1 Year Later....

     A year ago I was approached about helping a family in Texas for Extreme Makeovers Home Edition.  The folks at CarveWright have helped with several of the episodes and now I was going to get a chance to participate.  That would have been exciting enough, but the subject matter was Star Wars.  That was amazing news.  I'd get to create something based on Star Wars and get to help someone at the same time!
     Originally, it was scheduled to air not long after production.  With that in mind, I had posted some things here in anticipation of the show airing.  It was not to be.  The show was cancelled just as they completed the build.  Those of us involved were told the show would eventually air.
     It was a bit sad, but I realized that the best news was that the Zdroj family from Bastrop just made it under the wire...whether the show ever made the light of day, I knew I'd had a small part in helping a family in Texas that lost their home due to a horrible fire.  The father loves Star Wars, and so do I.  I had to inform friends and family that I didn't know when or if the show would air.  Life moved on.
     Because I knew the show was produced near Christmas, I assumed that if it did air, it would probably be near the holidays this year (What a LONG time for the construction company and other folks who helped make it happen to wait!).  As the holiday approached, I contacted Mizzy Zdroj (the volunteer firefighter whose home and family were the subject of the show) and asked if she'd heard anything.  She told me she'd let me know as soon as she found out.  Eventually she contacted me to say that it would air Dec. 3rd.  Best of all, she said that they loved the pieces I'd sent.  For me, that was more important than the air-date.
     I believe I mentioned last year that my daughter loved the show, and tonight I can sit with her and Ashley and watch one of the last episodes.  We'll finish decorating our Christmas tree, make some popcorn and try to see if we can spot the items I created.  We'll also see the hard work that hundreds of other people put into building that new home in under a week.  By comparison, my 3 day journey to  re-create some movie posters and a few other pieces of my own was a walk in the park.
     I don't know how much air time my pieces will get, but that's not really the important part.  Seeing how it all turned out, and just knowing I was able to contribute is the real payoff. 
    So, if you are one of the folks who wondered about it all:  It will begin this evening on ABC.  I would suspect that if my work shows up, it will be close to the end of the 2 hours as they decorate and eventually show the family the rooms.
     To say I did it without some help would be false.  Thanks to Joe and Chris Lovchik from CarveWright, Todd Farden from Parksite (they provided the pvc material for the project),  Howard Elijah for many great tips on air-brushing, Dan Sawatzky (from carving to painting to believing in making anything possible- he's been a dear friend and teacher), Mike Meyer (Promoter of paint and making memories). Thanks friends.
     Bring on the Stormtroopers!

Steampunk Robot, not included.