ABC's Extreme Makeover coming to Lawton

[metro]

‘Extreme Makeover' picks Lawton family

By Ron Jackson
Staff Writer

LAWTON — Producers with ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and hundreds of friends and neighbors descended Thursday morning on the home of Peggy and Gene Westbrook with the surprise announcement that the family had been selected for an episode of the popular show.
Emotions ran high at the moment of surprise.

"I love this family so much,” said Linda Jefferson, a friend and local real estate owner. "This is like my second family ... and they've been through so much. When I saw Peggy, she just grabbed me and said, ‘I love you so much.'

"They really deserve this, and I think this will mean a lot to a lot of people.”

The "Extreme Makeover” show picks deserving families and builds them new homes.

"Each episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is self-contained,” according to the show's Web site, "and features a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take at least four months to achieve, involving a team of designers, contractors and several hundred workers who have just seven days to totally rebuild an entire house — every single room, plus the exterior and landscaping.”

Demolition of the Westbrook's west Lawton home will begin at noon Saturday, according to Barry Ezerski, a spokesman for local developer Ron Nance. The Lawton homebuilder has donated his resources to building the Westbrook's dream home.

By Wednesday, construction workers hope to turn the keys over to ABC.

The new home will then be revealed to the Westbrooks on Thursday night.

The show is scheduled to be televised April 8, Ezerski said.

The appearance of the ABC crew is the culmination of months of lobbying by thousands of supporters who were drawn to the Westbrook's story.

Gene Westbrook, formerly a sergeant in the U.S. Army, was wounded by an enemy mortar April 28, 2004, in a mess hall at an American base in Baghdad, Iraq. He had volunteered for the deployment in order to train Iraqi forces and escaped with a severed vertebra and nerve damage in his right hand.

The Westbrooks suffered another tragedy two years later when the family van careened off an oncoming car and flipped over a culvert into a ditch. Gene suffered a stroke, and his 9-year-old son James was paralyzed below the hip.

News of the family's hardships spread through Lawton, and last month, Jefferson spearheaded a campaign that gathered more than 26,000 names on a one-week petition drive.

"This is so awesome,” said Bilinda Stilley, a friend who waved an American flag for the cameras. "I can't believe we did it, but we did. I guess they had to listen.”

[OKCMann]

Wow, too bad they couldn't completely tear down and rebuild the whole city. Oh well!

More info here...
Home - Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Oklahoma

[Bobby H]

It's too bad lots of people have to keep up the stupid negativity against anything positive happening in Lawton.

The way the community has rallied around the Westbrook family, with local businesses in Lawton paying for the house (ABC doesn't foot the bill BTW) this should serve at least some clue to all the Lawton-bashers out there that this city isn't quite as bad as they all love to characterize it. The hundreds of people participating in this project around the clock are doing the Lawton Fort Sill community very proud.

[jbrown84]

I just hope they don't use this as another chance to make Oklahoma look rundown and hickish.

[OKCMann]

I think it is a wonderful thing that the citizens have done here and I applaud them! My opinion of the City of Lawton and the people are two different things. This is going off subject but I wanted to respond to Bobby's question. I don't think anyone outside of Lawton and many in Lawton would say it is a beautiful city. Heck I've spent quite a bit of time there myself. My last statement was more sarcastic than anything but still has some truth in it. Military towns like Lawton and Kileen really have no appeal to me. I really don't feel they have much to offer and Lawton is no different. the only reason I frequent this thread is because I spent time in Lawton. Lawton has a limited appeal but its just a military town. Again, my opinion...

[jbrown84]

No one is saying anything bad about the people of Lawton as they clearly have a compassionate, giving spirit. It simply is not an attractive town nor does the city proper have much to offer tourists, although the Wichitas nearby are great.

[Bobby H]

Here's the problem:

People make a city. Not buildings.

Unfortunately in Lawton's case, its image has too often been defined by blow-hard amateur politicians in the city council and city government. The city doesn't have a highly affluent level of median income. It doesn't have a giant-sized Division 1 NCAA football university. There's a lot of things Lawton probably isn't going to have for a long time, if ever. Even with that being the case, it doesn't tell the complete story about the city.

I have lived in cities of all sizes. My hometown is a little oil town in New Mexico of only 10,000 residents. I attended art school in New York City. The Marine Corps had me growing up in cities small, medium and large. Lawton is not the worst place I have ever lived. There are even certain things about Lawton which I prefer over New York City, the greatest city on the planet.

