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Carpenter Paul DiMeo urges people to care
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Like many other carpenters, Paul DiMeo has worked on countless projects, creating something special from a pile of wood and screws time and time again. Unlike others of his trade, he does these things in front of a camera.
DiMeo is part of the team that makes up the two-time Emmy winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a show that provides families in need with a new house, free of cost. The show recently made an appearance in Middleton, where Ryan Stockdale, a Boise State student, and his family received the gift of a new home. CBH Homes, a local business, as well as a number of Boise State athletes, helped with much of the construction.
“CBH Homes has been absolutely phenomenal. They built this house for all the right reasons,” DiMeo said.
DiMeo’s area of expertise lies in building the children’s rooms, during which DiMeo goes with his first instinct, a trait he credits to his open approach to a project.
“My speciality is keeping things very real and thinking like a child,” DiMeo said. “Children don’t sensor themselves. If you can try to stay open, you are able to think outside of the box.”
According to DiMeo, he is lucky to work on a television show that is for the most part supported by the communities they visit. Each project produces approximately 250 hours worth of footage, which is then cut down to run on television.
“It’s like a carnival. That fever kind of catches in the community and we document what happens,” DiMeo said.
He went on to explain that what they do on the show does not just touch the people involved: it spreads throughout the country.
“It’s bigger than any one person, bigger than any one contractor, bigger than any one community,” DiMeo said. “It’s something that works and breathes on its own.”
DiMeo said his father was the one who prompted him to help others.
“My old man was always helping the neighbors,” DiMeo said.
Throughout the years, he said his biggest motivation has been the individuals he has met.
“Its not so much the disability, it’s the risk folks take to overcome that disability. That’s what is so amazing,” DiMeo said.
Retiring from the show is not in the near future for DiMeo. He feels that the show provides a service to the country by showing a lighter and more positive side to the news.
“If all we see is death and destruction, that is all we will know,” DiMeo said.
According to DiMeo, if the population is persistently exposed to a different mentality, in which people help each other, their acts of kindness will spread.
“If we worry about just the guy across the road, it will eventually touch more people,” DiMeo said.
As the show continues to new locations, new families and new communities, DiMeo moves on as well with fond memories of the Boise area.
“The memories I will take with me from Boise will be of one of the best builds ever,” DiMeo said.
Cean Siegel