We mentioned in our last entry that Excel has been given the great honor of being asked to partner with the Maryland Community Builders Foundation and provide a home for use on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tomorrow we’ll be attending a pep rally designed to spread the word and recruit volunteers for the main event. It should be a lot of fun, but it’s also a very important event because all of the labor used on the show must come from volunteers and the supplies must be donated.

The rally will provide those interested in volunteering, donating and/or sponsoring with an opportunity to learn how they can help. The team will review specifics for the weeklong build, as  well as answer any questions volunteers and potential volunteers may have. Speaking of
volunteers and donations, here’s a run down of what’s needed:

• HOUSE CONSTRUCTION: Our immediate needs are labor and materials for framing, lumber, brick masons and trim carpentry.
• VOLUNTEERS: Primary areas of volunteers needed include general labor, food servers and clean-up workers. Volunteers in skilled trades, including finish carpenters, painters, plumbers and other trade workers are also needed.
• DONATIONS: Donations to help feed and hydrate the people working 24/7 for a week are both welcome and major assistance for a successful build as well. All types of food, meals, snacks, bottled beverages and coffee are welcome. We also welcome donations to help us pay for material that we need to purchase. For a full list of donation needs, please visit baltimoreextrememakeover.com.

The rally will be held tomorrow (Thursday) from 8-10 a.m. at the Grace Fellowship Church at 9505 Deereco Road in Timonium, Maryland. We hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it and you’re interested in volunteering or donating can visit baltimoreextrememakeover.com for more information.

Check back here tomorrow or Friday for a post-rally update and photos.

As a manufacturer of custom modular homes, Excel takes its responsibility to give back to the community very seriously. Shelter is, after all, one of the foundations of life and when you build shelters for a living, you can’t help but want to build them for the people who need them – or deserve them – the most.

That’s why Excel is extremely excited to announce that we have been asked to provide a home for one very deserving recipient on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” We’re sworn to secrecy regarding specific details of the home and the recipient (several families are being considered), but we can tell you that the project is taking place in the Baltimore area from July 10-16, and the episode will air on ABC in the fall (Sundays at 8 pm/7 pm Central).

We should take some time to recognize our very important project partners – the Maryland Community Builders Foundation (the charitable arm of the Home Builders Association of Maryland) and Artisan Fine Homes (the local builder and Excel Homes partner who will be helping to complete the project).

The modules for the home will be built in Excel’s manufacturing plant in Avis, PA. We recently reopened the Avis plant and hired more than 100 team members to staff it, which makes this project a nice way to get the plant firing on all cylinders again. Excel will then deliver the modules to the site and supervise the assembly while Ty Pennington and the “Extreme Makeover” team work feverishly to complete and customize the home.

It’s not the first time “Extreme Makeover” has used modular construction to make a family’s dreams come true. They used modular homes last season, and because the modular method fits so well with their hectic construction schedule, they decided to call on modular construction once again. There’s no doubt that modular construction is quicker, but the best part is that it frees up more time for the “Extreme Makeover” team to work its magic with some custom features.

Stay tuned for updates – we’ll have lots of them throughout the summer.