Calling on ‘Extreme Makeover’

The supporters of the Woods family are aiming for 20,000 signatures.

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

SMITH — Will Ty Pennington come to the aid of a local family?

Co-workers of Willard Woods and his wife, Megan, are preparing an application to his show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

“I don’t see how he’d be able to turn us away,” said Hopeann Caughnan, who is involved in the drive.

Pennington’s award-winning television show renovates homes for families in need.

The Woods family’s home at 18515 W. Pine Lake Road in Smith Township blew up and burned earlier this month. The state fire marshal’s office and local authorities determined that propane caused the explosion. The home had one propane tank.

Willard Woods, 44, remained in critical condition Tuesday in Cleveland MetroHealth Center, where Megan, also 44, was in fair condition.

Their son, Jake, 18, and daughter Jenessa, 16, were treated for burns at the hospital and were released.

The Woods family has three older daughters, Anastasia, Amanda and Evelyn, who were not living at the family home at the time of the blast.

About 5:30 p.m. Monday, an estimated 400 to 500 people drove past the site as part of the effort to enlist Pennington and his show to build a new structure for the family, said Caughnan, who is an administrative clerk at Copeland Oaks, a retirement home in Sebring.

Willard works in the maintenance department at Copeland. Megan works at the West Branch School District, where Jenessa is the junior class president.

Caughnan is working with three other Copeland workers: Susan Schoeni, a receptionist; Sharon Rouse, a bookkeeper; and Sheila Steer, a secretary; to get help for the family from the show.

Caughnan said she was talking with Schoeni about the idea, “and it just felt right.”

Anastasia, known as Anna, who also works at Copeland, came in and they discussed the idea.

Caughnan said they decided to run with it.

“We just wanted to do what we could do,” she said.

A resident of the retirement home helped with the videotaping of the people at the site of the blast, and at the West Branch Schools, to go with the application.

The show previously had received 15,000 signatures asking for help for another family.

The supporters of the Woods family are aiming for 20,000 signatures.

“I thought, ‘We can do that,’” Caughnan said.

Signatures are being collected in Sebring and Alliance, as well as in West Branch schools and by students at Mount Union College in Alliance.

The supporters, friends and co-workers of the family aren’t waiting for Pennington to do all the work.

There were three fundraisers — a buffet dinner, a bake sale and a dance for students — at the Sebring Fire Department last weekend. Copeland workers have collected $2,800.

There will be a spaghetti dinner at the West Branch High School from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Nov. 10, followed by a benefit auction by Kiko Auctioneers and Realtors at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $6 a person.

Donations can be made to the family at the Woods Donation Account, c/o Huntington Bank, 146 E. Ohio Ave., Sebring 44672.

wilkinson@vindy.com