Extreme Makeover Home Team Arrives At Kalihi Home

HONOLULU -- The cast of the hit ABC TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" arrived at the home of a Kalihi family on Wednesday morning.

The buzz has been in the local media for months as speculation increased that the home was in Kalihi Valley.

Host Ty Pennington started with the show's signature "Good morning Akana family."

The cast is going to help Momi Akana's family. Akana started the Keiki O Ka Aina Family Learning Center, a nonprofit organization that supports the Native Hawaiian community. She was a single mother who used her welfare stamps as a resource to buy snacks for children and helped other parents in need.

"We're just so grateful because we sure know that there are a lot of needy people out there and a lot of people who are very deserving and we're just so grateful that we were chosen," Akana said.

She used the top floor of her Kalihi Street home deep in Kalihi Valley to organize programs for family while her family lived in two bedrooms on the bottom floor.

Akana has three children: Axton, 14, Sophia, 12 and Bryxan, 8. She is also recently married.

KOKA recently moved out of the home after Akana received a grant that allowed her to buy property several doors up the street for the center. However, it is run down and needs improvements.

Akana was overjoyed to see the crew in the morning, one of the show representatives said. She held herself together until Pennington told her that they were going to build a new family center, a spokeswoman said. That's when they said she cried and thanked the team.

The family will spend the week in Whistler, Canada, while the crew and builder Brookfield Homes Hawaii work on improving the home and building a new family center for KOKA.

The contractor said it is a project that is exciting and uplifting.

"Not just for Brookfield Homes Hawaii, but it's to a very large extent many trade contractors and suppliers, not only from Oahu, but from the neighbor islands, which is pretty exciting. We're flying in plumbers and electricians and crews from other islands who believe and want to contribute to this family's cause and help rebuild their life," said Jeff Prostar of Brookfield Homes Hawaii.

The area was flooded with construction teams and production vans as the crew prepared for demolition and construction.

The family will be featured on the season premiere of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in September, according to one of the cast members.

The construction and production crews have found parking lots nearby to set up, but it has slowed down traffic in the area because police have contra-flowed traffic into one lane.

The area is filled with security and police. One of the security workers said that many of the guards are working on 12-hour shifts because the site is being worked on at all hours.

The crew plans to start demolition on Thursday with construction lasting about eight days.

The "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" project will feature team leader Ty Pennington and designers Ed Sanders, Eduardo Xol, Michael Moloney, Paige Hemmis and Paul DiMeo.