Two churches bookended the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Bunker Hill build. Oakbrook Community Church and First Church of the Nazarene are both located in Kokomo, Ind.

Oakbrook Community Church, which seats 1,100 people in its auditorium, hosted the kickoff rally prior to the beginning of the week-long build. The church was selected because of its size and location, according to Oakbrook’s First Impressions Coordinator Dea Mygrant.

Steve Erwin, a CPA and friend and neighbor of the Schwinghammers, coordinated the rally.

Contractors, suppliers, volunteers and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” executive producer Conrad Rickets attended the rally. The kickoff included music from the Extreme Kats, a band put together just for the event. Hallmark Homes president Paul Schwinghammer played trumpet in the band.

Other speakers included Schwinghammer’s wife, Winnie, as well as representatives of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and the American Red Cross. Ricketts showed several informational and motivational videos.

“It did a good job of driving home the importance of helping others in your community,” Erwin said.

First Church of the Nazarene, which can seat 1,500 people, hosted the show-day event. Heather Cowan’s parents and brother attend the church, so Heather asked the church to host the event.

The show-day event began at 5 p.m. with an open house in the church atrium, followed by volunteer testimony, speakers and videos in the auditorium. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – The Cowan Family” aired on ABC at 8 p.m. The event finished with reactions from the Cowan-Brown family and Hallmark Homes, as well as several presentations.

“The whole community of Kokomo and surrounding areas were extremely enthusiastic about this project,” First Church’s Senior Pastor David Leeder said.

He also described the importance of faith – faith in action making a difference in the lives of individuals and communities – in an event such as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” demonstrating how very appropriate it was to have the two churches host the beginning and ending of the Bunker Hill build.

Hundreds of fans and volunteers gathered in Kokomo’s First Church of the Nazarene Jan. 10 to greet the Cowan-Brown family and one another. They enjoyed 1,500 donated Blondie’s cookies and soft drinks provided by Coca-Cola and the church’s Holy Grounds coffee bar. Groups such as the American Cancer Society and the Be the Match national marrow donor program had information booths and volunteers available.

At 7 p.m., the crowd moved into the church auditorium where Dennis Ashley from D. Ashley Design + Events moderated a program that included: opening remarks, Hallmark Homes highlights, volunteer highlights and testimony, Cowan-Brown family highlights, viewing of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Bunker Hill episode, Hallmark Homes and Cowan-Brown family responses, an IROK Foundation presentation and closing remarks.

During the pre-show family highlights, the family shared information about the application process, working with the community, acclimating to their new house and unpacking.

Andy and Heather shared that the application process was lengthy; not only in paper form, but also in the amount of time it took from application to selection. Andy mentioned that there were many questions on the application that nobody would want to answer – a comment met by laughter from the crowd.

“We are so proud of this community and our church and school,” Heather said. “We are so thankful and we are so blessed.”

She said the family’s clothing and bedding was all professionally cleaned and returned to the garage before Reveal Day. And she is still unpacking – down to about two dozen boxes.

“I’m still sleeping in the garage,” Andy said, emphasizing how very much he likes the workshop garage full of new tools and equipment. Again, the crowd laughed and applauded. When the garage was revealed during the episode, the crowd said, “Wow,” in unison.

The crowd laughed and applauded several times during the show. There were also times of sniffles and tears.

On commercial break, Ashley moderated conversations and brief presentations. During one break, Paul Schwinghammer and Derek Wilder of Hallmark Homes presented Kori a $5,150 check – the proceeds from the auction sale of five handmade “1K” pillows – which she in turn presented to the American Cancer Society.

In case you missed the episode, a home build that usually takes more than 106 days was done in 106 hours for the show. The show presented this in time-warp fashion during about 25 seconds of air time. The home and each special room was designed and furnished to meet the likes of the Cowan-Brown family.

Andy got his garage. Heather and Andy’s bedroom was presented as a quiet retreat. Trevor’s room was designed for his love of building. Ryan’s room was soccer-themed. Mason’s room was motorcycle-themed. And Kori’s room was decorated with 8,950 sticky notes – a tribute to her favorite form of organization.

The full episode is available here .

From Hallmark Homes to the contractors, sponsors and volunteers; from the ABC crew to the community; and certainly from the Cowan-Brown family to their new beginnings … Extreme is the best way to sum it all up.

The Cowan-Browns will have another reason to love their new home because of the energy efficient assets included with the house. The home uses a closed loop geothermal system for heating and cooling, a wind spire turbine for electric costs and various energy efficient appliances and options inside the home. Cris Dorman, coordinator for Public Outreach and Education for the Indiana Office of Energy, said the construction was set up so the house would be fairly energy efficient.

