Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Did you catch Sunday's episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? If so, you may have seen a screen shot of products that Focus on the Family provided for the Barrett family's brand-new, custom-built schoolhouse on their Peyton, Colorado ranch.

Focus donated a complete family library of Focus on the Family video, audio and print classics valued at about $3000. Items included marriage and parenting resources, the Adventures in Odyssey radio series, audio dramas from the award-winning Radio Theatre series, subscriptions to several Focus magazines, titles by Dr. Dobson and a variety of other items specifically tailored to the ages and interests of the family members. The items were placed in the schoolhouse and shown to them on-air during the “reveal”.

We couldn’t divulge the specifics prior to the air date, but now the word's out! Focus did not expect any on-air mentions, but we were included in the credits and on the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Web site.

What’s more, we had the privilege of hosting the Barrett family here at our Colorado Springs campus on Wednesday, September 28th. The entire Barrett clan joined us for a full day of VIP treatment including a behind-the-scenes tour, visits with Dr. Dobson and Jim Daly, a special birthday lunch hosted by Focus’ PR/Publicity team (four Barrett birthdays are in September!), fun in Whit’s End, and a trip to the “KYDS” Radio studio where they got to record parts in an Odyssey storyline, then take home a special CD of their performance.

The special day was planned by Focus on the Family’s Guest Relations team. Said Guest Relations Hospitality Specialist Diane Ingolia, “It was an incredible blessing to have such amazing friends spend the day with us. The facts say that the Barretts are a mom, a dad, two biological kids and four adopted kids from different backgrounds, but their visit here proved what we already knew: that despite their individual beginnings, what matters is who they are now… a family.”