NEWS - Construction & Building

After building a home in Savannah, tv show moved north for one in Beaufort

By Mark Kreuzwieser
SBJ Contributor

Thousands of people volunteered, a builder and an architect donated their time and resources, suppliers kicked in materials, and restaurants cooked up a storm – all for the benefit of a Beaufort Marine, his wife and their five children during January's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

The notoriously laid-back and lollygagging citizens of the Lowcountry took a deep breath and built a home as if a tornado was bearing down on them. The massive week-long effort in mid-January probably dropped more "angel dollars" into local coffers and pockets than actual hard coins, but the feel-good currency of community love and neighborly activism should be an economic force that will reverberate throughout the Lowcountry for many years.

David Folsom, a PhD professor of economics and business administration at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort, suggests it's difficult to hang a price tag on the “worth” of the project that built a new home for the Bill and India Dickinson family on Mystic Circle. The two-story home definitely rose up from a mere day's curing of the concrete foundation to create a mystery of fiscal impact.

Say Bill and India's new home is worth about $600,000 (some estimates have gone as high as $700,000), that sort of construction and supporting activity – labor and materials – would represent about $2.7 million pumped into the local economy, Folsom wagered. It is near impossible to ascertain precisely the project's economic consequences mainly due to so much of the construction and supporting services being donated. But one definite windfall could be likened to tourism: many of the workers, including the tv show's people accomodations at motels and occasionally eating out (tons of food were donated by area restaurateurs, especially on-site.) The visitors directly associated with the filming were in the area nine days.

Perhaps the biggest financial pay-off for Beaufort County and the Lowcountry in general probably is best realized in the mega amounts of good, positive publicity and PR generated by the project, Folsom said.

The sweet smell of success may be promulgated down the road when outsiders see or hear about the project and think to themselves, “Gosh, that sounds like a darn nice place to live and work. Look how caring people are there.” Now, if only the weather had cooperated: just about the entire week, volunteers and tradesmen had to deal with cold and rain. But many who consider the area for a new home may overlook that in relation to the weather in Ohio or New Jersey.

Folsom followed the project closely, mostly with amusement. "I liked the way you could see changes in the frenetic pace, in the e-mails and news releases they'd send out, saying they needed such and such tradesmen badly," he said.

Several of his students – and the college's business club – were interested in the event, too, and several volunteered to work. But, Folsom is not sure he can obtain any kind of course study out of the project. "For those involved, I'm sure it was an invaluable experience from a management and logistics point of view," Folsom said. "I had encouraged my students to go over there and help out however they were able. Those who did surely gained some good out of it all."

Some folks also have wondered why “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” seems preoccupied with the South lately: projects have been in Savannah, Beaufort, Florida and Kentucky recently.

"’Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ picks locations based on families that need us," said Diane Korman, the show's senior producer for marketing and public relations. "We have crisscrossed the nation to help families and although we were just in Savannah, we headed back to the region to help the Dickinsons. They were on their last leg in their old house."

Perhaps Southerners are avid givers, too.

"Southern hospitality is more than just words in this part of the world," Korman said. "We can’t wait to come back again."

A more obvious reason for the Southern encampment is, um, weather. "As the weather gets cold, the ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ bus heads south . . . ," Korman said. "We’ve been in Savannah, Augusta, Beaufort, Cocoa Beach, and we are heading to Jacksonville and Virginia Beach.  It's been a great couple of months. We are always treated so well when we head south, and most importantly, the communities come out in mass to help change a family’s life."

Korman declined to say how much the show's budget is, but noted that it would never be possible without local community volunteers.

"What I love about ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ is that it is more than just a tv show. It is about making a difference and helping families," she said.

"But, it would be impossible without the blood, sweat and tears of the neighbors, community and local businesses. The show would be impossible without the builder, H2 Builders (based in Bluffton), who donated their time and worked for free and called in every favor to make a dream happen for a family."
And, if the project proved one thing, it's that a community can pull together even in a very, very tough economic market to build a new home for a family.

William Court, partner, Court Atkins Architects, who was lead architect for the project, noted this: "It is amazing how, with everything hurting economically, this home could be built with the resources we have available right here in Beaufort County. Everyone worked together so well."