I will be delivering concrete tonight and tomorrow night for this project. The company I work for, Raineri Ready-Mix has donated material, trucks and drivers. I may be discovered by the cameras!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - 11:33 AM CDT | Modified: Wednesday, September 3, 2008 - 5:36 PM
Shrewsbury family with special needs twins picked for ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
A Shrewsbury family with twins with special needs learned Wednesday that it will get a new handicap-accessible home through TV's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
Dawn and Emmanuel Martirez have a 7-year-old daughter, Elle, and twin 4-year-old boys with special needs, Alec and Evan.
Dawn Martirez was a pediatric cancer nurse who cared for terminally ill children but she had to quit working to care for her own children full-time. Evan has an extremely rare genetic condition called 9P minus, and Alec has another uncommon genetic disorder known as Crouzon Syndrome. The doctors warned of severe complications, but Dawn refused to terminate the pregnancy. Both twins suffer from skeletal abnormalities that require extensive corrective facial and cranial surgeries, with Evan having physical handicaps and mental retardation and Alec being profoundly hearing impaired.
As the boys get older, the home's cramped narrow hallways, steep stairs, crumbling driveway and single, handicapped inaccessible bathroom are posing great problems for them and slowing their development.
The family now travels to Disney World as the show’s designers and local contractors Callier Thompson Shea Construction and Design and Consolidated Construction Group Inc. get busy essentially building a whole new house on the same site.
“When we learned about the Martirez family and how Dawn has given so much to those in need, we knew our only choice was to say yes to the project,” said John Shea, president of Callier Thompson Shea, in a statement. “We are humbled and honored to build a home for the Martirez family that will make their life a little easier.”
The design team for this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature team leader Ty Pennington and designers Paige Hemmis, Ed Sanders, Eduardo Xol and John Littlefield.
In 2004, John Shea, known as Mr. Fix It on radio's 550 KTRS, joined with Callier & Thompson Kitchen and Baths and became president of Callier Thompson Shea Construction and Design.
St. Louis-based Consolidated Construction Group is a design-build remodeling firm.