So, I was only there for two days, but here's the entire story as I remember it:
It was super late on Thursday the 12th. I went to check my college e-mail, and lo and behold, there's our e-mail saying that we're being called in for a shift from 10 am to 6 pm. I immediately think s**t, we can't make that! People have classes. That's why we signed up for evening or morning shifts on weekends. But, I contacted our Honors president and tried to get some kind of action going that night. Facebook became the ultimate networking tool as I put up flashy statuses and updated the thread in our Honors group.
Nothing really happened until the next morning, Friday the 13th.
Now, it's morning, and our shift starts in just a few hours. I'm stressing (and changing tenses here mid writing. What a terrible English major I am xD ), and trying to still get ahold of people while I can before and after classes. The president gets ahold of me and we keep in touch some, but only five of us really ended up making it. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
So, throughout the day, three of my friends go and I discover I can go mid-shift. Huzzah and exultations! I left class early for an "appointment," drove home as fast as legally possible, and me and mom went over to volunteer.
We ended up getting massive shirts because they had run out of smaller sizes by then, but whatever. We signed up for beautification without knowing they would bus us over to the very street where the rebuilt house was! And with Buffalo Bills and Jills no less. Personal experience: professional cheerleaders are frightening to me. Too much makeup.
There on the street where construction was taking place, I met up with two of my friends, and we began gardening for the surrounding neighborhood. Extreme Makeover wasn't just taking care of that one house: they teamed up with AmeriCorps to renovated houses all around the neighborhood. And so, we went around wherever we were needed for jobs. A man named Miguel who's garden we fixed up gave us free t-shirts as thank-yous for doing such a wonderful job. n.n
We also started clearing out someone's back yard. Now, this is all happening on the West side of the city of Buffalo, so people's back yards are more like small pieces of land maybe big enough for a porch and nothing more. In this person's yard was so much debris that it covered the old lawnmower we found, broken pieces of mirror, broken frames, trash, old cable wires, rusted candlesticks, and a very dilapidated scrap book (and much, much more). It wasn't until we found out that the woman inside had gone into a nursing home that it made sense: someone probably started clearing out the house and had just quit, leaving the yard as a dumpsite, or the house had been looted.
Regardless, I had to move this old flat piece of wood covered in huge black spiders to the dumpster. Oddly enough, I didn't freak out at all. I actually tried saving them. o.o which freaked out my friend Marissa to no end, but hey. Charlotte's Web got to me.
Once we found out that we had no waiver for that house, we had to leave and move on to the next. Miguel's mother lived right next door, and her and my mom hit it right off. She's a very nice older spanish lady. :] We painted her door and door frame, and fixed up her front beds (got to put in two bushes, or rather, my mom did), and had to stop because our shift ended, but somehow before all that my mom got part of her life story, as well as a clipping from one of her beautiful indoor plants.
Meanwhile, we kinda ditched that project to watch the furniture truck come and deliver everything to the new home. We got to see Paige and I think Mike. I'm not sure. But we did return to that woman's house for the paint job. :]
Shirts from Miguel, clippings from a woman's house plant... it had been a good day. biggrin I was just thankful I got to be there and hear Ty's energetic voice from houses away.
Day Two: Move That Bus!
So, it's the 14th. We're told that the bus was coming anywhere between nine in the morning and noon (or at least spectators were-- still no idea what really was going on there). My mom and I arrived for the shuttle bus at 8:30. And once we were there, the feeling of walking past barriers and crowds because I had on a blue Helping Hands shirt was awesome. >w<
But, we couldn't return to Plymouth to finish that woman's door frame, so instead we went to aid in the demolition of a house.
That's right, baby. I helped take down a house. xD
It was pretty awesome. We donned our safety goggles, dust masks, put in our steel shoe inserts, and went to town shoveling debris. We also were collecting bricks and other whole materials because the business, Buffalo ReUse, takes the good stuff to use in other projects. biggrin
Anyhow! The house was abandoned, but had been used for drugs. I guess before we came, they had found some pretty... interesting... things. We were directed by Mike, a totally sweet and energetic guy. He was awesome. biggrin
But not everything was all roses and colorful ponies. It was dangerous. We worked on the second floor of the house, which had only two walls all along the outside. We were in open air, and could have fallen right of the side or down the exposed stairwell if we weren't careful. Debris was piling up, very large forks were being used to get everything down to ground level, and walls were being literally lifted away by this thing as we were working.
