For more information, contact
Marty Whitford
HUGE Heart Home Makeover
Project Manager
440-823-7194
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Big Reveal:
Local
Home Makeover
Nears Completion
After a Fairview Park family just misses out on
being selected by “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,”
Clevelanders give the widow and her six children
a much-needed home expansion and renovation.
FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio (Feb. 19, 2010) — Adam Gaspar
was always there for family and friends — and after the 42-year-old lost his
10-month battle with brain cancer Sept. 30, 2008,
the close-knit community of Cleveland rallied to show his widow and their six
children that
we’ll always be here for them.
In March 2008, Marty Whitford, a Bay Village resident and longtime friend of Adam’s, nominated the Gaspar family for the television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (EMHE). At the time, EMHE Casting Director Quintin Strack said Ohioans submitted nearly 5,000 applications.
“After several rounds of cuts, EMHE selected 25 Ohio finalists for personal visits — and captured their stories on film,” Whitford said. “When Quintin visited the Gaspars with his camera crew, he told us just ½ of 1% of the Ohio applicants made the cut. The Gaspars were among them.
“When EMHE selected three other very worthy Ohio families,
out of the 25 finalists, to receive extreme home makeovers, we just couldn’t
quit on the Gaspars,” Whitford added. “Instead,
we rallied Cleveland-area homeowners, businesses and local media, and took
matters into
our own hands. Actually, we placed it all in the ever-capable hands of God and
His people … And as usual, everything is working out just beautifully.”
The Promise
In 2007, just a few days after Thanksgiving, doctors informed Adam he had a glioblastoma multiforme grade IV brain tumor. The father of six was given six to 12 months to live — and that was with brain surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
In the middle of Adam’s brave battle, the Gaspars received more bad news. Just a few days before EMHE’s visit, their oldest daughter, Monika, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Although Adam’s friends could do nothing to take away his
cancer or his daughter’s MS,
we could help make his journey home to God a little more peaceful.
“Remodeling homes was a hobby of Adam’s,” said Ann Gaspar, his widow. “Throughout his life, Adam helped nearly a dozen other local families renovate and expand their homes.”
While Adam didn’t regret for a moment that service work, in his final months on Earth, he shared related worries with loved ones.
“Understandably, my buddy was worried not only that he was
leaving his wife and six children
too early for his or their liking or understanding, but also that their home
needed a bit of work,” Whitford said.
“Early one morning, while I sat with Adam while his wife
was at work, Adam and I had a real
heart to heart,” Whitford said. “With tears in our eyes, I promised Adam we
would help take care of things — and reassured him that with God at the helm,
both he and his family would be OK.”
HUGE Heart Home Makeover
After a year of raising funds and working the phones to line up donated or significantly discounted construction materials and skilled labor, the HUGE Heart Home Makeover team redrew the initial renovation plans based on the fishes and loaves God provided, and drew their hammers from their holsters.
Bay
Village-based Kinzel Building Company
(440-454-0640) is spearheading all work related to the expansion of the Gaspar’s
home.
Sean Kinzel, who recently lost
his father and
sister-in-law to cancer, is providing professional
project management services at substantially
reduced rates and is “backing out” all costs for
materials and labor donated both before and
after his renovation work on the Gaspar’s
Fairview Park residence began in fall 2009.
“A project of this scope, with so many moving parts and so many material and skilled labor donators, can be a bit challenging at times,” Kinzel noted. “But deep down we all know everything will be OK — because this work clearly is much bigger than any of us.”
Kinzel Building Company has added 525 square feet to the first and second floors of the Gaspar residence and another 325 square feet of storage in the basement. The company also is reconfiguring about 200 square feet of adjacent existing space.
