Home makeovers to help healing

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Posted on Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Home makeovers to help healing

By MELISSA FOLLOWELL

mfollowell@...

http://www.bradenton.com/business/story/105688.html

MANATEE --

News that he would be able to come home for the first time in more than a year

prompted Widner to do something he hadn't been able to do in a year -

speak.

" That's great, " he told his mother Monday after learning his was one of five

families who will receive a home makeover. It was the first time Widner has

talked since developing a brain infection.

On Monday, officials with the Manatee Association of Realtors' My Community

Makeover project notified families selected to receive home makeovers from a

list of 18 applicants.

A disease or illness affects four of the five families selected.

" Some of these people have so little and love so much, " said May Aston,

president of the Manatee Association of Realtors.

Twenty years ago, Janet and Edrington adopted Ben, a little boy doctors

said probably wouldn't live to see his first birthday because of a heart

condition.

Ben also suffers from muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair bound. The makeover

will provide the family with a wheelchair-accessible home to make life easier

for Ben and his parents.

Perhaps the most extreme of the community makeovers is the home of the Reid

family.

Black mold is growing throughout the home. The Reid children are living without

their mom, who suffers from cystic fibrosis and can't stay in the home. The mold

and water intrusion is so severe, experts want to tear down the home and start

again.

" The smell is horrendous. It's through the whole house, " said Jenni Canning of

Breathe Easy Mold Remediation. The company plans to donate materials and labor

for the makeover.

Donations for My Community Makeover are being accepted by the Manatee Community

Foundation.

" Anything helps. We need to do everything we can for less than no money, " said

Deeana Atkinson, chairwoman of My Community Makeover.

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