The geothermal system, which was installed by Earth Link Geothermal Systems from Ossian, includes six pipes that make up the closed loop system. The 400-foot pipes, which were buried six feet underground, are filled with liquid that absorbs heat from the ground so it can be transferred to the house for heating during the winter. In the summer, the pipes carry heat from the home and transfer it back into the ground. Doorman said the system should have a noticeable impact on heating and cooling costs.

“That closed loop should help offset the heating and cooling cost anywhere between 50 and 75 percent, “ Doorman said. “It looks like [the home] will have a gas fireplace, which will also help offset some of the heating costs.”

The geothermal system is placed underground because the ground temperature is relatively constant. Workers from Earth Link said the entire installation process took about 10 hours to complete, including digging the trenches for the pipes. Doorman said more and more homes are being built with geothermal systems, despite the high initial cost. He said a traditional heating and cooling setup for a new home could cost anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000, but geothermal costs about $15,000 to install.

“Even though there’s a higher initial cost, the payback is typically five to ten years,” Dorman said. “You see the immediate savings in your heating and cooling costs.”

A wind spire turbine will help provide electricity as well. The turbine, which was installed by Wind-Wire, will generate electricity for the home as it spins in the wind. Dave and Glen Smith, co-owners of Wind-Wire, said they were excited to be involved with the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project because it was a way to give back. The brothers started the company about two years ago when they were laid off from their jobs, and they’ve been installing windmills ever since.

The Smiths installed a 45-foot Windstream turbine, which has three six-foot blades to catch the wind. After the pole was delivered, it took the Smiths about two hours to set up the installation and 15 minutes to install the $16,000 turbine. The Smiths said a turbine like the one at the Cowan-Brown’s home typically pays for itself in about four to eight years. Doorman said the turbine will run whenever the wind is blowing, except when it could be dangerous.

“All wind turbines will lock down at a certain speed to prevent the rotors from breaking,” he said. “From my experience, it will automatically be going. In certain inclement weather situations it will shut down.”

Both the geothermal system and the wind turbine are outside the home, but there are energy efficient aspects inside the home as well. The appliances are Energy Star rated, which means they are 10 to 20 percent more efficient than other models. Another energy-saving feature of the home is lighting. The home was built with plenty of windows so natural light can be used when possible. When that isn’t enough, the home also includes LED lights, a relatively new energy efficient technology.

Juno Lighting, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, donated the LED lights for the home. Amy Huntington, president of Schneider Electric U.S., said the lights came on the market last year and are an alternative to florescent bulbs.

“We provided more than 150 LED down lights,” she said. “They save 80 percent energy versus incandescent. They’ll last 50,000 hours so it’s likely this family won’t have to change light bulbs.”

With typical use, that means the lights in the Cowan-Brown’s home could last up to 11 years before they have to be replaced. During all that time, the family will be able to reap the rewards of spending 80 percent less on lighting costs. Huntington said her company was glad to help out with the build and was impressed with the energy efficient options in the home.

“The other thing that’s really neat is finding out that Hallmark has been able to make this home energy efficient,” she said. “It falls into what we’re all about too, really helping people make the most of their energy.”

Many have asked what will happen in the long-term for the family who has ongoing medical bills, and now a bigger home to maintain. Though the new home came at no cost to the family, utilities and home maintenance were not included.

Fortunately, the community, sponsors and builder planned ahead to help the family.

A charity auction during build week raised more than $18,000 for the family to use toward home and medical expenses. Dr. Tavel Optical Group donated 15 years of eye care to the family. This is a significant contribution, valued at more than $30,000. And Ball State University awarded four-year, full-tuition scholarships to each of the four Cowan-Brown children. At today’s tuition rate, these scholarships have a total value near $120,000.

As for the home, Hallmark Homes home has included its standard warranty on the Cowan-Brown home. This includes a 2-year workmanship warranty and a 10-year structural warranty covering anything normally covered under the RWC National Warranty Guidelines. Hallmark will perform a 30-day, 11-month and 23-month walk-through with the family.

The new home was built with energy efficient lighting, circuit breakers and surge protection that is intended to reduce related energy bills by as much as 85 percent. Installation of all new Energy Star appliances will reduce their related energy costs by up to 50 percent.

The build also included a geothermal closed loop heating system. This type of system works by extracting ground heat to warm the liquid contained in the heating system pipes. The warmed liquid requires less electric energy to reach the desired temperature, reducing total energy costs.

Perhaps the most impressive cost-cutting measure is the installation of a wind turbine that can produce enough energy to power a 2,000 square foot home. It is expected to cut the Cowan-Brown family’s energy bills by 30 to 80 percent, depending on their energy usage.

See the blog’s Sponsors section to read about the different companies that gave generously to the Cowan-Brown home build.

