Waking up the Neighborhood! /Shana

All week hundreds of volunteers, general and skilled have been busy - really busy! In the heat and the bright sun, and mosquitos, people in blue shirts and hard hats have been clammoring about to get the job done and to build a home and a community center with ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. On very little sleep, tons of coffee and even more adrenaline, our entire community has been working to raise a home for one family and to give children a new place to play. This week has flown by and within a few hours, the Tripp family gets to set foot in their new home. United Way of the National Capital Area is on-site right now with hundreds of builders and volunteers,working to put on the finishing touches. The big stuff is done, you know: the frame, the walls...the geo-thermal well that will save the family a ton on electricity costs...it is all coming together. It has only been 7 days! Join UWNCA at 11:00am tomorrow, Saturday August 29th - (actually today) to greet the Tripp family and see the product of a community's hard work. Bring a toy or canned food to help those in need too!

"Suprise, We are Rebuilding Your House" /Shana

The alarm went off at 6:30 a.m. - I got dressed, grabbed some coffee and headed out to help suprise a deserving family in Hyattsville. In a long procession of buses, cars, local law enforcement and the whole celebrity cast and crew, we made our way down the street. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPWs2G5qis

Along with several builders, United Way staff and volunteers stood in the distance as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition let a special family know that their dream had come true - their home was going to be rebuilt in 7 days!

United Way of the National Capital Area received an overwhelming response from friends and supporters, literally thousands of people wanted to volunteer. Those who we were able to secure spots for during the build, came out to Capitol Plaza and RFK to get their Extreme Makeover: Home Edition t-shirts. Everyone is welcome to come out and watch the builds - find out where to go and how to be a spectator at www.burchbuildersgroup.com/capitalmakeover.

With all of the builders, volunteers and people that are working round the clock to make this happen, we are still looking for donations (especially meals). Visit http://www.builduwnca.org/ to donate goods and services for the build or email lbritt@uwnca.org

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! Follow the builds and our updates on facebook and twitter by visiting our homepage at http://www.unitedwaynca.org/.

Ty minus 5! / Michelle

So, in case you haven’t heard, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is coming to the DC area next week. I’ve seen the show. I know they find a deserving family and build a house in 7 days. Being a reasonably intelligent person, I’ve always presumed that an advance teams shows up months ahead of time, moves in with the builder, plans every last bit of the house down to the nails the pictures hang on, Ty and the gang show up and through the magic of television the old house is demolished and a new one is built in “just 7 days”.

Boy was I wrong! It really does happen that fast.

This project came to United Way of the National Capital Area almost exactly a month before Ty will stand in front of someone’s house with his bullhorn.

I’m not sure the builders knew about it much before we did.

So what does United Way have to do with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? Well, one of the things we do every day is bring together the people, companies and resources of the community for the greater good. Who better to recruit, organize and care for the volunteers working to change the life of a family and the families served by a community center?

Have I mentioned that this is not one project, but two? Oh yeah, Ty and the gang are building two structures in one week – a family home and a community center. That means double the volunteers (3,300), double the meals (10,000), double the water (30 pallets of bottled water), double the coffee (I can’t even begin to guess, but you may want to triple it since I will be on site), all donated by the caring people, organizations and companies in our community.

And, oh yeah, we weren’t allowed to talk about the project until about a week ago. That’s a lot free stuff, um in-kind donations, to get in just two weeks. Besides an exciting opportunity, we see this as a drill. There are some moments when this feels like an emergency response and it is clear that we, as an organization, are bulking up our capacity to respond when the emergency does not consist of a rather hyper TV personality with a bullhorn.

Extreme Makeover:Home Edition is coming!!!/shana

One family, one home, one community center - one week? That's right, ABC's Extreme Makoever: Home Edition is coming to the DC Metro region and United Way of the National Capital Area has stepped up to rally more than 3,300 volunteers and the in-kind support to get the job done. This will take 25,000 soft drinks, hundreds of bottle of sunscreen and bugspray..and food did I mention that 10,000 meals will need to be served. It will take an entire community to get the job done!

Have you ever been part of something this big? Haven't you wanted to be? Can you donate your time? Step up, stand up and join your neighbors. Personally, I can't wait to be working side by side with hundreds of dedicated builders and volunteers to do something incredible. Are you going to be there? Sign up to volunteer or donate anything you can to the builds at www.builduwnca.org or call UWNCA at 202.488.2000.

Don't let this opportunity to Live United - pass you by. One family and one community are counting on us!