Extreme Makeover Home Edition – Bordner Installation Group Gives Back to Kansas City

In 2005, Kansas City home contractor Kevin Green contacted Bordner Installation Group about a charitable – and seemingly impossible – project his custom home building company would soon be undertaking. General Manager Jerry Fleenor had never heard of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at that time, but it sounded like a fun and challenging way to give back to the Kansas City community. Afterall, it’s not every day you’re asked to help build a home from the ground up in less than a week for a national television show. But Bordner was up for the challenge.

Three years later, Bordner has taken part in Extreme Makeovers for three very worthy families across the Kansas City Metro area. “It really gave us a way to come together as a company, as well as a community, and work as a team to accomplish something great and feel a sense of camaraderie,” Fleenor said.

Showing up before the sun and working for three days with no sleep was worth it to the Bordner employees who labored on each project. Each home makeover drew between 20 and 40 Bordner volunteers who provided services ranging from roofing and siding to painting and stonework.

The journey began with the Johnson family of Raytown, when the Extreme Makeover team built a dream home for firefighter Stephen Johnson and his family. In early 2007, Bordner once again helped Kevin Green Homes build a home for the show, this time for the Jacobo family of the Kansas City Northland. The team fixed up the home for the large extended family – including four children and five nieces and nephews – to allow family members to remain together. And in November of the same year, the crew was called upon again to help build a home for the Gilyeat family of Wyandotte County. The single father of four is a Marine who was wounded and lost part of his leg in Iraq.