Family Pic Summer 2006

    Steve & Teresa are a couple living in American Fork, Utah. They have four children. They bought their first home in July 2002, which is located in American Fork. Steve was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on his 16th birthday, in 1990. MS is a very unpredictable disease. Steve’s disease progressed slowly for many years including the early years of his marriage. Since 2005 however, his disease has progressed more rapidly to the point where he is now confined to a wheel chair. He can walk (more like shuffle) for only very short distances.

    Steve’s reduced ability to walk initiated this effort. When they first bought the home that they currently live in, he was able to access all parts of it without any problem. Unfortunately, now that he has to travel via wheelchair, there is just too much of his home he simply cannot access effectively. The main hallway is too small to allow him to use his wheelchair in. This becomes an issue since all the bedrooms (including his own) and the bathroom are located down that hall. To access them, Steve generally has to hobble down the hall placing his hands on the opposing walls to stabilize himself as he goes. Unfortunately, this often causes him to fall. Also, considering that his disease will likely continue to progress (unless the scientific community discovers some cure), his ability to reach these areas of his home will be limited even further.

    Teresa works part time outside the home (I’m her boss). She isn’t able to work full time since she has to take either Steve, or her oldest son (who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about 2 years ago) to doctor’s appointments very often (at least 1 to 2 appointments per week). Since Steve is unable to drive, Teresa has to go to all of these appointments. I’ve never known a busier person than Teresa considering all her responsibilities with work, family, and medical concerns.

Family Pic Spring 2008

    Needless to say, this family has a lot of financial needs, and a reduced ability to meet them (with Steve unable to work outside the house, and Teresa able to work only part time). First and foremost, Steve needs an accessible bedroom and bathroom. This can be easily met with a simple addition to their home which would be fast and efficient.  I’m hoping that through this effort, I can help them at least be able to make such an addition. However, I would really like to offer much, much more. I would really like to see if we could give this family the "Ultimate Home Makeover" (similar to what the T.V. show offers).

    The amount of help we can offer totally depends on the response I get to this effort. Please click this link to see what proposals we have based on the amount donated. Please also be aware that 100% of your donations will be applied to this effort. I will not take a single penny of your donations. To help with this effort, every donation will be reported, and the spending of every cent will likewise be reported right on this site (that way, you can keep track of what we’re doing).

    The ultimate goal would be an "Extreme Make Over, Home Edition" experience, where, if we get enough donations, we would completely redo their home to make it 100% wheel chair accessible. At the very minimum, I hope to get enough donations to at least make an addition to their home that would be accessible. This addition would at least include a master bedroom and bathroom. To find out how you can help, please click here , or click the "How You Can Help" button at the left under the "Read More About . . ." section.

    We wanted to keep this project a secret from Steve and Teresa for as long as possible. Until I sent the email to family members on November 3rd, 2007, only a handful of people even knew about it. From that time on, however; there were many "close calls" where the cat almost got out of the bag (mostly just in casual conversation). We knew that we'd eventually have to disclose the secret to them, and wanted to make it somewhat special.

    Christmas is always an excellent time to do extra special things, so we assumed sometime around Christmas would work out well. I wanted to include as many people as possible to share in the moment, so, singing Christmas carols seemed a good option. I still needed a creative way to tell them though, and asked for suggestions. Cindy Muir hit the nail on the head when she suggested doing something like what "Publishers Clearinghouse" does, by handing balloons and a large check. We went with it. The carols ended up ensuring that we got the whole family to the door. Then, we presented the family with the big check at the time totaling over $11,000. I thinks it was enjoyable.

Watch the video below. This is immediately after we sang to them, and as we told them.

Below is a list of those who have donated their time on this project. I want to extend an extra special thanks to all of these people. We certainly couldn't complete this project without their being so willing to help out.