'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition': Builders, volunteers swarm Frisch home

Don Hummer of Corrigan Moving Systems prepares a clock to be moved into storage before demolition begins.

The Blade/Amy E. Voigt
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Braveheart Parade Extreme Makeover Volunteers and contractors parade before the West Toledo home is taken down.
VIDEO: Toledo Takedown Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
PHOTOS: DAY 2 Extreme Makeover in Toledo " rel="storyimage1" title="Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition-Builders-volunteers-swarm-Frisch-home.jpg"/>
Libbey Glass employees Willie Rivers, left, Karl Pendleton, center left, and Diana Skiles, right, deliver boxes filled with glassware to TV show employee Lynda Kalucki, in hat, in preparation for the home makeover. (BLADE PHOTOS/AMY E. VOIGT) <BR> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/video.gif> <b><font color=red>VIDEO</b></font color=red>: <a href=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpYD--rFz4Y" target="_blank "><b>Braveheart Parade Extreme Makeover</b></a> Volunteers and contractors parade before the West Toledo home is taken down. <BR> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/video.gif> <b><font color=red>VIDEO</b></font color=red>: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/G6-JbUgeye4" target="_blank "><b>Toledo Takedown Extreme Makeover: Home Edition</b></a> <br> <img src=http://www.toledoblade.com/graphics/icons/photo.gif> <font color=red><b>PHOTOS</font color=red></b>: <a href=" /apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=TO&Dato=20080909&Kategori=NEWS16&Lopenr=909009997&Ref=PH" target="_blank "><b> DAY 2 Extreme Makeover in Toledo</b></a>

On a small cul-de-sac with a total of 26 kids in five houses, school-year Monday mornings bring a welcome stillness after a raucous weekend of street games.

That quiet morning never came yesterday on Edgedale Circle, where preparations for the local Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build at 6044 Edgedale got under way early, loudly, and in earnest.

No one seemed to mind.

I m so thrilled and excited. Who knew something like this would happen in our little West Toledo neighborhood? marveled Renee Lutz of 6027 Edgedale.

The Lutzes front yard will become a spectator area; a camera for time-lapse photography has been mounted on their garage roof.

We just feel blessed to be a part of it all. We all do all of us neighbors do, Mrs. Lutz said.

With the Extreme Makeover family Aaron and Jackie Frisch and their 11 sons sent off to Disney World for a week, big-hearted strangers with bags and boxes and measuring tapes and heavy equipment swarmed through their house and yard.

Don Flenner president of Hallmark Homes of Holland, Ohio, but volunteering this week as a project manager for Buckeye Real Estate Group supervised as sewer, water, and electrical lines were located and disconnected. The hydrant and light pole were removed. A wooden arc-shaped play structure was taken off the front yard.

Don Hummer of Corrigan Moving Systems prepares a clock to be moved into storage before demolition begins.

A crew from Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network of metro Detroit filled 70 bags with clothing, shoes, belts, and bedding and carried them away. When the family comes back on Sunday, everything will be clean and folded or hanging in a closet, said Jeff Schultz, company vice president.

The Frisches probably will have some sorting out to do, he noted. The company does a room-by-room inventory during packing, but the 11 children slept in three bedrooms, so it won t be easy to figure out whose jeans are whose.

By about 10:30 a.m., Corrigan Moving Systems of Toledo had backed two vans up the driveway to load the contents of the house and garage. Everything was to be taken to a warehouse to be held in case the Frisches want to retrieve anything for the new house, said Bill Axel, general manager.

Nearby, cameras and microwave antennas were being positioned on neighbors roofs, and yet more RVs arrived for the show s crew of 80 people to use for meetings, office space, and relaxation during the week.

Klumm Bros. excavating contractors began preparing for today s demolition. The Braveheart march to the house by the builder and skilled and unskilled volunteers is scheduled from 9 to 10 a.m., with speeches at 10:30 a.m. and demolition starting at 11. Plans call for Toledo firefighters to be involved in the demolition, in recognition of Mr. Frisch s job as a firefighter and paramedic.

The site will be open to the public through the day. Spectators are required to wear closed-toe shoes and must park at Banner Mattress, 2521 West Alexis Rd. Shuttles will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

We will have four excavators on site, one at each corner of the house, said Bob Klumm, president of Klumm Bros. We will smash the house with the excavators, and the grapplers will pick up the debris.

Once everything is cleared away, they ll start digging a full basement. The existing house is on a slab.

Down the street and around a bend, food service coordinator Lynda Kalucki awaited deliveries yesterday morning of ice, tubs, coolers, coffee makers, and other supplies. She and a small troupe she calls my cafeteria ladies were to set up food stations in five areas, some in neighbors yards and some off-site at places such as the construction staging lot on Alexis at Atwell Road.

About 300 to 350 volunteers will support the food service operation, she said, including two plum jobs right at the building site. They ll wear ballpark concessionaires aprons filled with sunscreen, bandages, antacids, ibuprofen, and other necessities for the construction workers.

Mrs. Kalucki said she s had more offers for food than can be used. She s encouraging those callers to instead make a donation to a local soup kitchen. Do it in the name of the project, she said.

Here s another way to help, inspired by the Frisch family s adoption of five boys from Haiti and the recent deadly storms that have hit the impoverished nation.

We want every spectator who comes to the site [today] and Wednesday to bring an item of new or slightly used clothing, canned goods, toiletries, or school supplies, said Diane Kor man, Extreme Makeover senior producer.

The collection will be shipped Thursday to Florida, where the Frisch family will present it to a charity called Hope for Haiti.

If everyone who comes brings one item, think of the impact Toledo can make on Haiti, Ms. Korman said. Let s make a difference for more than one family.

Not all of the people who were in and around the Frisch family home yesterday were strangers.

Into the buzz wandered Mr. Frisch s parents, Judy and Jerry Frisch of Canton. They had arrived in Toledo Sunday night and tried to attend the benefit concert at Centennial Terrace, but they were told the event was sold out and were turned away.

Concert proceeds are intend ed to help the family pay expenses related to the new, much larger home, Judy Frisch said she nominated her son s family on the Extreme Makeover Web site in January, then called her son to urge him to send an e-mail, too.

Are you at home? she asked when he answered his cell phone. No, he was on a treadmill at the Y.

Can you get an e-mail off [to the show] by midnight? she asked. It wouldn t hurt.

She said he told her later that he did send an e-mail application, but that he might have missed the deadline by a few minutes.

Months later, Aaron Frisch learned that the family was in the top 300, and then in the final 30.

Judy inadvertently found out they were in the running and they swore her to secrecy, and she immediately told me, Jerry Frisch said.

Contact Ann Weber at:aweber@theblade.comor 419-724-6126.