Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Viewing Party

Hundreds gathered Sunday night inside the auditorium at Fayetteville State University to watch the much awaited season opener of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition featuring Barbara Marshall and the Fayetteville community.

Round tables were set up for the crowd and the Bronco marching band played some rousing numbers to open and close the evening. Throughout the course of the night local businesses and people were spotlighted during the commercial breaks.

CEO and builder, Chip Smith, of Blue Ridge Log Cabins skyped in from his own South Carolina viewing party to greet the Fayetteville crowd.

The audience broke into cheers and applause numerous times throughout the evening, but especially when First Lady Michelle Obama lauded Marshall for her efforts for homeless female veterans.

The crowd enjoyed seeing the inside of the Jubilee House and the backyard surroundings for the first time since the shroud of privacy surrounding the project began. At the end of the project when trucks and camera crews rolled away this past summer a total of 4,000 workers had helped the previous 1,300-square-foot home morph into a 7,200-square-foot duplex.

"After helping out on the project, I would not have missed the viewing with other neighbors and of course, Ms. Marshall", said Terrin Knight. "This was a service project for our whole community".

Marshall closed out the event by speaking and calling up the Mayor Tony and Mrs. Joanne Chavonne and thanked them for their support from the start.

"Fort Bragg, they sent so many soldiers up the hill, I could not even count them", said Marshall.  "They did not just come one time, they came many times."

She also thanked the Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office, who nominated and started the process for the Jubilee House.

Marshall also found out Sunday that the Regency Trade Corp. has established a $20,000 scholarship for the Jubilee House, and that the 219 Group designed a new website - thejubileehouse.org - for the home where people can read about it or donate to the cause.

For Marshall and residents for years to come, the Steps N Stages Jubilee House will forever be a sanctuary in their storms of life.