ABC's 'Makeover' Team Helps Katrina Victims

Sept. 21, 2005 — -- ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to Ty Pennington, the show's carpenter.

"We're leading a convoy with one of our sponsors," he said, "... heading down to the shelters with sleeping bags, generators, things that they need."

Pennington said he hoped the spirit of the show, which builds homes for needy families, would inspire people to volunteer on the Gulf Coast.

"When people come together, amazing things really can happen," he said. "In this situation, we should lead by example and actually do what we can."

"So that's our plan. We'll go down and do what we can," he added.

Although many of the episodes for the fall season were taped before Katriana hit, the show will devote an episode to repairing a house that the show built for the Leslie family, 10 miles from New Orleans. After Katrina, the house is still standing, but sustained extensive flood damage.

"As home builders we're proud of that," Pennington said. "As human beings, we're pretty horrified by the devastation."

The Leslies had evacuated safely to Mississippi.

Pennington is volunteering for another cause, awareness of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For the second year in a row, he will participate in the ADHD Experts on Call, and speak about his experience managing the disorder.

Even though his mother is a child psychologist, Pennington wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until he was in college. Getting the proper diagnosis and treatment changed his life, he said.

"I attribute all of my success to medical treatment of ADHD," he said. "I'm really the poster boy."

On September 22, 2005, from 8 a.m. to midnight EDT, ADHD experts will answer calls at the seventh annual event at the toll-free telephone hotline, 1-888-ASK-ADHD.