Published: November 25, 2009 11:23 pm      

Cowan-Brown family works to find a way to say thanks for helping

Miami County family settling into its home

The Cowan-Brown family may have a new home, but they have found a problem: How do you express gratitude to a community who worked nonstop in rain and mud to build you a house at no cost?

“Every year there’s so many things to be thankful for,” Heather Cowan said earlier this week. “And this community, there’s so many people in the boat we are ... and they’re giving to us.”

Producers from ABC-TV reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” selected the rural Miami County family of six as the recipients of a new home, which they moved into in late October. The home came at no immediate cost, and, with the help of an IRS tax code loop hole, no gift tax.

To pay back the community, Heather, Andy, Kori, Ryan, Trevor and Mason will do something that would not appeal to every 9- through 16-year-old: They will forego Christmas presents. Instead, the family members will use the money they would have spent on their presents and buy gifts for needy children.

“There’s nothing that they want or need,” Heather said about her children. “... Andy and I have huge jobs as parents to be good samaritans, to handle this gift well and appropriately.”

Charity work isn’t a foreign concept to the family.

The show’s producers chose the family largely because of 12-year-old Kori.

Kori has a congenital heart disorder that, throughout her life, has caused her to make frequent trips to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. During her visits, she befriended a girl with cancer. Since beginning her friendship, Kori has raised more than $35,000 for the American Cancer Society in honor of her friend.

Hundreds of volunteers, led by Anderson-based Hallmark Homes Inc., spent almost a week working shifts upward of 20 hours, some taking sleep breaks in the mud, to finish the house on schedule for the family.

Since the family moved in in late October, it has been a matter of tying up loose ends with construction and adjusting to the “new normal,” Heather said.

Paul Schwinghammer, president of Hallmark Homes, said the company has been in touch with the family almost every day since filming ended, trying to finish odds and ends.

“We want to make sure we give them a 100-percent completed home instead of a 97.5-percent completed home like when the bus moved,” Schwinghammer said.

The family can’t reveal most details about the house until the show airs. Until then, the only other people allowed inside are immediate family and the neighbors living on the block. Crews placed a film over the windows to prevent passers by from looking in.

The community’s attention to Kori has placed her in a spotlight that she has tried to shy away from, Heather said.

Friends have constantly dropped off photos and newspaper clippings for Kori, Heather said, but “she just wants them all put away.”

A few of the show’s producers counseled the family on what to expect after filming and when there is another boom of attention after the show airs in January.

The producers told the parents to keep their children away from certain Web sites, blogs and message boards that might have critical comments about the family. The show also coached the family in what information they could and could not discuss before the show airs.

“They’re asking us a lot of questions, and we can’t answer,” Mason said about his friends at school.

The family has settled into its new house, but there hasn’t been much time to relax.

Since filming ended, they have been special guests at a David Cook concert, an Indianapolis Colts game, and Heather and Andy will be special guests at an upcoming Indiana Pacers game.

The producers told the family to use the attention as a way to help Kori’s fundraising efforts, which are about to begin for next year’s Relay for Life.

“They said ‘You have a very small window of opportunity here [with] your 15 minutes of fame time,’” Heather said. “‘Get the word out and exploit that,’ for lack of a better word.”

In addition to her usual fundraising, Kori also has a photo collage, which “Extreme Makeover” star Ty Pennington made for her. The family has had a few copies of the collage printed, and Kori will auction off the artwork for the fundraiser.

Heather said few people have recognized her or her family when they’re out in public. But that could change once the show airs and people are able to identify them, producers told the family.

“It was almost this game the first couple of weeks,” Heather said. “I would go stand right behind people in ‘Extreme Makeover’ T-shirts in the Wal-Mart or Meijer line and see if they’d notice.”

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.