What Extreme Makeover Home Edition should teach us

So this week Extreme Makeover Home Edition descended on my hometown to help out a family. Now before I get too far let me just say that I like Extreme Makeover Home Edition and I have always enjoyed following Ty Pennington. I think what they do for families in need is a much needed role model for the rest of us. They show us what some friendly help can do for a family in need. Of course they take to an extreme level but still they do a lot of good. What’s really cool about having this happening in our area is that our great local companies like Lexington Homes and Faith Technologies get some much deserved credit for the resources they put into the community and we’re not just talking about this particular home. Being community members we know that local companies do a great job supporting local efforts. My hope is that people that watch the show will strongly consider these companies for future work. As a fair disclaimer I do have a really good friend and his wife that work for Faith Technologies.

Though as I think about this having Extreme Makeover Home Edition in my hometown I can’t help but feel embarrassed that someone in my town needed this type of boost.

You see Neenah Wisconsin is a great town along the shore of Lake Winnebago only 45 minutes south of Green Bay and two hours north of Milwaukee. I grew up here and while I never expected to move back here after graduation, here i am raising a family in the same place I was raised. It’s has always been a supportive community with good schools, great community feel and people willing to help others. My mother growing up did programs like Meals-on-Wheels delivering food to the elderly and homebound. She was a part of the Emergency Society a group who sponsored Meals-on-Wheels and helps people in need in the area. My sister now currently works with them and it is truly admirable for them to dedicate their time in this way. After hurricane Katrina the local Presbyterian church sent waves of groups to Mississippi to help with the clean up and building efforts. The first group went down within 24 hours of the hurricane’s passing. They also sent people to the Dakotas after their flooding. We take up collections, hold benefits and use our sweat to help others.

You see my community helps, cares and does stuff so why on earth does Extreme Makeover Home Edition need to be here for one of our families? Well maybe it is because our town is not as perfect as we think it is.

I found out more about the family that was selected for the makeover. The father does music education in local Catholic schools. My nephew was part of school music concert in which he helped put on. Wait back-up, he works with some of the most well-off children in the area that attend private schools? He works in the Catholic school system that prides itself on higher moral standing yet here was someone among them in need of assistance? Wow, that is surprising to me. Now to be honest I do not know for certain if this family had any other type of help from the Catholic church. I assume not, considering they were selected for this makeover. Of course the Catholic churches in the area do take up collections to support mission work in foreign countries. Maybe they could have done a collection for one of their own struggling. Maybe they tried but it wasn’t enough. Maybe they could have organized a crew to help fix up the house(if that was possible). I have a friend less than two blocks away that is more than capable of helping out. The Presbyterians put up several homes after Katrina, they are more then capable of helping out. However in the end it took Extreme Makeover Home Edition to recognize this family in need and they choose to lend a helping hand. Embarrassing that our community dropped the ball for this particular family.

My friend, @tommytrc commented to me about some of the negative comments being made to the online forums for the area newspaper the Post Crescent. The Post Crescent only hosts the forums and the opinions are not those of the paper. The comments I read were pathetic and cruel. Some there criticized the family for being uneducated, too large and non-americans. Boy last I checked it wasn’t against the law to not have a formal education or have children and unless your name was on the Mayflower manifest aren’t we all immigrants to this country at some point. Others criticized Extreme Makeover Home Edition for giving to an undeserving family or giving them something they can’t afford. Sounded to me like jealousy. Sounded a lot like sour grapes. Some of it sounded outright hateful and racist but mostly it was disappointing to see. Disappointing to know that our community harbors hatred of that kind so close to the surface of a “nice” community.

So what are we left with?

Are we maybe not as caring as we all thought we were?

Are there just too many people in need of help falling though the cracks unnoticed?

Do we just not care about our neighbors anymore?

Are we so wrapped in whatever to notice outside our blinder view of our world?

I’m not sure.

It seems to me is that as a society we have become militant about beliefs and somehow that has affected our ability to rationalize right and wrong. We’ve become militant about our political views, militant about our world view and militant about our human views to the point where our point of view is the only accepted one. This leads me to think that most of us can rationalize a family in need as someone else’s problem or the fault of someone else.

What we have lost is understanding what it means to be human. What it means to feel empathy and what it means to offer a hand to those who need it. I’m not saying that we all should pick up a hammer and start busting down doors but how about we start noticing the community around us that needs help. We can start by supporting those trying to make difference in our community. It’s not just supporting with money we know that we can’t all give but we can offer our time in volunteering to help these groups fulfill their missions or offer donations of clothing and supplies. People such as: Habitat for humanity, Neenah Menasha Emergency Society, United Way Fox Cities Inc, St Vincent de Paul Council of Neenah Menasha Inc, St Joseph Food Program Inc, Neenah Menasha Emergency Society Inc, Community Clothes Closet Inc, Arc Fox Cities Inc

Listen none of these programs can do it all on their own. In fact by believing that, we are only putting the blinders back on and pretending the rest doesn’t matter. It does matter and we need to understand that. The next time I watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition I want to see them helping a family in part of the country where there maybe there isn’t as great of a community as I know we could have here.

Update: Knew people would offer up more groups in our community.

Rebuilding Together of the Fox Valley –Thanks to Nikki Voelzke