Collegiate Times

Spring semester has begun. Football season is over. Tests are upon us. But the much anticipated episode of ABC?s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition featuring a Blacksburg resident, unfolds this Sunday and has created a great deal of excitement. A launch party is being held in celebration of the success of community teamwork and the changing of a woman?s life.

?This is by far the largest turnout we have ever had on Extreme Makeover,? said Denise Cramsey, HMO Co-Executive Producer of ?Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.? Cramsey was referring to the early morning march down Crawford-Smith?s street in Blacksburg Dec. 4, 2005 that jumped off the work.

ABC?s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition held their first ever home makeover at a college town this year, and it just so happened to be in the town of Blacksburg. Blacksburg came together as a community and will be given recognition this Sunday Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. when ABC airs a two-hour special of the successful house reconstruction for Blacksburg resident, Carol Crawford-Smith, who was afflicted with multiple sclerosis over five years ago, generating the need for the ?makeover.?

?My bedroom is my most favorite alteration to the new house. It has such a warm and calming feel to it, I love it,? said Crawford-Smith.

Not being able to reveal much else, Crawford-Smith is overwhelmingly filled with gratitude by how many people transformed ?this miracle? into a reality.

?I know the air party is being celebrated in honor of me, but I am one of so many (over 3,000 people) that made this possible, many of whom I did not even know,? Crawford-Smith said.

The launch party, hosted by Building Specialists and Virginia Tech, is in honor of Crawford-Smith and the faculty and staff from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies who led the design for Smith?s new home.

?The party celebrates all those who supported the project physically, financially, or even just in spirit,? said Heather Riley Crawford, College of Architecture and Urban Studies.

The party is open to the public and will kickoff with a dinner held in Owens Hall starting at 4 p.m. and ending at 7 p.m. A one-hour ?Local Behind-the-Scenes Extreme Documentary Screening? created by ABC?s local affiliate WSET will follow at 6 p.m. in Burruss Auditorium. The nationwide telecast of the episode will be shown at 7 p.m. also in Burruss. ?(The) documentary will reveal the entire build of the new house each day during the week of December 5, along with the big delays from snow and ice. We will have a ?behind the scenes? piece that will show what the ?Make Over? talents did off camera, and to report segments that the ?Make Over? show will not present,? Ishmael LaBiosa, reporter for WSET ABC 13 News, said

?So many people contributed to this great cause, and we are trying to localize the show as much as possible,? LaBiosa said.

Tickets are available for the public to purchase online at www.tickets.vt.edu or www.tickets.com, by phone at 800-843-0332, or in person at the UUSA Ticket Office on the first floor of Squires Student Center on the Virginia Tech campus.

Tickets that include both the dinner and screening portions are $20 for adults and $15 for students. Screening-only tickets (7-9 p.m.) are $5 for both adults and students. A portion of the proceeds will go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

$5 tickets will be available at the door.