In today’s economic situation, giving back to the community might seem like the last concern on the minds of CEOs and presidents of companies nationwide. That’s not the case for Schneider Electric, a $45 billion global company with ties to Indiana through the Square D factory in Peru.

Amy Huntington, president of Schneider Electric U.S., flew to Indiana to visit the build site before the Cowan-Brown’s new home was complete. She said Schneider Electric’s involvement with the build was a way for the company to give back.

“Giving back to the community is a big part of our philosophy and our culture,” she said. “It’s been exciting for us to see so many of our employees from the Peru plant come out and lend a hand.”

About 90 employees from the Square D factory helped with the week-long build. The company provided panel boards with circuit protection and surge protection for the home. It also donated indoor lighting for the home through Juno Lighting, another local subsidiary of Schneider Electric. Huntington said the company wanted to help where it could with the donations.

“We toured the house and it’s amazing to see what can happen in less than a week,” she said. “I know the team from Hallmark has to be exhausted. They supplied all the labor and the plans. We supplied the product and that’s the easy part.”

Huntington said all of the workers from the Peru plant who worked on the job did so on their own time and some even took vacation time to help. The decision to help with the build came after Hallmark Homes got in touch with Schneider Electric to see if it would be willing to donate some of the necessary parts for the home. Huntington said making the call to help with the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build revealed some surprising connections.

“It’s pretty inspirational to hear about Kori and her challenges and how she has inspired people around her,” she said. “When we got the call to ask about our interest, I think it was an easy decision for our plant manager. Coincidentally, when the family was made public, they attend the same church as several of the employees from our Peru plant. So there was a personal connection there with a lot of the workers. It’s kind of neat that at Peru, where we build the load centers, all the employees watched the panel come off the line. They knew that the panels were for this family. It was really a neat thing within the plant.”

All told, Schneider Electric donated more than $40,000 in equipment and cash to the build. Huntington said this investment had a noticeable affect on worker morale in Peru. Marty Hanna, vice president of communication for Schneider Electric, said the impact was felt beyond Indiana as well.

“We announced this to all our people in North America, and there are about 14,000 people in North America,” he said. “I just talked to the plant manager who sent out the announcement and he said he’s getting emails from all over North America saying what a great thing this is. As a company it’s something we get behind and support. People love to see this sort of stuff especially these days.”

Huntington said Hallmark Homes did a great job of involving sponsors in the build. She was impressed with the interactions between the community and the companies that made the build possible. She said Paul Schwinghammer, president of Hallmark Homes, and Derek Wilder, CEO of Hallmark Homes, helped make the build special.

“We’re really impressed with Paul and Derek and their commitment to the community,” she said. “Their business culture really does seem to be one about giving back. We’ve met family members while we’ve been here; we’ve met every employee that’s been on site and seen the work. There’s a lot of pride and craftsmanship that’s going into this home.”

More pictures are available after the jump. And for more information on Janel Bantz Photography, go to http://www.janelbantz.com

Paul Schwinghammer, president of Hallmark Homes Inc., was an integral part of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build. If you were on the site during the week the house was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up, you were sure to run into Schwinghammer. Schwinghammer said most of his time on the site was spent helping people by answering questions and solving problems when they came up. He was also responsible for making sure people were where they needed to be so the build would get done. All in all, Schwinghammer sums up the project in one sentence.

“[The project was] an intense month of preparation culminating to a fast paced, highly coordinated effort by hundreds during the week of the build,” he said.

The project also endured long days, because Schwinghammer still had the same responsibilities for Hallmark Homes as he does on any other week. The build did help in one aspect that one wouldn’t expect: family.

“It brought us closer together in working toward the common goal both before and during the project,” Schwinghammer said about the effects of the project on his family.

Since the build, Schwinghammer said he has been back to his regular work at Hallmark Homes. He and the company have also been in contact with the Cowan-Brown family to help make sure everything in the house is functioning as it should. He said the buzz about the project has been slowing, but he thinks that will change once the show airs. He said Hallmark Homes has big plans for the air date.

“We have a large event planned in Kokomo for the night of the airing in which the family will be in attendance,” he said.

Looking back, Schwinghammer said the only thing he would change if he could go back would be to move the project back a week. This wouldn’t give Hallmark Homes any extra time to build, but it would have taken care of the rain that caused so many problems. Schwinghammer said the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build was about more than just Hallmark Homes, however.

“Hallmark was simply the orchestrator of this project and it took the efforts of hundreds of skilled and non-skilled people not affiliated with Hallmark to make it happen,” he said. “We could not have done it without them.”

More pictures are available after the jump. And for more information on Janel Bantz Photography, go to http://www.janelbantz.com

Six weeks after the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” reveal, the Wilder family is settling back into pre-build life – almost. It isn’t over quite yet. They’re still looking forward to the episode airing sometime in January.

