Lynn Imel is here to support her daughter, Amber Smitherson, an accountant for Hallmark Homes. “Amber calls me and has me bring things she needs to the site for her,” Imel explained. Imel sat with her daughter and grandchildren, Allison, 11, and Carson, 6, at the food tent table and ate lunch while they waited for more instructions. Allison and Carson exclaimed, “We only have two more autographs to get!” while talking about the auction on Saturday where they got most of their autographs. The money is still being counted but the amount raised by the auction is rumored to be around $18,000. Allison was very excited about the new Cowan-Brown home and is glad to be here even though she is not old enough to help with the house.

Devon Luttrell is a 17-year-old student from Tipton, Ind. Her mother’s friend got involved with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition earlier this year and brought Luttrell and her mother along to help this time. Luttrell helps by manning the VIP tent, handing out sandwiches and drinks to the workers along with anything else she is needed for. “It is pretty crazy that I am only 17 and I have an all access pass!” Luttrell explained, “I was like ten feet from David Cook and Xzibit and I didn’t realize I was allowed to go talk to them!” Later her mother informed her what “all access” meant and Luttrell will not make that mistake again. She plans to approach any and all celebrities she sees from now on.

Two airmen, Karl Ackerman and Chris Sterling, took off work to volunteer. Sterling said he scheduled off and Ackerman said he would call in an hour or so and call in, “I probably should get on that,” Ackerman explained. They worked all night long starting at 11 p.m. “They asked me what I was good at and I said everything. So yesterday I was an expert sider, today I am an expert trimmer and who knows maybe tomorrow I’ll be an expert plumber,” Sterling explained.

Most of the jobs Sterling claimed to be an “expert” at meant he had done it once or twice.  They worked with one man who gave them measurements to cut wood but the measurements were too short. “We came back the second time and he was gone,” Sterling said before Ackerman chimed in, “and he took our nail gun too!” Overall they have had a good time and really enjoyed helping this family.

Jason Ildefonzo, a local contractor from Sherriff-Goslin Company, was on-site helping to put siding on the house.  Jason went to school with Andy, the homeowner, and knows the family well.  We asked him for his thoughts about the family, and he told us that the family is well-deserving.  He mentioned that Kori, who struggles with a congenital blood disease, has donated over $35,000 to the American Cancer Society.  Jason said the progress is slow, and the project is running about a day behind schedule.  However he does feel that this project has benefited the community.  He said, “It’s been great to see all the companies working together.”

By Bryce Tibbs and Jillian Riffey

Another unusual site from Family Day was a group of local clowns from the Peru Circus.  Their colorful outfits and charismatic personalities helped brighten the day.  The clowns said they knew there were going to be a lot of kids on site and they wanted to make the kids smile.  The clown troop included Michelle Feltis, Ginnie Williams, Kayla Deardorff, and Chloe Hunt.

Due to the rain and mud, parking has been moved out to the Grissom Air Reserve Base. Signs will continue to direct spectators back to the appropriate parking area.

Here is a map providing general directions:

By Kyle Schroeder

Following the demolition that took less than an hour, Waste Management was on-hand waiting to remove all the debris. Truck after truck was driven in and loaded up with roofing, siding, wood, and old appliances that previously filled them home. In probably less than an hour or so, all the debris that previously comprised the Cowan-Brown home.

By Kyle Schroeder

Blondie’s Cookies, with 8 Indiana locations, has been feeding VIP, media, and volunteers with several varieties of their famous and recognizable cookies and treats. One of their new cookies for the fall season, Pumpkin Spice, has been a big hit on site. Over 250 cookies and treats were brought out on Thursday to feed hungry workers.

Blogging is big.
But how about video blogging (made possible by simply uploading YouTube videos)?

As a part of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build taking place in Indiana this October by HallmarkHomes, we will be using video blogging to tell stories in a personal way. Instead of going into written detail about video blogging, let me tell you about it:

Video Blog: The value of a video blog

Kyle Schroeder
Social Media Director
www.hallmarkextreme.com/connect

Many people have heard of Twitter. Some have been onto www.Twitter.com. But many of us still don’t really know about the value using Twitter.

First of all, what does Wikipedia have to say about Twitter?

“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.”

I want to highlight a few things that Twitter is not:

1. Just a place for kids (teenagers, high schoolers, or college students) to just tell the world what they are doing—every minute of the day. 
2. Only full of celebrity gossip. 
3.  Only full of company advertisements. 
4.  Difficult to use. 
5.  Without value to a business.

As a part of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build taking place in Indiana this October by HallmarkHomes, we will be using Twitter to engage in a conversation with the online world. Where the evening news is able to tell a 2-3 minute recap story of the day, Twitter enables us to tell you about the little things that go on throughout the day.

• What events are going on?
• Who’s at the job site right now?
• What stage is the house at?
• How is the charity auction going?
• What kind of crowd has turned out?
• Are any of the celebrities on site?
• Are things on schedule?
• How is the rain affecting the build?
• Who is catering lunch today?

Staying connected with Twitter throughout the day for this event will allow you to see what kind of things are going on at the build site. We will also be able to communicate short stories. We can link to newly posted photos, point you to videos on YouTube, and highlight other things worth checking out online.

With only a 140 characters, it makes it easy to see what’s going on without having to read entire articles. Links are often included that allow you to read more or take the next step if you are interested. If you are not, then move on. You have wasted very little time but will find yourself surprisingly up-to-date.

The second part of the Twitter world is that this is not a one-way conversation. You watch the news and you may talk about it with your spouse or at work with a co-worker. With Twitter, you can engage in the discussion directly with us @HallmarkHomes and with the world of Twitter followers.

How?
We have setup a “hashtag” that allows you to note any Tweets you make that are relevant to the event. By using #hmark, all your comments can be seen by anyone on www.hallmarkextreme.com/connect. This becomes a filter for search engines if people want all the information about our particular build. If you are using a desktop application for Twitter, you can often have predefined content lists that will automatically load all content with that hashtag.

By engaging in the conversation, everyone benefits. We are getting diverse perspectives and stories that we might have missed. It becomes a way to participate from home or from the job site. iPhones and other portable devises allow you to Twitter from anywhere, making Twitter easy and convenient to use.

If you are new to Twitter, you don’t have to setup an account to stay connected. You can spend some time looking around the site and then if you decide you want to enter into the conversation, you can setup your own account. I would suggest using this event as a way to test out Twitter to determine if it is something worth your time.

Kyle Schroeder
Social Media Director
www.twitter.com/HallmarkHomes