Kent Pecoy says that, when he played the voice-mail message informing him that he had been chosen to coordinate a project for the ABC series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, he was quite sure it was a joke.

And he had good reason to believe that.

Just a few hours earlier, Pecoy, president of the Pecoy Companies, was talking with an employee and a subcontractor about a customer’s requested timeline (one week) for components of a home-renovation project that would usually take much longer. His response was something like, ‘what does he think this is, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition?’

“So when I started listening to the message, I thought one of my employees was kidding around,” said Pecoy, who told BusinessWest he was tempted to hit the ‘delete’ button, but instead kept on listening. And as he did, he came to realize that this was certainly not a joke. Or if it was, it was a really good one.

Rather, it was an opportunity, and, as he gathered while listening to the details over the next several days, also an extreme challenge.

Indeed, Pecoy’s company, which includes Pecoy Signature Homes, Pecoy Remodeling & Additions, and Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction, among other components, had been chosen to lead a project — demolishing an existing home and building a new one in its place, all within one week (106 hours, to be exact) — that will, by some estimates, involve upwards of 3,000 volunteers and a veritable mountain of logistics.

“We’ve got to feed all this people, get trucks in and out, get people in and out, get everything we need donated, and meet a very compressed schedule,” said Pecoy, who placed heavy emphasis on the adverb.

How compressed? There are strict start and finish times for everything from pouring the foundations to installing a new telephone pole; from installing roof shingles to conducting the framing inspection. “We have these deadlines to let us know if we’re falling behind,” he said, adding that the basic mission is, well, not to fall behind.

To complete that mission, Pecoy and others at the company have been meeting with a small army of subcontractors, suppliers, and area businesses and organizations that signed on to handle everything from feeding the volunteers and VIPs to staging a blood drive to hosting a massive rally a week or so before the celebrated ‘door knock.’ On the day he talked with BusinessWest (roughly 10 days before actual work on the home started), Pecoy’s parking lot, not to mention the adjacent side street, was filled with vans and pickup trucks bearing the names of a host of a construction-related businesses.

And while getting a firm handle on exactly what he and his team members are up against, Pecoy has been learning something else: just how much the business community — and the community at large — have embraced just about every aspect of this project. And this learning experience has had a profound impact on him.

“It’s just been incredible to see how people have gotten behind this … I really can’t talk about it without getting choked up,” said Pecoy, who did, indeed, have a lump in his throat as he tried to get the words out.

And he’s certainly not alone with such experiences and emotions.

“I just can’t believe the response I’ve received,” said Peter Rosskothen, co-owner of the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House and the Delaney House, who’s been given the official title ‘food coordinator.’

That means he’s assumed the task of corralling donations of food and manpower sufficient to feed those 3,000 volunteers and another 3,000 VIPs over the course of build week (June 22-28). His venues will handle the volunteers, while he’s signed up a number of area eateries, most of them struggling in a down economy, to handle the VIPs.

“I’ve done an awful lot of asking over the past week and a half,” he said. “There haven’t been very many nos, and the yeses have been overwhelming; people are fighting to participate.”

Dena Hall, senior vice president of Marketing and Community Relations for United Bank, said she, too, has become absorbed by the project and amazed and uplifted by how much the community has embraced the story.

For the bank, its $7,500 commitment — gold sponsor status — will buy some exposure, but the ROI, if it can even be called that, will come in several forms, she said, listing support of several long-time customers, a chance to make or cement new relationships, and simply getting the bank’s name in front of a whole host of constituencies.

“But the biggest benefit is just being part of something incredibly special,” she told BusinessWest. “This is a very deserving family and a compelling story; we just wanted to play a part in making this happen.”

In this issue, BusinessWest looks at how the local business community has come together for Extreme Makeover’s Connecticut River Valley project in ways that most expect will accomplish much more than getting a house built.

Foundation of Support

Hall said United has gone so far as to create what is being called the ‘Extreme Team.’

It’s being led by two personal bankers, Lori Stickles and Cheryl Pesto, said Hall, adding that neither has been able to do much of anything other than work on this project over the past few weeks. Which is apparently fine with them.

“They’re both just huge fans of the show,” said Hall, who admitted that she wasn’t, but is likely to become one now that she’s been part of it. “For them, to be able to work on this is a dream come true.”

Many others now involved probably wouldn’t go quite that far, but the levels of enthusiasm — and generosity — have certainly surprised those leading the project, especially given the economic conditions.

“That was really my first thought, my first concern,” said Pecoy, as he related how the sheer size and scope of this project came into focus for him in the days following that first phone call from the producer of the Emmy Award-winning show. “I was wondering out loud, ‘in this economy … can we get it all donated? It would be a challenge in a good economy.’”

The answer, apparently, is ‘yes,’ he continued, adding quickly that maybe, and ironically, the economic turbulence is one of the reasons why.