Basically, my point is the broad-stroke insults which simply say "Lawton sucks" are just useless. I have grown tired of that dismissive, narrow minded thinking in recent years and have even confronted friends and acquaintances living in Lawton over issuing the same insults. I demand they get specific with their complaints and if they are serious about those complaints they need to turn them into action -even if it's just writing a letter to their city councilman or congressman.

If they just want to sit back and write off the city as if it is just a worthless lost cause then they either need to shut up or move to another city or both. That flak isn't doing anyone in Lawton any good.

Pointless negativity is the worst enemy Lawton has been facing for many years. The negativity begats "can't do," "don't try" and "it'll never happen" attitudes. It gets in the way of giving progress any chance to occur. Lawton isn't going to improve by itself. People have to make it happen. Negativity from others too often gets in the way.

The negativity also often ignores progress already made. There's a lot of things that have been cleaned up just within the last 10 years. The city used to have lots of topless bars, massage parlors and all sorts of other seamy activity. Much of that has disappeared. Even 10 years ago, that whole "red light" scene was a mere shadow of just how nasty and dangerous Lawton was back in the early 1970s.

Lawton is slowly improving, but isn't going to turn into some world-class city overnight. I agree, there are definitely some things wrong with the town -especially from the cosmetic angle. But visitors can find nice things in the city if they bother to really look.

[bombermwc]

All I would say is that the reputation was earned. People didn't just start saying that they disliked Lawton. Crime rate is a major turn off to people as well as the floundering school district. The entire town feels like an urban environment in the middle of nowhere...and that's not a good thing. If you are someone that prefers Lawton, you are definitely in the minority. I'm glad you've got civic pride and I hope things do improve.

The first thing they need to do is figure out how to attract better jobs to the area so that they have residents that can afford to keep their homes up. So many neighborhoods in Lawton are in poor repair, which is the cosmetic side that people judge off of. I'm not saying they need new homes, they just need to keep the ones they have from looking like crap.

Every city has good and bad areas, but from the visitor's perspective, Lawton has a lot more bad than good. So you wanted some specifics, hows that?

[Deni]

LAWTON--The buzz about the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition shoot in Lawton was just too much to keep Representative Tom Cole and Governor Brad Henry away with the pair paying a visit to the site on Tuesday.

Representative Tom Cole came to the site this morning and was given a 20-minute tour of the inside of the Westbrook home.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Cole said. "It's like watching an ant hill in action."

Representative Cole also presented a special gift for the Westbrooks to Linda Jefferson of Adopt-A-Soldier after touring the home.

"This is a flag that flew over the Capitol of the United States of America," Rep. Cole told Jefferson. "Let them (the Westbrooks) know they never forgot their country and we are certainly never going to forget them."

Governor Brad Henry arrived on the site later in the afternoon, also taking a 20-minute tour of the home. Governor Henry said seeing the community come together for a family in need was an emotional experience. At times, the governor said he choked back tears.

This family deserves this and for Lawton residents to pay for this experience for this family says alot.. Now there is a dentist donating his services to the whole family... That makes me proud to say I am an OKIE!!!!! I am so so so happy for this family... GO Oklahoma !! Oklahoma spirt never dies....Born and Bred an OKIE and damn proud of it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Deni]

This is the type of people that make me proud to be from Ok.... I called the dentist and told them from the heart of an OKIE I am so proud of him and what a wonderful gift he gave someone... This dentist deserves lots of applause.....





Lawton builders, merchants, workers, volunteers all have made the extreme makeover of the Westbrook home happen. Now there's a makeover of another kind in the works and this one will put smiles on the entire Westbrook family. Dentist Dr. Juan Lopez is bringing the entire family in, all of 5 of them for exams, cleanings, anything that needs to be done.

[Bobby H]

All I would say is that the reputation was earned. People didn't just start saying that they disliked Lawton.

Earned reputation? As I stated earlier, Lawton has improved a great deal over the years. However, a lot of people are just too stubborn to acknowledge any of it. They feel better when they can dump on something. Many are too lazy to look a little further.

There are others who have their own agendas on promoting the negativity. Some shady businesses like to hold on to the negativity to justify poor work or unethical practices, simply responding, "this is just Lawton," when they do it. Lawton sure isn't going to get any kind words from people in Oklahoma City, Norman, Tulsa and other areas because they are all in competition for state resources. Often Lawton gets wrongfully cut out of what it is entitled to receive. I think its disgusting how Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University carved many tens of millions of dollars out of the state budget, and whined about how they needed double what they got. Meanwhile Cameron University practically got nothing. All of the expansion happening on Cameron University's campus is by way of what people in Lawton did themselves. They sure didn't get any help from anywhere else in the state to make it happen!

