EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION SUNDAY, JANUARY 2, 2011 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on ABC

THE GROMMESH FAMILY FROM MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA PAY FORWARD THEIR GOOD FORTUNE BY GIVING THE DESERVING HAJDARI FAMILY THEIR FORMER HOUSE

Show Sets a Guinness World Record by Creating the Largest Logo Using People in Wheelchairs

“Grommesh Family” – The inspiring 10-year-old, wheelchair bound Garrett Grommesh from Moorhead, Minnesota is ecstatic when he finds out that Ty and the design team will be giving his family a new home that will be handicapped accessible. Since their old home is in good enough shape for another family to live in, Garret asks if he could pay forward his good fortune so that his classmate, Arlinda Hajdari, and her family could receive their former home. The challenge is on, as the “EM: HE” team, builders and volunteers work twice as hard to get not one but two homes move-in ready in just seven days.

Although Garrett’s physical challenges have left him in a wheelchair, he has inspired his parents to take over the management of HOPE Inc. Adair and Bill Grommesh have transformed HOPE Inc. into a year-round program to inspire independence for children with disabilities, making sports accessible to everyone. In an unprecedented event, Ty and the design team head to Miracle Field to help set a Guinness world record by creating the largest logo using people in wheelchairs, and also photographed the image. The 346 participants came together and formed the logo for HOPE Inc.

Arlinda Hajdari, 10, befriended Garrett early on despite his disability. The six members of the Hajdari family, who have never had their own home, came from war-torn Kosovo in search of the American dream. Their small two-bedroom apartment does not begin to serve all of their needs. Unbeknownst to the family until the final reveal, the Grommeshes’ former house was lifted off its foundation, put on a rig and moved across town to a new location where the Hajdaris will now live.
The Grommesh family went on vacation in the Bahamas while “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team leader Ty Pennington, designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis and Eduardo Xol, community volunteers and local builders Tyrone M. Leslie and Daryl L. Braham from Heritage Homes Fargo-Moorhead helped to build their new home.

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is produced by Endemol USA, of Endemol Holding, and executive-produced by Brady Connell & George Verschoor. David Goldberg is Chairman, Endemol North America. This program carries a TV-PG parental guideline.