Published: May 17, 2009 12:26 am      

Pioneer alum involved in ‘Extreme Makeover’

Indianapolis family is recipient of show’s help.

Along with celebrity host Ty Pennington, viewers of tonight’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” season finale may catch a glimpse of a former Pioneer High School student.

April Sjoholm, who graduated in Pioneer’s class of 1994 and whose family still lives in Royal Center, works for The Estridge Companies, the Carmel firm hired by the show’s producers Lock and Key to design and build a new home for the McFarlands, a single Indianapolis father and his three sons.

Sjoholm helped pack the McFarland family up and move them out of their home, in the Martindale-Brightwell neighborhood, a low-income area, before the building effort began.

Sjoholm was also responsible for transportation of VIPs and volunteers from the staging area to the home during the week-long build.

“It was a real eye-opening experience,” Sjoholm said. “The family is a single dad and three teenage boys who all lived in one bedroom. It was a very small bedroom, too.”

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” now in its sixth season, is a reality show that every week surprises a family suffering from a recent or ongoing hardship by building a new home in seven days. The Emmy Award-winning show relies on local construction companies and labor from volunteers to complete the work on deadline.

Sjoholm’s mother, Barb Nies, was one of around 5,000 volunteers for the build, handing out fliers to neighbors informing them of what was going on.

“It was really an experience,” Nies said. “So many houses there were boarded up, but everyone was interested in what was happening and willing to help, which was so great. It was unbelievable.”

Sjoholm said the project was the biggest thing that Estridge had ever done which, as viewers will see, benefited the community as a whole, not just the McFarland’s home.

During the 106 hours worked during the week, 22 other homes were repainted, five miles of alleys graded, empty lots cleared and re-seeded, and two abandoned homes were demolished and hauled away.

While Extreme Makeover’s work for the family is complete, Sjoholm said, the company’s commitment to the neighborhood will continue.

“At first, I was excited that ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ was coming for the season finale in Indianapolis, but then we thought about how we can help more people improve their homes and lives in that neighborhood to make it a better place after they had done the show,” she said.

Estridge is now working on other projects to benefit families in the area, including converting an old school into a community center, repairing streets and homes and offering free Internet access and computers to residents.

“It is definitely a forgotten neighborhood, and it is good see the neighborhood get this kind of attention,” Sjoholm said. “We had 5,000 volunteers there wanting to help out, and even now we are still getting people wanting to know what they can do to help.”

• Kevin Smith is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5148 or kevin.smith@pharostribune.com