The Big Nail doesn’t watch a lot of television, but if it did, one show it’d certainly make sure not to miss is ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.’ Much to many people’s surprise, the show is now filming right in the Big Nail’s backyard. Earlier this week, ABC, with assistance from our local Habitat for Humanity volunteers, surprised a local family by providing them with an extreme home makeover of their own.

From Christy Arboscello at The Detroit Free Press:

In the first months after David Gilliam and his family moved into an 1886-era farmhouse in Armada Township, he ripped out some cabinets, installed a new well and began other improvements.
But he never finished the work. He died suddenly on Christmas Eve 2005, just 41.

“He started to renovate it. That was his dream,” said Armada Township Fire Chief Steve Jerzewski, who has fond memories of Gilliam and his work as a firefighter and paramedic in the community.

On Monday, ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” surprised his widow, Maryann Gilliam, 32, and her six children with a promise to fulfill David Gilliam’s dream and tear down and rebuild the home over the next week.

The show’s producers whisked away Maryann Gilliam and the children — whose ages range from 8 months to 12 years — from her sister’s home in Mt. Clemens to an undisclosed vacation spot. On Monday, they are expected to return to a newly built home on their 1-acre lot. The show’s air date has yet to be determined, but it will appear in the upcoming season.

Click here for the rest of the article.

The Big Nail will have more on the Gilliam’s much deserved gift in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, we salute ABC, the producers of ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ and the hundreds of local Habitat for Humanity volunteers for their hard work and dedication. In reality, this family–like all of the others the show serves–really needed your help!

Margarita Bauza of the Detroit Free Press wrote an interesting piece in the Business section of yesterday’s paper. In an article titled “Community Investment: Good Deed Day,” Bauza profiled a number of local businesses and employees who take time to give back to their communities through volunteerism and servant leadership. About Bloomfield Hills’ Plute Homes, she writes:

In January 2005, Pulte Homes in Bloomfield Hills adopted a policy that allows employees two paid days off per year to volunteer with charities and community groups…

About 100 of the company’s 300 employees have taken advantage of the program since it began. That’s in addition to Habitat for Humanity work that the company also is committed to.

Teri Mayne, an administrative assistant in Pulte’s human resources department, used to take vacation time to volunteer at the Turning Point domestic violence shelter. She now does it through work.

“Pulte has allowed me to do it without penalizing me,” said Mayne, 45, of Roseville, who volunteers at Turning Point four half days a year.

I love to hear about stuff like this, and since the Big Nail itself is provided as a public service for the benefit of the Warren/metro-Detroit community and its charitable organizations, if you or someone you know would like to have the Nail support your company’s next volunteer event, drop us line.

For the rest of Margarita Bauza’s article, please click here.

To inquire about the Big Nail’s availability for your next volunteer event, click here.