ABE students assist "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

Resource, Jan 2007

ABC's popular television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" which aired Oct. 29, featured agricultural and biological engineering (ABE) students who assisted in the construction of a home, greenhouse, and renovated barn.

The ABE students, lead by members of the Iowa State University Student Branch of ASABE, volunteered their time during a week in September to help the Shawn and Amy Kibe family of Tama County, Iowa. The ABE students were among hundreds of volunteers and workers that assisted in the project.

According to ABC, the Kibe family had moved in December 2004 from the city to the country to fulfill Shawn Kibe's dream of being a farmer and making a better life for his family of five. With life and business on the farm flourishing, everything seemed perfect until a few days before Christmas 2005, when their house caught fire. The Kibes returned home just in time to see firemen removing their charred Christmas presents through the broken windows. The family was forced to move into a tiny one-bedroom rented camper in a trailer park that wasn't big enough for camping, let alone living. The farm had not only given the Kibes a place to live; it had been their salvation and livelihood.

Extreme Makeover team leader Ty Pennington and the designers, along with builder Hubbell Homes and hundreds of volunteers, worked to restore the Kibes beloved farm with a barn-raising of their own, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" style.

Agricultural and biological engineering students from Iowa State University helped in the construction of a home, greenhouse, and renovated barn on the ABC television show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." (Photos courtesy of Hubbell Homes)