Crime rate is a major turn off to people as well as the floundering school district.

The crime rate is not nearly as bad any so many characterize it. Lawton is below national per-capita averages in violent crime. Many smaller, more rural towns are actually a lot more dangerous than Lawton in that respect. I'll also repeat Lawton is way below its all time highs of murder rates, robberies, rapes and assaults -most of which peaked in the early 1970s, at a time when a lot of older folks claim Lawton and its downtown was so much better. The actual truth is a bit different.

On the "floundering school district" thing, that is more a statement of opinion than of reality. Lawton does as well as it can with what limited funding it gets. Lawton's residents approved the CIP effort to build the new Central Junior High, SE Water Treatment plant and other things people not from Lawton won't ever notice. Residents are fighting to get the rest of the funding originally promised to finish the restoration of the old Central Junior High building, which will become a new community center and City Hall.

The first thing they need to do is figure out how to attract better jobs to the area so that they have residents that can afford to keep their homes up. So many neighborhoods in Lawton are in poor repair, which is the cosmetic side that people judge off of. I'm not saying they need new homes, they just need to keep the ones they have from looking like crap.

Lawton has quite a few attractive areas with really nice homes. The trouble is those neighborhoods are nowhere near I-44. Most people not from Lawton never see those areas. They only see the areas near the interstate when they're passing through (and that's only if they even bother to visit in the first place).

The cost of building new homes or even simply improving existing homes is pretty extreme right now. The cost spikes haven't been nearly as bad as the perverse insanity that has happened along coastal areas of the United States, but nevertheless a lot of housing is pretty expensive.

The effects of Fort Sill's BRAC expansion will help things though. Lawton is due to gain 15,000 to 25,000 more residents over the next few years from that expansion. Defense technology companies that left the area long ago are coming back and bringing high skilled jobs with them. This is the catalyst that justifies the 2nd Street/Downtown redevelopment project, which is slowly moving forward.

The worst cosmetic problem is the blight Lawton cannot control. Tribe-owned land along I-44 features some of the worst looking sights in the area. The cluttered parades of billboards north and south of town are on tribe-owned land. There's a lot of run down property next to downtown Lawton and I-44 that is all tribe-owned.

Every city has good and bad areas, but from the visitor's perspective, Lawton has a lot more bad than good. So you wanted some specifics, hows that?

They aren't truly very specific and, worse, offer no solutions.

I'll contend many areas in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Edmond aren't really that much visually different from the unattractive areas in Lawton.

Take a drive up Broadway Extension in Edmond. The only good looking store fronts are those of national retailers and chain restaurants. Many of the local businesses look just as bad as any I see in Lawton. On top of that their signs lots of squished font-murdered type. I observe the same graphical abominations when driving along Northwest Expressway in OKC. Frankly, that sort of thing is pretty common nationwide. The trouble is a lot of people have an unreasonable prejudice against Lawton and just gravitate to the blight angle as a means to rationalize that prejudice.

[jbrown84]

Meanwhile Cameron University practically got nothing. All of the expansion happening on Cameron University's campus is by way of what people in Lawton did themselves. They sure didn't get any help from anywhere else in the state to make it happen!

If you think Cameron is anywhere near the third most significant state school, your delusional.

[brianinok]

I think its disgusting how Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University carved many tens of millions of dollars out of the state budget, and whined about how they needed double what they got.

Cameron and the University of Oklahoma are run by the same regents. Except for the name, Cameron is essentially the University of Oklahoma at Lawton. I will agree that all those years (until very recently) when the state helped fund OSU's athletics programs year-to-year was a travesty. If a major university can't fund its own athletics programs, it sure shouldn't be bailed out by education funds from the state. Where was T. Boone then?

[Deni]

I just want to take up for Lawton a bit.. I visit there quite often there are a few places to see that are wonderful and beautiful.. Get off the highway and drive around.. We attended a church seminar a few years ago there and that was awesome..

We love to go to Medicine Park so while we are there eating great steaks I will go to the little boutiques in Lawton and pick up lots of little trinklets.. We also have had bad experiences in Lawton.. I did foster care for Oklahoma and alot of my children came from lawton from the military men getting young girls pregnant then leaving them.. Well some how that has slowed way down, I am not sure if the military has done anything, but the rates are slowing down ..

Lawton has gotten a bad reputation, but look at lawton then campare it to anadarko or chickasha with the crime rates and drugs.. Chickasha is smaller than lawton, but has more crime and drugs ...

