ABC’s Extreme Makeover dream home for the Janet Pauni family of Logan had to be built in a week, and USU student volunteers rose to the challenge with landscaping and publicity plans that had to be kept under wraps until ABC greenlighted the public announcement.       

ABC receives 5,500 submissions a week for an Extreme Makeover home and to get maximum mileage out of its marketing for each show, the network withholds the name of the recipients until the week of the actual demolishing and building. The Pauni family project was scheduled for late October. The show would air within the following month.  

Seniors in Professor Les Roka’s public relations class planned and publicized the media campaign that resulted in extensive coverage and the events, including a benefit concert that raised $40,000 for the family. The fund will help pay the home maintenance bills for a mother of nine who has struggled to make ends meet with her Tongan catering business since her husband died several years ago of a heart attack.

Students in Instructor Craig Aston’s horticulture class had 48 hours to install the landscaping designed by a licensed architect. They worked around the clock in rain and snow, installing sidewalks and sprinkler systems, and constructing berms, fire pits and a sandy beach area that replicated the Pauni family’s native island in the South Pacific. Many of the plants came from seedlings the students grew in the university’s greenhouse. They were given 10 days notice to develop a planting plan, and the size of the lot was three times bigger than expected—a job that would usually take several weeks.

During the university’s annual service day, students assembled care packages that were sent to Tonga, part of a service tradition that in recent years has included clean ups in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and local literacy drives. More than 20 student volunteer organizations are associated with the university’s student-run service center named for long-time advisor and retired USU administrator Val R. Christensen.

The Extreme Makeover may have been the first project to make headlines while also fleshing out resumes. Les Roka says his students will be able to get their first jobs in the highly competitive public relations field based on this experience.