff of four spent between 12 and 14 hours a day rustling up subcontractors and materials suppliers to build a $500,000 home for the Ray-Smith family of Milbridge. The volunteer effort, Wight says, was all-consuming. He and his crew worked round-the-clock to build the house. Wight himself lived that week in a donated camper along the edge of the property. The effort taxed his family and his business ˆ Wight put several paying projects on hold, halted construction on his own home, and bid a temporary farewell to his wife and children. The job was so tough, Wight says he probably wouldn't do it again.
The construction of this supersized gift is now indelibly linked to the more than 100 Maine businesses that donated time and money to make the Ray-Smith's dream house a reality.
"This was a big thing, a unique thing, for most of the companies that participated, including ours," says Cary Weston, a partner in Sutherland Weston, the Bangor public relations firm that coordinated planning and on-site details for the Milbridge show. "It was seen from the start as a community endeavor, and businesses that want to be part of the community needed to join in."
Besides the warm-fuzzies, volunteering on one of television's hottest shows also can have its bottom line perks. Wight says he met subcontractors on site who he's since hired, and admits the free exposure he'll get when the episode airs sometime this winter did influence his decision to take the gig, although it was "in the back of my mind."
"You'd never do it expecting that it will pay off for your business," says Wight. "But there will be benefits because so many people see what you can do on a job site."
Postponing pay
Normally, it's hard to find a builder who's willing to indulge the show's craziness, which ˆ for the uninitiated ˆ involves tearing down a dilapidated house and building a new one in exactly one week. For another show, in a run-down neighborhood in Camden, N.J., Extreme's production company, Lock and Key, had to call 31 contractors before it could find a taker. Wight says he was the first contractor called for the Milbridge show, and he took only a few minutes to convince. Why did he agree? "It's a challenge," he says. "We've done some difficult projects, but this one promised to be different than anything we'd ever done before. There's a part of you that really wonders if you could do it."
The 28 independent carpenters Broughman usually employs descended on the Milbridge location the second week of September. They were paid for a typical workweek of 40 hours, but the overtime was all volunteer. Broughman was joined by up to 150 other carpenter volunteers, some of them trained, some not. Some were walk-ons; others came from programs at the Penobscot Job Corps center in Bangor (see "Pitching in," page 30).
It rained for much of the 108 hours Broughman needed to build. "Normally we don't try to work in the rain. It's hard to get things done, and it can be dangerous," Wight says. Despite the crowd and conditions, though, White says there were no major injuries ˆ nothing that wouldn't happen in routine work.
The Maine businesses that volunteered to make "Extreme" host Ty Pennington's bullhorned vision a reality not only offered their services for free, some supplied the material with which to build.
"The budget is zero," says Weston. "Everyone who participates has to do it all themselves."
That included Sutherland Weston, which contributed $33,000 in billable hours, according to Weston.
Atlantic Landscape Construction in Ellsworth and its vendors contributed about $96,000 in labor and supplies to the home, according to Sam Francis, who co-owns the company with her husband Tim.
Tim Weston doesn't worry too much about any immediate return on investment. "We're a local company," he says. "We're not going to get a job in West Texas, say, because someone sees the show and calls us up." Still, "having our name out there like this doesn't hurt. It really shows what we can do, the quality of our work, and how organized our crews are."
Atlantic, one of the largest landscaping firms in Maine, usually employs up to 50 people during peak construction season. But for this job, Francis needed more than 100 professionals and volunteers hammering away to keep on schedule.
Tim Francis remembers a moment in the middle of the night when he looked at the trees and plants in the ground, then at a truckload of sod that needed to be laid. About two dozen onlookers were in the roped-off area across the road, and he asked if anyone wanted to help. He soon had another sod crew, and the work moved forward.
Giving, and receiving
For Mike Wight, one of the benefits of building the Extreme house was that it allowed him to stay on one job site with his crews ˆ usually he moves from job to job to keep things moving ˆ which allowed Wight to meet subcontractors he'd never worked with before ˆ plumbing, heating and electrical workers. "We've worked with them on some other jobs since then," he says. "They're good, and they have good prices." The new subcontractors charge up to 10% less than the subcontractors Wight had worked with.
The build couldn't have happened without locals like Bobbi Harris, an administrative assistant at the nonprofit Washington Hancock Community Agency in Milbridge, who dedicated eight hours a day throughout the week leading up the build and worked round-the-clock during the workweek to coordinate over 1,000 volunteers. The bus company First Student, based in Ohio, ended up driving participants a total of 6,000 miles.
One of the major suppliers was the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Brewer. Don Emmons, director of community involvement at the store, said producers were scouting locations when they stopped in and asked for help. The store produced a $1,000 gift card to start, for "extension cords and fans and that sort of thing," says Emmons, who began to follow the build with increasing interest. When the rain was followed by unseasonably hot weather and water supplies ran low, Wal-Mart responded to an SOS with six pallets of bottled water trucked up for free by Agronick Farms from its mammoth Lewiston distribution center. All told, Emmons says the store donated $14,000 worth of supplies to the build.
"We always need for exposure," he says. "Everyone knows Wal-Mart, but not necessarily what we do for the community. This helps get the word out."
Weston of Sutherland Weston says the area economic impact of the build has yet to be documented, but he has quantified some benefits: 100 rooms were rented in the Ellsworth area, and Hannaford and other local supermarkets noticed a boost in sales. Weston expects more boosts will occur when the program airs in late January or early February.
It wasn't difficult to get businesses to contribute, any more than it was to get volunteers to participate, Weston says. He refers to it as "a Superbowl for the building trades. We saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Wight agrees. "All our suppliers stepped up to the plate," he explains. "There's something about the goal, about helping this family that just seems to motivate everyone."
The crews finally finished their labors 12 hours before the scheduled move-in.
Atlantic Landscaping's Tim Francis says he was intrigued by the opportunity to execute such a demanding job, but once was probably enough: "I don't think we'd have anything more to prove."
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