[Bobby H]

If you think Cameron is anywhere near the third most significant state school, your delusional.

Exactly where did I say Cameron was the state's 3rd most important college?

Nevertheless, Cameron has several thousand full time undergraduate students on a pretty large campus. It is a sister university with OU. All of OU's scientific data is backed up at the CETES building on Cameron's campus. It is definitely a large enough college in the state university system to justify getting at least a few million dollars per year of state funding compared to the many millions of dollars OU and OSU get. Cameron doesn't get squat. It got a big fat goose egg for funding last year. IMHO, others around the state find it easy to deny resources from Cameron by using the "Lawton sucks" attitude. Very few people are willing to call them on that B.S. I think it is high time for many others to start doing so.

[jbrown84]

Or perhaps no money goes to any of the smaller state schools. I'm sure NSU, ECU, SWOSU, etc are in the same situation.

It's great to stick up for Lawton but you have to admit that the stigma didn't come from nowhere.

[Bobby H]

The stigma doesn't come from nowhere. However, a lot of the people holding onto it with a death grip have no clue when to start letting go of it. Such is the case with all forms of prejudice.

[justluvithere]

Just so everyone is informed. Extreme Makeover is really about EXTREME BENDOVER! Here's what happens...you petition for a Makeover for a very deserving family, ABC reviews your "application" and calls you. They ask all sorts of questions about the family, their status, the community and what type of support the community will give. That is real important because what ABC doesn't tell you is that they expect the COMMUNITY to pay for the majority of the build...Then they tell you that if the community isn't 100% behind the project, ABC will not come....Then the team (and by team, I mean the real people behind the scenes that are getting the DONATIONS together) gets to work. In the Lawton case, almost EVERYTHING was donated. ABC spent VERY LITTLE MONEY - if any at all. A local builder donated his time and construction team and landscaping team. The brick, concrete, flooring, tiles, roofing, landscaping, everything RIGHT DOWN TO THE FLAGPOLE was donated to the Westbrook build. Even when they needed more mexican tile from the tile store (after $20,000 worth had already been donated) ABC asked for more! ABC told all the companies that donated goods and services that there would be a limited amount of time that the company logos would be shown...and they were right. During part of the filming, the covered up signage at the build site because they were "overexposed". When you watch the shouw, you get the feeling that Ty Pennington, his crew and ABC are doing all this work...in real life, the community does it all....And by the way Ty and his team acted like they were rockstars while they were in Lawton. So ber sure to watch on April 15....as ABC rolls in to Lawton all charitable....and films Lawton and Fort Sill building a house for one of their own. (By the way, the Adopt-A-Soldier program spear headed this build and had said that even if ABC didn't come, it would have been build anyway because so much of the project was already underway. One last note - most of the people who spent time volunteering at the site that I have talked to will tell you - ABC gets the community to do all the work, and then ABC makes all the money of advertising revenue for the show!

[Bobby H]

ABC spent VERY LITTLE MONEY - if any at all.

How much do you think it costs to produce one episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? Do you think Lock and Key Productions was able to hire all of their talent and crew for free? Did they get all that video production equipment, all the trucks and other gear for free either?

I was pretty involved in the Westbrook Family project. Yes, local businesses ponied up the money for materials and labor on this project. Some spent a huge amount on it. Ron Nance spent more than $50,000 on the deal. So did McCoy's Lumber. The truth is many of those companies already had a plan together to build the Westbrooks a new home regardless of whether Lock & Key Productions chose to be a part of the project or not. The house may not have been as ambitious in design, but something was still going to get done.

It costs A LOT OF MONEY to produce an episode of any nationally televised TV show, especially something like Extreme Makeover Home Edition, which has to be produced all on location and in more than one location. They're shooting the progress of the house build and also have to shoot where the family is vacationing. Lock & Key's costs on that episode are easily more than what that house cost. If Lock and Key Productions had to pay for all their own video production costs and all the costs of building the home then you would have no Extreme Makeover Home Edition TV series at all.

It's also not like the local builders are going to go without any benefit of having participated in this project. Many are going to get highly valuable (and very positive) publicity on national TV.

Whether someone out in Hollywood makes any money off the televised airing of this project or not makes no difference to me. I'm still very glad Extreme Makeover chose to come to Lawton. It is far better for that project and the issue of wounded veterans to get a lot of national publicity.

[jbrown84]

Well I think her/his point was that ABC leads the viewers to believe they have done all this work and payed for it, when that's not at all the case.

