Extremely noble deeds
Dozens of volunteers from Hernando County are helping to build a home for a Seminole family in seven days.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published March 12, 2005
For viewers of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the only interruptions they have to live with are the television commercials.
But for local work crews donating their services on a 5,000-square-foot house in Seminole as part of the weeklong production for the popular ABC-TV reality series, interruptions are just part of the script.
Hernando County Roof Cleaning and Custom Coatings of Spring Hill, owned by brothers John and Tom Campbell, took on the jo b of painting the house being built for the James Dolan family of Seminole.
Suncoast Water Gardens and Sundaze Home & Garden Accessories, both of Spring Hill, donated materials and installations for the home's landscape.
The Dolan family was tapped by the network after James Dolan, 30, was blinded in November in a shooting during an attempted robbery at a St. Petersburg RadioShack, where he was employed.
The new three-bedroom, three-bath house in Seminole will include special features - a "smart house" - to accommodate Dolan's blindness and lots of space for him, his wife, Chrissy, and their three children, ages 12, 6 and 3.
For the painting crews, the schedule has been bumpy. They were originally scheduled to pop their paint can lids 5 a.m. Friday. But Wednesday afternoon, John Campbell got a call that the time frame was being moved up. Could he rally his team for midnight Thursday?
So at 7 a.m. Thursday, about 20 Hernando painters loaded their brushes for trim painting. Then came the inevitable delays at the site. Two subsequent calls from the production crew, the last at 2:30 a.m., recommending that they arrive later. Then, it was a scramble to hurry up and wait.
"We had to regroup. We got here at 7 a.m.," John Campbell said. Because of the schedule changes, 18 to 20 of the firm's painters were able to make it to the project. Originally, all 25 of the company's employees were supposed to take part.
At noon Thursday, the painters were in a holding pattern, waiting for doors to be hung and caulked. When the painters were given the go-ahead, Campbell expected his group would cover the walls in four hours.
While the painters were expected to paint in a hurry, their work took care and skill.
"It's multicolor," Campbell said. "It's not just white."
And the construction niceties included crown moldings and tray ceilings, "details that involve more work," he added.
The Campbells were asked to participate by Craig Gallagher, president of Lexington Homes, the lead builder on the project. John Campbell is Gallagher's brother-in-law.
While the Campbells are donating their firm's services, they are paying wages to the painters out of their own pockets, about $8,000, John Campbell estimated.
"My brother and I were brought up the right way," he said. "We try to do something nice for somebody every day."
Porter Paints of Brooksville donated 130 gallons of paint, estimated at $3,000 to $4,000, said store manager David Jones.
Porter Paints' territory sales manager James Ledsome said he learned of the philanthropic project from Lexington Homes, which is one of his accounts.
"(Corporate) allows us to do things like this if it's for a good cause," said Ledsome of PPG Industries, which owns Porter Paints stores.
John Campbell acknowledged the brothers' firm is going to get national publicity from the TV program. But he was more excited about the challenge of painting such a large house in a short time.
"It's going to be a circus," he said earlier this week.
He was right.
As the painters were scheduled to finish their work Friday, Sun Coast Water Gardens of Spring Hill workers were scheduled to begin digging to install small reflection pools - on each side of the house's front door and in the back yard.
Like the painters, landscapers had to cope with delays. When reached Friday afternoon, an employee for Sun Coast Water Gardens said the crew was temporarily delayed by pavers but was expected to complete the landscaping task by the end of the workday.
Sundaze Home & Gardening Accessories of Spring Hill supplied Oriental fountain jars for the pools, while Sun Coast Water Gardens was to install the hookups. Both firms are donating their materials and labor.
"Each feature (of three) is maybe worth more than $1,000 to $1,300," estimated John Ohling of Sun Coast Water Gardens. He wanted to volunteer his services and material after he heard of James Dolan's story.
"It's more the guy," Ohling said. "Some guy shoots him and he has a wife and kids. That's why."
Beth Gray can be reached at graybethn@earthlink.net