| Girard family from Voluntown, CT. Gets an Extreme Makeover by ABC's show Extreme Makeover Home Edition The 106 hour build took place in Winter from December 4th to December 11th, 2008 The show aired on ABC February 8th, 2008. See some pictures below. Watch a video remembering Thom and Marc Girard Daly Paving Company was approached by Bruno Hayn owner of Home Designs by Bruno to pave a driveway for a local family that was picked for the ABC show Extreme Makeover Home Edition. When Bruno asked me to pave the driveway for the Girard family and ABC I told him I would love to. I knew my team would love to volunteer their time to help out the Girard's but this paving season was very tough for all of us and I knew I couldn't afford the materials. Well thats when Bruno told me that he and the ABC producers would like to see the church that has been helping the family through their rough times have their parking lot repaved also. Well, I told Bruno I would make a few stops and see what I could come up with for donations from the local asphalt suppliers. I reviewed the blueprints for the Girard's property and came up with about 70 tons of asphalt that would be needed to pave their driveway. I was thinking this should be doable. Now it was time to take a ride to St. Thomas church and talk to the pastor and take some measurements. Well when I got there, I knew this was going to take a lot of work. This wasn't exactly a small lot and the existing asphalt needed to removed and the base reworked slightly. So I finished measuring the parking lot and came up with the amount of asphalt needed to repave. Approximately 430 tons! Combine that with the Girard's driveway and we're talking a whopping 500 Tons! Thats a lot of asphalt to try and get donated. I really try to stay positive, even when it seems like there is no hope, and at this time, it seemed like there was no hope. But out I went trying to find asphalt suppliers to donate 500 Tons of asphalt. That's a heck of a lot of money even at their costs. We not only needed the asphalt plants to donate tens of thousands of dollars in material but to also ask their employees to come in and fire up the plant after they have already shut down for the Winter season! To top it all off, I was not allowed to tell anyone who the family was until it was announced by ABC. Imagine trying to ask a company for 500 Tons of asphalt and not be able to tell them who its for. Now some of you reading this can not truly appreciate what it takes to open and fire up a closed asphalt plant and haul 500 Tons off season, but take my word for it, it's A LOT!!! I asked just about every local supplier to help this local family as little or as much as they could. Unfortunately some could not at this time but some could. AEN Asphalt located in Frankilin, CT stepped up to the plate and donated the asphalt for the driveway. Although they truly wanted to donate all 500 tons, it just was too much (truthfully, I couldn't image anyone being able to donate that much). American Industries located in Jewwett City, Lynn Corp from Griswold and Suchocki and Son from Preston all also stepped up and donated truck load after truck load of top soil and gravel. By now, everyone new what was going on. Time was running short and we still needed asphalt donations. Radio station WCTY 97.7 was advertising for us asking their listeners to buy a ton of asphalt which was great because it just about got the whole community involved. Then as if God sent an Angel at the last minute when it seem like this was not going to happen, Nicholas R. Scola an attorney out of Danielson stepped up and made a deal with AEN Asphalt to buy the remaining asphalt needed to finish paving the church parking lot. Now comes the physical work. We have never been part of something like this before and we were very anxious to get started. When we showed up to start the project, it was breath taking. About a 1/2 mile of the road was shut down to traffic and guarded by security, only allowing participants of the build into the area. When we got threw security, there was so much organized commotion. At any given time there must have been 200 people working. Weather they were working on the build or serving food, it was amazing. We had 106 hours to completely demolish the Girard's old hose and build a new one and remove and replace the parking lot for the church across the street. The weather was awful. I don't think there could have been a worse week to try and pull this off. We had rain, snow, ice, wind. It was flat out brutal. Knowing this was going to be a big challenge to pull off paving in extreme weather, I asked for some help from some competitors. Sullivan Paving from Essex helped us with the Girard's driveway and Sheridan Paving from Gales Ferry and East Coast Asphalt from Colchester helped out with the parking lot. When we paved the parking lot, it was by far the coldest weather I have ever paved in. With the wind chill I would have to say it was about 8 degrees. But with this team, we could have paved an airport in Alaska with awesome results. Everything was a success. AEN had the trucks rolling, (thanks Jason, Billy. Rich and the other drivers) keeping our paver filled with hot asphalt and production moving along. We didn't finish paving the parking lot until I think it was around 1 or 2 in the morning. Two days later we were able to pave the driveway. We couldn't start the driveway until about 3 in the morning, but that was OK. For whatever reason the weather let up and it was a freakish 50 degrees outside. Boy that was such a nice change. I do have to admit though, if it wasn't for the cold weather I don't think 1/2 of us could have stayed awake any longer. Some of us really put some straight time in. It all worked out great in the end. Everything came together just when you would think there was no way. Caring, unselfish community volunteers can really do amazing things when they all get together and help one another. The biggest thing I got out of this was a feeling of community caring. Words can not explain the feeling I and probably just about everyone that helped had. It was the best. Usually on job sites there is always some kind of words flying between different trades people and competitors eyeing each other up and down. This was all gone. Instead there was a sense of caring. Everyone, no matter if they were competitors that lived a mile away from each other, couldn't help each other enough. I was the most amazing thing to see people from our community volunteer for hours on end and never complain. God bless our community and God bless America. Welcome Home Girard Family, Welcome Home |
| In memory of Thomas and Marc Girard. July 1, 2008 |
| Quality Asphalt Paving & SealCoating of Driveways & Parking Lots. Plus more! Serving Residential, Commercial and Industrial Properties in Connecticut, Massachusetts and beyond. Call us Today Toll Free 1-877-DALYPAVE (1-877-325-9728) |
| Daly Paving Company Your Connecticut and Massachusetts Asphalt Paving Contractor. Plus More! 340 West Thames Street Norwich, CT. 06360 - (860) 892-1201 1 Arboretum Road Plymouth, MA. 02360 - (508) 591-7076 Licensed / Insured / Bonded |
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