And the cost to produce one episode of a reality show is miniscule compared to the ad revenue they get from the show.

[Karried]

I imagine it is frustrating to have the show try to take credit for everything.. although I see a lot of sponsors shown throughout the show.

But, if they hadn't done the show, these people would not have had a house for months/years to come.. this sped up the process, gave publicity to the donators and got the job organized and finished in a week.. no small feat.

How long ago was the accident? Long enough ago that if a needed house was to be built, it should have already been done if they were serious about helping this family out. Bottom line, the exposure of Extreme Makeover brought out droves of volunteers, people wanting to help and be a part of it.

I'm sorry to hear the actors acted like divas. That's not the image I get while watching the show, but I guess that's all for show, unfortunately.

I guess I don't really care about who gets credit for doing what. We will get a lot of exposure ( hopefully positive showing communty spirit).

At the end of the day, a deserving family got a new home - handicap accessible for the child and father.

[Bobby H]

Well I think her/his point was that ABC leads the viewers to believe they have done all this work and payed for it, when that's not at all the case.

Actually, one problem is most viewers just assume ABC or Lock & Key Productions is paying for the house -just like many assume it costs nothing at all to produce a network TV show.

On the subject of ad revenue, ABC television gets most of it -and they do nothing to fund the production of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Lock & Key Productions has to fund all of it. ABC simply buys the rights to air in return for a cut of that ad revenue.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition could probably do more to give credit to those companies who donated product during the show, but then a bunch of the air time would be used up on that whole credit run of naming names. That's not the point of the show and not what viewers want to see. They're more interested in seeing how the lives of families, such as the Westbrooks, have been improved.

There's a decent website "www.extremeok.com" dedicated to the Westbrook family project. You can find a list of all the donor companies there. Companies like Ron Nance's The Oaks, McCoys and a few others who donated heavily will get a good amount of national airtime. If they bought a 15 or 30 second spot on ABC during prime time that would cost a lot more than what they had to donate into the project.

It is true a number of people in Lawton already had started working up a game plan to build the Westbrooks a new home. Members of the 119th Field Artillery aboard Fort Sill (Gene Westbrook's unit), Ron Nance and several members of Great Plains AMBUCS began the process and were already enlisting various businesses and other groups to help build the Westbrooks a new home regardless of any potential national coverage of it. The project was going to happen anyway. One of the commanders in the 119th filled out the Extreme Makeover submission form and sent it in. It was around that time Janet Brady and Adopt A Soldier Now.org got involved. Their video about the Westbrooks was sent in as part of the submission. Things were looking a bit iffy for Extreme Makeover last fall, and that's when the idea of the petition was floated. Around 27,000 signatures were collected. That did the trick.

On the topic of cast members acting like "rock stars," I didn't get that vibe in my encounters with them, and I have met some stuck up celebrities before. In their defense they don't have time to walk up and down the spectator areas signing autographs for hundreds of onlookers. They were typically very busy. Add to that the issue all of the crew and cast members must hustle from one build site to another and live out of hotel rooms and trailers for several months straight to produce a season's worth of shows. That sort of thing will wear on anybody. So if you're at a concert or some other event where a famous person just passes by when you stick a piece of paper or some other object for them to sign, try thinking about it from that person's perspective before writing him off as a stuck up jerk.

[jbrown84]

I can understand your defense of Lawton, but why so defensive about Lock & Key Productions and ABC?

[justluvithere]

[QUOTE=Bobby H;86176] Members of the 119th Field Artillery aboard Fort Sill (Gene Westbrook's unit), Ron Nance and several members of Great Plains AMBUCS began the process and were already enlisting various businesses and other groups to help build the Westbrooks a new home regardless of any potential national coverage of it.
QUOTE]

The unit is actually 1-19th (1st Battalion 19th Field Artillery).

My issue is that the show does not accurately portray the project when in reality (in the Lawton case) it was the volunteers, countless businesses and unknown donors. Emails were sent to all Lawton Chamber members asking for donations and volunteers. Flyyers were sent to businesses in the mall asking for people to donate money to the project. They even took up a collection from the mall employees. I realize not everyone can be recognized.....I just think it will be interesting to watch to see what is shown as opposed to what actually took place...ah the Hollywood version of a "reality show".

[jbrown84]

Yes, it will be the Hollywood version of reality. They won't show the local volunteers, or the flyers being handed out, or money being collected.

Sure the local businesses will get their logos flashed on the screen for 10 seconds, but it's not like then need national advertising.