The Gaspar clan is renting a home nearby during the construction process. When the renovation is completed in mid-March, the Gaspars will come home to:
n A back-of-the-house great room featuring their first-ever family room and an all-new, expanded kitchen and, finally, a dishwasher for this family of seven!
n A first-floor laundry room (former kitchen);
n The conversion of a downstairs bedroom to a photo scrapbooking cubby retreat for shutterbug Ann Gaspar;
n Newly sanded and refinished hardwood floors throughout the first floor;
n Custom carpentry to convert the entertainment center Adam hand built into a stylish, painted, sitting room hutch with drawers and doors;
n New carpeting up the stairs and throughout the expanded second floor;
n The addition upstairs of a full bathroom and one more bedroom;
n The expansion of another upstairs bedroom;
n New ceramic tile in both upstairs bathrooms and downstairs in the foyer;
n New energy-efficient windows with built-in screens, and new interior room doors, throughout the main home and property’s small back home/in-law-suite;
n Drywall patchwork and other miscellaneous repairs throughout the main home;
n Two fresh coats of paint on almost everything that doesn’t move; and
n Last, but certainly not least, a new roof and new vinyl siding!
Cleveland Rocks
The Gaspars and HUGE Heart Home Makeover team extend their sincere appreciation for all of the donations and professional assistance provided. Without such sharing, service and sacrifice, none of this could have happened.
While hundreds of do-gooders made this endeavor possible with their prayers, donations and actions, HUGE Heart Home Makeover wishes to especially recognize the following Sweet 19 companies for their roles:
u Allied Building Products Corp., East Rutherford, NJ — Donated roofing materials and vinyl siding;
u Aspen Heating & Cooling, Avon Lake — Discounted materials and labor;
u Bostik Inc. — Donating Ceramic flooring adhesives and grout;
u Brad Smith Roofing Company, Westlake — Donated roofing labor and structural wood replacement;
u Chernisky Residential Designs, Bay Village, OH — Donated all time and materials needed to create the project’s extensive initial home makeover drawings;
u Choice Cabinets, Bedford Heights, OH — Donated kitchen cabinets;
u Design Surfaces Distributors, Westlake, OH — Donating ceramic tile and labor;
u DPS Plumbing, North Olmsted, OH — Discounted materials and labor;
u Freshwater Painting, Cleveland — Discounted services;
u Graco, Minneapolis, MN — Donating paint/coatings spray application equipment;
u Granex Industries, Solon, OH — Donating granite countertops and installation labor;
u Home Depot — Donated cabinets and counter for small back home/in-law-suite;
u Kinzel Building Company, Bay Village, OH — Discounted services;
u Menyhart Plumbing, Cleveland, OH — Discounted services;
u The Sherwin Williams Company, Cleveland, OH — Donating paint, primer and related supplies;
u The Stallings Group & Litex Commercial Texture Systems, Fort Lauderdale, FL — Donating texture systems for indoor/outdoor use;
u The Wooster Brush Co., Wooster, OH — Donating paint brushes, rollers, trays, etc.;
u Tyler Finishing Company, Westlake, OH — Discounted drywall and labor; and
u XIM Products, Westlake, OH — Donating specialty primers.
Heading Home
As the HUGE Heart Home Makeover project rounds third base and the Gaspars prepare to head home in mid-March, there’s a last call for companies willing to donate the finishing touches.
Following are the final items needed to complete the
makeover:
þ Carpeting and furniture;
þ Moving services for late March;
þ Asphalt driveway repair, expansion and resurfacing (or, if possible, asphalt removal and upgrade to concrete);
þ Removal of the old garage and its concrete pad and installation of a new two-and-a-half-car garage at the end of the driveway;
þ Matching vinyl siding for the small back home/in-law-suit and planned new garage; and
þ In spring, a landscape makeover in the front, side and back yards
We’ll close with the following prayer shared by Monika Gaspar recently with the HUGE Heart Home Makeover team:
On the Wing of Your Prayer
Forget me not for I am there …
In the beat of your heart,
on the wing of your prayer.
Forgive my parting and leaving you thus.
A joyous reunion is waiting for us.
Continue to strive toward your goal and be
brave.
Know that my love won’t stop at the grave.
My spirit is with you through good times and
bad.
I’ll share all the joys and sorrows you have.
Feel my presence within your next breath.
And realize there is no distance in death.
Ask for my hand and I’ll answer your call.
Reach for my hand when you stumble and fall.
Run the last mile with a smile on your face.
Always remember my love is right there …
In the beat of your heart,
on the wing of your prayer.