The weather is simply not cooperating with the build, which means the Family Day circus is canceled tomorrow.

HOWEVER, the art tent for sign making will still be open.  The clowns, face painters, and magicians will still be here as well.

Bunker Hill, Ind., the site of the build, has been hit by over two inches of rain since Thursday night. Because of this, the farm field acting as the staging area for volunteers and spectators has been turned into a large mud pit. Thanks to the donation of a reported 1200 bales of straw, the field has become more manageable to navigate. Many volunteers have helped to distribute and spread the straw throughout the weekend.

Beth Edwards helps spread hay over thick mud surrounding the VIP and volunteer tents at the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition construction site in Bunker Hill, Ind. “I’m volunteering because I think the show is excellent for [Miami] County and I wanted to help the family out,” Edwards said.

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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:

Because of the rain, Saturday’s auction has been moved to the Grissom Air Force base on US 31.

• Items can be donated until noon
• Doors open at 1 pm
• The auction begins at 2 pm

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

Early this morning Paul Schwinghammer, President of Hallmark Homes, announced that Hallmark Homes had been chosen to build the next Extreme Makeover: Home Edition home.

Within minutes of the announcement, Hallmark Homes new “Hallmarkextreme” website was receiving dozens of inquiries from people wanting to volunteer to help. Everyone at Hallmark Homes is excited at the level of interest from potential volunteers.

Hallmark Homes has created sign up pages on the Hallmarkextreme.com website where volunteers and sponsors can go to sign up. If you are interested in helping in anyway you can visit the extreme site and sign up on the Volunteers, Sponsor, or Donate pages.

Building a home in just 106 hours is a big task. It is going to take an entire community to come together to make it happen. All of us working as a team can make a dream a reality for a very deserving family.

This morning, gathered in the Teletouch room on Anderson University’s campus, students made calls from 9:15-1:00 to media outlets throughout the state. Hallmark Homes reached out to Anderson University for assistance with the pre-build communications efforts. Fifth Street Communications, supervised by communications professor Rebecca Fuller, has taken on the pre-build responsibilities.

The calls that were made this morning were a follow-up to a press release that was sent out at approximately 9:00 following the 7 am announcement on WRTV-6 that ABC’s hit show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, would be returning to Indiana to help out one lucky hoosier. Derek Wilder, CEO of Hallmark Homes, has already scheduled a few interviews for the remainder of the week.

Stay connected on the latest news at www.hallmarkextreme.com or via Twitter at www.twitter.com/hallmarkhomes.

Hallmark Homes is one of the largest, on-your-lot custom home builders in the Midwest. Having built more than 1,000 homes since 1992, Hallmark Homes’ service, quality control, scheduling and warranty are second to none. Hallmark Homes is a proud recipient of the coveted 2008 Keystone Award and 2008 Residential Warranty National Award of Distinction. Hallmark is also member of the Better Business Bureau and the National Association of Home Builders. For more information, visit www.hallmarkhomes.com.