Neighbors helping Neighbors discussion

There's been a lot of discussion this week about how life has changed and people don't seem to help as much as they used to. Was reading the AJC this morning and spotted this article on ABC's Extreme Home Makeover project at Joplin and thought I'd share.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/celebrities-tv/tv-makeover-show-to-1205622.html?cxntlid=thbz_hm

High points of the article... started Wed 10/19, plan to be done 10/26, 7 houses to be built, 21 general contractors, local churches working to feed 30,000 meals over the 7 days for the volunteers.

It may take a commercial enterprise to organize some of today's helping hands... but the number of volunteers coming out to work on this (and other similar projects) says that there's still a lot of good hearted people left willing to help those less fortunate.

I wonder how many Community Organizers they'll have there.

While this may be a worthy endevor, Extreme Home Makeover is a farce . Not saying that the families are not deserving or need help . They take a livable home , destroy it , and put up a Taj Mahal that the owners now find they cannot afford . Close to half of the homes are sold because owners are facing an average increase of $22,000 in taxes, utilities upkeep and maintinance , when they are barely scraping by as is . instead of building one over the top home , why not spread it out ? Remodel or build 5 or 6 more affordable homes to help more folks ...RATINGS !! What it boils down to .

The only problem with that show is it is rather shallow when you actually go work on it. I help supervise volunteers for Habitat for Humanity on Saturdays. We normally build 2-4 house per build cycle with normally two build cycles per year (spring and fall). The summers down here are too hot to work with volenteers on houses.

When Makover Home Edition came to Houston I went and volunteered and there were several differences I noticed.

1. The did it in August...in Houston...some producer definately wasn't thinking.

2. The house was located in a neighborhood of 700 sq ft run down homes on small lots. It took three lots for this house and I believe they were trying to get a 4th.

3. Habitat mission is to provide affordable decent housing; This house was probably 5000-6000 sq ft.

4. When ever one of the "celebrities" walked through; all work had to stop. I went and helped on a Friday. They were supposed to be done Sunday, by friday they were already 40 hrs behind and working 24hr a day. The "celebs" would come in; shoot 5 min of video; and then leave and disappear. Some of the problems involved code issues that were not fully though out (there new owner was a preacher who did counseling from the house; had to meet business fire codes).

It would be nice if the news would regularly showcase organization that do this work locally all the time rather than a shallow fly by night organization.

There's a modular home manufacturer in Pinckneyville, IL that recently built a home that was shipped to Joplin. It was done with volunteer labor - local residents, a bunch of them - with guidance from folks that work at the Pinckneyville site. I don't know anything about the TV show, and it may turn out to be something other than what it was hyped as, but the project was well received here in Southern Illinois.
An article about it

Local news reported that "Makeover" caused severe disruptions in neighborhood life, failed to comply with local codes and ordinances, and left a mess on adjoining properties after recent project.

a "community organizer" is just a title given to some abundant, parasitic, tax funded do-gooder, who basically stirs up the whining minorities against those folks who work to support their worthless, fast breeding, asses. this just my opinion which i think is right in the eyes of any productive, tax paying american.

Mr. Bob nailed it for sure...what an excellent definition of a community organizer!