Every Saturday and Sunday morning, I find myself watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I know that the show has been on for years, but I had never sat and watched some episodes until it joined the weekend lineup on TV Land.

For those who have been under a rock, the show always involves some family with a hard luck story and a house that is falling apart. This past Sunday, there was a family on the show with a dad who had been working as a correctional officer at a jail where once he’d been an inmate. This man, who had taken a bad turn as a youth, had changed life, and now he spent his days trying to encourage other incarcerated young men to do the same thing. At the same time, he was raising a family of seven in a house that was falling apart, literally.

Well, as it happens on every episode, Ty Pennington and the whole Extreme Makeover Home Edition Crew woke them up one morning to announce that their family had been chosen for a makeover. In addition, the family also got a week -ong vacation to Disney World.

Like every episode, the family leaves for the week while the crew takes down their old house and puts up a new one. In the background, you always get the image of an entire town of people coming together to see the house being built for this family.

Before the end of every episode, the family always ends up in tears as their new home is revealed. I always end up in tears too.

Now, I have a nice home, and I don’t need Ty Pennington to come in and help me, but I know of a lot of good families who are deserving of a home makeover. Can you imagine the difference that would be made if he could come in and help some family in Sampson County?

It may not be realistic to expect Ty Pennington to come in and help a local family, but the show does put a smile on the faces of many viewers, and the families get a better place to call home. It certainly puts a smile on my face, even if I didn’t start watching it until now.

Katie Holland can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 136 or silife@heartlandpublications.com.