“There’s been so much bad news in recent months, and everyone is feeling a little beat up,” Pecoy explained. “There’s not a lot to feel good about, and I think everyone is feeling a little better just by being involved.”

Elaborating on just what ‘involved’ means, Pecoy said that absolutely everything for this project must be donated — and what he can’t secure through donations he must pay for himself. This means everything, from the portable toilets used during build week to the roof shingles for the new home; from the landscaping to the furniture; from the garage door to the public-relations and media-coordinating work now being handled by a few area marketing firms.

When asked for some examples about how businesses and individuals have rallied around the project, both Pecoy and Suzanne Clarke, the company’s director of Sales & Marketing, who is handling many of the Extreme Makeover logistics, were understandably reluctant to list some when they knew they couldn’t list them all.

But with some prompting, they did, and Pecoy started with Frank Sanford, owner of Sanford & Hawley Inc., the Unionville, Conn.-based building-materials company that agreed to donate all the lumber for the build. “That’s an incredibly generous offer,” he said. He also mentioned the Connecticut-based architect Jack Kemper, who came up with a complete set of plans for the home to be built — and not something off the shelf — in a week.

And he talked at length about Bay Path College, which hosted a massive rally for the project more than a week before it started, and donated space on campus for some of the seemingly non-stop meetings staged to coordinate the build and the myriad related events.

Clarke mentioned Robert Charles Photography in East Longmeadow, which volunteered to photograph the build efforts night and day, create a scrapbook for the family, and print images that will eventually grace the walls of the new home. She also noted Ludlow-based Wild Apple Design, which is handling the Web site for the project, extremepecoy.com.

“There are simply too many to mention,” said Clarke. “It’s big things, but it’s also little things that add up to something really big. One person called who wanted to donate a lawnmower; another wanted to donate free oil changes for the family’s vehicles. The list goes on and on.”

As food coordinator, Rosskothen, upon learning the full scope of his assignment, first volunteered his venues to feed all those who will build the house but also take on a wide list of projects, from the blood drive to traffic control to shuttling visitors and workers to and from the work site. He puts this contribution at about $45,000, and said, “no, it certainly wasn’t budgeted.”

Nor were the donations of food and time he solicited from other eateries, almost all of which are struggling through the downturn.

“The first call I made was to Joe [Stevens] from the Hofbrahaus; he took all of two seconds and said, ‘yes, I’ll do it,’” said Rosskothen, referring to his request for the restaurant to take a shift feeding VIPs. “The second call was to Spoleto [and owner Claudio Guerra], who said they’d take two spots, so they’re feeding 400 people. The generosity and the way people are jumping at this, even in the restaurant world, is huge.

“This show is all about hope and turning things around,” he continued. “That’s a message that resonates with people. The people who are donating are going to get some recognition for what they do, but it also makes them feel good to take part in this.”

Hall said United needed only a few minutes at a quickly orchestrated marketing meeting to agree to become a gold sponsor and co-sponsor of the VIP tent, which, she’s been told, will be a very busy place during build week.

From a practical standpoint, she said the investment should pay clear dividends in terms of exposure and the ability to treat customers to what will likely be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Indeed, she likened the build in some ways to the bank’s sponsorship of the 2004 Women’s U.S. Open Golf Championship, staged at the Orchards in South Hadley.

But this experience will be different on a number of levels, she said, noting that this isn’t a sporting event. Rather, it’s what she and others are calling a “community event,” one that has captured the attention and imagination of individuals and business owners on both sides of the Massachusetts/ Connecticut border.

“Everyone is taking on a little piece,” said Hall, who mentioned constituencies ranging from the Holyoke Mall, which handled some printing work, to her father’s trucking company, which will help bring wall sections to the build site. “It’s amazing to see how the community has gotten involved in this; it’s really inspiring.”

Move That Bus!

Countless details must come together to produce the magical moment when host Ty Pennington unveils the family’s new home. When asked what was keeping him up nights leading to build week, Pecoy answered quickly: “plenty of things … you name it.”

At the top of the list is the weather, he said, noting that, while contractors can prepare for rain and complete most assignments in it, even the pouring of a foundation, that rugged schedule could be imperiled if things get really bad.

Beyond that, he said, it’s the little things, or perhaps one little thing, that might complicate matters. “If anything puts us behind, it won’t be something major — no one’s going to forget the roof trusses,” he explained. “It will be some small detail that someone might have overlooked.”

Thus, he and countless others he’s working with are determined not to overlook anything.

One thing they won’t ever overlook, or forget, is how the business community has come together in support of people most of them are unlikely to ever meet — except from seeing it all on television.

“We have a great opportunity to do something that we’ll always be talking about,” said Rosskothen, seemingly speaking for everyone involved. “It’s a chance to come together and do something special.” n

George O’Brien can be reached at

obrien@businesswest.com