Finally, the name of the family can be revealed to the public. No more secrets!
Girard Family photo
Carol (mom) and children - Adam age 17, Jacqueline age 15, Lucas age 11, and Hannah age 7
The Girard family of Voluntown, CT have had some devastating things happen to them in the past few years. It all began when Thom Girard lost his job at Pfizer of Groton, CT. The family had fallen behind in their mortgage payments since he lost his job. Then their home at 100 Preston City Road (Route 165) in Voluntown caught on fire in August of 2007. Since they were homeless due to the fire, the family had to live in a camper parked in their backyard through the cold winter months and into the summer of 2008.
Since the mortgate payments on the house were behind the mortgage company kept the insurance check from the fire so Thom, Carol and their family were unable to fix the burned house and foreclosure was ahead.
The most devastating part of the Girard's story is on a hot day in June of this year, some of the family members went for a swim at Green Falls Pond in the CT's Pachaug State Forest. Thom Girard age 45, and son Marc Girard age 18 both drowned that day. Carol Girard and her other children have lost their dear loved ones to this terrible swimming accident and are still homeless.
The people of Voluntown and the surrounding Eastern CT area have rallied to help this family. Over this past summer, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate in Griswold, CT made a video application for the Girard Family and submitted it to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Well it worked! Ty Pennington is here!
He'll be screaming in his very familiar raspy voice to get this house built.
The old & burned house will be demolished. I drove by the site this morning and saw an "official" crew wearing black jumpsuits with the logo "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on their chests.
There were backhoes, bulldozers, dump trucks and CT state police lurking.
If you plan to travel out that way in the next week or so, please note that a section of Route 165 in Voluntown will be closed off while the new home is built. There will be detours at Route 201 to Route 138 in Griswold, CT.
Here is more about the house:
- The new house will be built in 106 hours from start to finish.
- This house will be energy efficient or 'green.'
- The house will be over 3,000 square feet, it will have 5 bedrooms.
And:
- There will be a shuttle bus to the site so people take a ride in and be observers of the building process. A canned food donation to the United Way is payment to take this shuttle.
- There will also be a blood drive and a toy drive on site.
Also:
- The MOVE THAT BUS reveal will be December 11th (if everything stays on schedule).
- The show will air on ABC on February 8th, 2009.
UPDATE
Here is another post I wrote earlier today about this:
TODAY'S THE DAY... EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION IS BUILDING A HOME FOR A VERY LUCKY FAMILY in Eastern CT!
Stay Tuned for more about this event...
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About the Author:
Marlene is a licensed Realtor for the Dan Sperduto Home Selling Team of Eastern CT. Please feel free to contact Marlene to find out more about the UNIQUE and successful marketing systems used by this award winning team of Realtors. To find real estate listings including homes for sale, search for properties from our agency AND from the MLS at www.dansperduto.com.
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Copyright © Marlene Pellegrini, All Rights Reserved.
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Girard Family photo courtesy of the Aaron Flaum Multimedia/Online Editor Norwich Bulletin. Permission to post this photo in this blog has been granted.
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Marlene such a deserving family and such a trying ordeal for them over the last few years. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.