Hallmark Homes CEO Derek Wilder and his wife, Jennie, have three teenage children: Kylene, Courtney and Connor. The entire Wilder family was involved in the Cowan-Brown house build.

Kylene, an Anderson University sophomore, was on site all week in between classes. She carried a phone and a walkie talkie, drove a Gator and helped her dad with whatever she could.

“She did whatever anybody asked her to do,” Jennie said.

To which Kylene replied, “Sleep really wasn’t an option.”

After school each day, 16-year-old Courtney helped her grandmother in the VIP tent, answered questions and worked on an art project for one of the rooms in the house.

Connor, who turned 14 during build week, rode along with Kylene on the Gator to help with loading and unloading. He also helped his grandma in the VIP tent.

“It was great having their support to encourage and assist the volunteers and workers,” Derek said about his family.

Sunday was Connor’s birthday and Family Day. In celebration, he had a cake in the VIP tent and then spent the day helping with Family Day, making popcorn and doing whatever else was asked of him.

“It was the busiest birthday that I’ve had,” Connor said. “It was fun, but I’m glad it wasn’t my 16th birthday.”

One major benefit of being part of the builder’s family: meeting the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” talent. Courtney met David Cook, played rock-paper-scissors with designer Paul DiMeo and got a hug from designer Didiayer Snyder at the end of the build. Jennie also got to meet Snyder, as well as design producer Eva Zellmer. Connor got pretty near to Ty Pennington once. Kylene said she mostly just worked around them.

Even Derek’s parents, Jerry and Vickie Wilder, took charge of projects. Jerry helped organize the volunteers and Vicky coordinated at the VIP tent.

On reveal day, the Wilder family was all present. Reflecting upon the completion, they said:
“I was kind-of amazed because our house was built in three months,” Connor said, “but that house was finished in a week.”

“It was 106 hours,” Kylene returned.

“It was a 4 ½ day build,” Jennie finished.

Hallmark Homes will continue to serve the Cowan-Brown family. Employees are currently putting the finishing touches on the house, such as making sure all of the doorstops have been installed and all nail holes have been puttied. The company will also provide a warranty for the house for the next 10 years, as is customary for all of the homes it builds.

“I was very proud of all the volunteers, subcontractors, sponsors and suppliers for their incredible sacrifice and effort,” Derek said.

At the end of the week, they all agree, the Wilders were tired, relieved and excited about the completion of the Cowan-Brown house. Though Kylene said (with laughter) she felt like she was dealing with some post-traumatic stress, and Courtney said she hated to have to part from all of the new friends she had made. But they all felt lucky to have had this experience.

“It was just so fulfilling to do this for someone who deserved it,” Courtney said.

On Wednesday, Kylene went back to the site to help with clean up. The crew and media were still there working. On Thursday, Kylene went back to Anderson University for classes. The rest of her family headed to Gatlinburg, Tenn., for vacation.

“We didn’t do anything,” Connor said. “We stayed in our pajamas, played Pac-Man and watched TV.”

“It was very relaxing,” Courtney added.

The Wilders plan to get together with a group to watch the Cowan-Brown episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” when it airs in January.

“It will be a period at the end,” Jennie said.

Anyone who came to volunteer at the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build likely met Anita Knepp. Knepp was the volunteer coordinator at the build. She would check in both skilled and non-skilled participants as they came through the volunteer tent for each day of the build.

Knepp is a sales manager at Hallmark Homes. She became the volunteer coordinator when she was asked to do lead that effort by the producers from ABC.

Along with finding volunteers for some of the non-build tasks, Knepp also traveled the site performing miscellaneous activities. She would make sure that trash dumpsters were empty, make sure that everyone had the proper apparel and badges, and just fill in where she was need, she said.

And what the hardest part of the build?

“Lack of sleep,” she said with a chuckle.

The build was also a family affair for the Knepps. Knepp has two daughters and two sons come to site. Her cousin’s husband was a part of donating and installing the geothermal system for the house. And her husband helped with the Family Service Association Domestic Shelter renovations in Kokomo.

Undulated with volunteers, Knepp was able to spread some of them to tasks around the community. Along with the Domestic Shelter – where a new roof, painting, flooring, and landscaping all occurred – volunteers also helped some at some homes of the elderly where they could not perform such tasks themselves.

She still talks to people occasionally about the show. It comes up at work, as well as when she runs into people for the first time since the build. She has had old high school friends who have e-mailed her once they heard about her involvement in the build. Knepp said that it has been nice to reconnect with people.

One of Knepp’s favorite moments was meeting a child that was a big fan of the show. She helped the child meet several of the cast members and get their autographs.

“It was nice meeting some of the kids that were fans of the show,” she said.