In St. Paul, Minnesota last week, Teamsters Local 120 played a big part in making the dreams of a deserving family come true. The local participated in a production of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in a big way.

It was just announced a couple of weeks ago that Sandy Morris and her two children, who live in a 100-year-old home that doubles as a daycare center in St. Paul, were chosen as the subjects of an upcoming program. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (EM:HE) features a family going through some sort of hardship in each episode. The show’s producers coordinate with a local contractor to get the job done.

In this case, the local contractor was TJB Homes Inc., and they immediately got in touch with Brad Slawson Jr., President of Local 120 out of Blaine, Minnesota.

Local 120 coordinated getting Teamster employers on board with the project, plus volunteers, tools, donations and more.

By the time the demolition of the old home was scheduled to take place, Local 120 had lined up hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations of labor and supplies. They also made sure that companies doing most of the work were represented by Local 120.

“Our employees and members have stepped up to help a family in need,” Slawson said.

Local 120 donated tools used in the build, plus had their tractor-trailer and volunteers from the local on site to help out whenever they were needed. These Local 120 companies also contributed:

• USF Holland provided three trailers for storage purposes;
• US Foodservice contributed a week’s worth of snacks and beverages for the volunteers;
• Sysco provided the equivalent of six meals a day for the crew;
• Supervalu made a refrigerated truck available for the worksite and filled the fridge and pantry in the new home;
• Nitti Rolloff provided dumpsters for waste removal;
• Cemstone donated cement;
• McNamara provided the blacktop driveway;
• Marathon Petrolium donated a free year’s worth of gas to the family;
• Tamarack Materials supplied sheetrock; and
• Sedgewick provided heating and air conditioning equipment.

The neighborhood was bustling with activity for several blocks around the job site. Handmade signs welcoming the show’s crew and the volunteers were propped up in windows. Crowds of sightseers, sometimes in the hundreds, were bused in to watch the progress. And that’s not even mentioning how much activity was going on at the build site.

“One hour here is equivalent to two days on a regular job site,” said Jason Budzynski, Vice President of Operations for TJB Homes.

The rebuild had to be done in 96 hours, but with a crew of 3,000 staffers, workers, volunteers and others, the build was efficient and smooth—except for the chilly rain that soaked the job site, and everyone in and around it, for more than a full day of the build. 

“Local 120 is proud that its members and their employers have given so much to help this family and their community. Working together, we can put this recession behind us one house, one neighborhood, one city at a time.”