ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has been selected as this year’s winner of the NAB Education Foundation’s Leadership Award. The award for public service will be presented at the 11th annual Celebration of Service to America Awards on June 8th.
“For six years, the talented team of workers at ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ has changed the lives of families in communities throughout the United States. The NAB Education Foundation is proud to present the Leadership Award to such an important community-focused program,” said NABEF President Marcellus Alexander.
Considered NABEF’s highest honor, the Leadership Award is presented to those who have improved the lives of others through extraordinary public service. NABEF said “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” has enriched the lives of families since 2003. In addition to building homes and uniting communities nation-wide, the show encourages television viewers to make a difference in the world by supporting various causes featured on each week’s episode.
Accepting the Leadership Award on behalf of “Extreme Makeover” will be Paige Hemmis (designer). In addition to her participation on “Extreme Makeover,” Hemmis is a successful carpenter, entrepreneur, spokesperson and author. In between extreme makeovers Hemmis serves as the spokesperson for Habitat for Humanity and other charities.
NABEF also announced that ThanksUSA is this year’s Guardian Award recipient. It is a non-partisan, charitable organization founded in 2005 by two 8- and 10-year-old sisters, Kelsi and Rachel Okun. The organization “thanks” the men and women of the United States Armed Forces by providing college, technical and vocational school scholarships for children and spouses of military members serving on active-duty status. In three years, ThanksUSA has awarded more than $5 million to more than 1,750 spouses and children of military members.
