Tennessee church hosts "makeover" cast for destroyed home
Aug. 1, 2006 News media contact: Linda Green * (615) 7425470* Nashville {456}
NOTE: Photographs available at http://umns.umc.org.
By J. Richard Peck*
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)--Some 300 volunteers clad in blue "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" shirts gathered at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church before beginning a 106-hour building blitz.
Ty Pennington, hyper host of the popular ABC television program, told the July 30 gathering that producers decided to rebuild the home of Jared and Amy Hawkins after learning how Amy had saved her two children by shielding them from falling brinks and timber during an April 7 tornado.
The Hawkins family was not present at the "Brave Heart Rally" as program producers sent them to Disney World while their home was being rebuilt. But Hawkins' neighbors told volunteers how they found Amy, Jarie, 6, and Cole 3, among the debris of their destroyed home.
Richard West told the gathering how a metal building had slammed into his house, but that the Hawkins' home had been completely leveled. He and two other neighbors found Amy and the children buried in bricks and concrete in what was once their basement.
The men dug the children out and found their wounds were not serious as they had been protected by their mother. However, Amy was purple and did not appear to be breathing. After the men dug her out from the rubble, she started gasping for air, and there was hope that she was still alive.
Husband Jared was on duty with the Brentwood Fire Department and was not home when the tornado slashed through the community. "Jared called me on my cell phone," West said. "I told him the children were safe but I said, 'Amy is hurt and hurt bad.'"
Brentwood Fire Captain Ed Winter told the gathering that Jared received word that the kids were safe, but that Amy was dead. The frantic husband immediately called Amy's mother, Marcia Harsh in Rockford, Ill., and told her the news.
"I knew she was alive," Harsh told the volunteers. "During the nine-hour drive, I knew she was alive." When Marcia and husband, Bill, arrived at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, that belief was a reality. Bill is Amy's stepfather.
Vanderbilt Hospital surgeons repaired damages to Amy's skull, a collapsed lung, and five broken ribs, but a crushed spinal column left her confined to a wheel chair. Following the operations at Vanderbilt, Amy was sent to a rehabilitation center in Atlanta. She returned in mid-July, but must continue painful therapy at Vanderbilt.
"I believe Amy will walk again," Harsh said.
Producers of the ABC television program selected the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in the Nashville suburbs to kick-off the massive rebuilding operation because members led an effort to gather up belongings of the Hawkins family following the tornado. Church members also helped collect some 50,000 signatures asking "Extreme Makeover" to build a home for the family.
Jennifer Mazzola, youth director of the 600-member congregation, was in the church with some 20 others when the tornado passed through the area.
From the second floor of the church, they could see nearby homes had
suffered severe damage and one home had been totally demolished.
Mazzola, a nurse, and four other young people, rushed to the scene less than a quarter mile away. "You couldn't even tell there had been a house there," she said. "Debris was everywhere with clothing in trees and toys and other belongings spread over a five-acre area."
The church members didn't know the Hawkins family, but they knew their possessions needed to be protected.
"We climbed down into the basement and we could see where Amy and her children had been," Mazzola said. "The roof had fallen onto the car and Amy's keys were still in the ignition; her purse and the boys back packs were on the seats. It looked as if they had rushed out of the car and into the basement."
Church members put everything they could salvage into boxes and brought them back to the church. "You could tell what they loved and we began to feel connected with the family as we assembled their belongings," said the youth minister.
Louise Griffith, a mother of one of the church youth, set up assembly line to clean personal items while other church members took clothing to their homes to wash, dry and fold. Mark Mitchell, church lay leader, organized a group from the church to transport the items to a donated storage unit.
The Rev. Allen Weller, pastor of the Good Shepherd church told United Methodist News Service that he learned on July 26 that the television show wanted to use the church for its kickoff the following Sunday. "We moved our 8 a.m. and 9:05 a.m. services to the 75-seat chapel," he said, "and we spent Saturday cleaning the church and grounds so we could open our doors and hearts to these volunteers and builders."
Weller welcomed Pennington and the design team to the church and at the last minute as the crew was preparing for the exiting of the 300 volunteers, he was asked to offer parting words and a prayer. "Things aren't going to be calm in the next 106 hours," said Weller. "We need some time for peaceful prayer and meditation." He described God as the "master builder" who can give us an "extreme makeover."
The show is scheduled to air on a Sunday evening in November.
Peck is a retired clergy member of New York Annual Conference and a former editor with the United Methodist Publishing House. He is communications coordinator for the churchwide Commission on United Methodist Men.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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