Oh, and did I mention the asbestos warning? Yeah.
Well, I'm working on throwing wood pieces out the window to the pile below, when I hear a woman going "Help help help help!" It was in this... I don't know, girly voice? So I didn't know whether to take it seriously or not. Next thing I know, Mike goes, "No one touch him!!" and in record time, he's down from the second floor, on ground level. I assume he used the stairs, but damn, that guy flew.
Turns out she had her finger caught in something as it was being lifted. That's the short story. But Mike was comforting her and making sure she was alright. I think she was more shaken up than anything, and was fine for the rest of the day, thank goodness. Good to know, though, that Mike cared so, so much for his employees.
And nothing horrendous happened for the rest of our time on the exposed second floor. xD Even on ground level where we pulled nails from ginormous beams of wood that we had to carry, everything went fine. Though, I did end up having to shove most of these pieces of wood onto the truck bed which was really awkward and difficult seeing as they were three times my height and heavy. But, it worked. I got muscles. biggrin
Now, the first awesome amazing part of the day was when we went to get food. We were asked to be part of a shoot, and figured hey, why not? We didn't know that it was for the bus to come up with Ashanti, and for TY PENNINGTON came out to greet her! I was two feet from Ty! biggrin He's just as handsome in real life and just as sweet. It took three takes, but here's what I look like if I'm in there when the show comes on in January:
Tall. Right in front of the bus doors. If you can see (because it was pulled back) long strawberry blonde hair. Bluish dust mask on my helmet for safe keeping, and goggles around my neck. Worst part of this was I had just come from that demolition site, so I may look like hell. xD
People were taking pictures with him, getting autographs, but I stayed put. I'm such an observer sometimes. xD Anyhow, we did that, and I got to see Ty and Ashanti. Good day, right?
We got food as originally planned, and heard that the bus was coming in front of the house, and knowing they were removing the floor section from that demo'd house, we had nothing to do. So, we went, and we stood. And we stood.
And we stood.
The bus finally came and parked. Now, what you may not know about all this reveal stuff is that they don't just have the family come in, say "move that bus!" and get their house.
First, they get the bus to sit in front. Then they get a couple shots of the crowd screaming and whatnot, also saying "move that bus!" The bus moves, but the family isn't there to see anything happen.
Security was getting pissed with us Helping Hands for apparently being too close to the house, though they never told us WHY they wanted us to move. They began threatening us with the idea of being thrown out of the reveal. :/ Please, I thought, you have people in this crowd who have been there every single damned day, who have not slept in a day or so, who have not eaten, some who have even passed out from exhaustion/no food/what have you, because their dedication was so great. Please try to remove us all.
Needless to say, we stayed.
Then the fake limo comes. All the while you have the camera crews going around, doing their thing. But yeah, fake limo comes, cheer, it drives away.
Now, with all this fake excitement going on for the sake of filming and being shoved in the back behind the bus and all its fumes (if facing the house, waaaay to the right), we didn't realize when the family had actually come until Ty said "MOVE THAAAAT BUS!" with a grand gesture. Only then did I realize that the people flipping out in front through the crowd were the Powells, and that they had just seen their dream home.
Kind of a bummer, right? xD But it didn't matter. They met David Homes, the design team, and the woman personally thanked the entire mass of us for what we did. I didn't cry (pretty sure Ashanti was, though) because I was just so damn tired and sore (standing for two and a half hours with steel inserts? yeah.) but what I did see was so touching and amazing.
Here's another thing you may not know: it takes many... takes.
They ran up to the door of their house, and stopped.
Then they went back down to the street, waited for the camera men to switch angles, and after a few agonizing minutes, finally got to run up to their new dream home. I could see them flip out once inside. The door was closed, and the family was safely tucked away.
Apparently Buffalo has made the record number of volunteers ever to sign up for Extreme Makeover. The number being thrown around is 5,000. Think about how massive that is: five thousand people. They actually started denying people entry into the site because it was becoming too crowded, which makes me feel even more honored to have participated in this event.
I may not have had direct influence on building their dream home, but I did help the community and get to see the people who make these dreams come true. And you know what? That's what it's about. Getting dirty, blowing grey dusty boogers hours after you come home, and being sore for the sake of someone else.
It feels good.
DevonyEvony Community Member 
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