Niagara Rises

Extreme Home Makeover

It isn’t the first time the WNY area has seen the gang from Extreme Home Makeover, we meet them last September as part of the Good Morning America train visit to Niagara Falls.   This morning ABC news reported:

Eyewitness News cameras were on Massachusetts Avenue between Plymouth and Normal in Buffalo Saturday morning, when the long awaited “Door Knock” took place with host Ty Pennington and the production team of the mega hit, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (Sunday nights at 8pm on WKBW-TV Channel 7).

It is wonderful to see that the a single TV show can have such an impact on a single family.   But I happen to think that what if the monumental effort was played to fix the problems that we have in Niagara Falls?    Instead of just one family being helped what if that kind of monumental effort were to work on an area of Niagara Falls that would help hundreds of famlies?

It took months for a group of volunteers to paint a guardrail in Niagara Falls.   One or two volunteers at a time paining day after day until it was done.   The amazing efforts of Roger Spurback to eradicate the city of graffiti.   Or the efforts of our organization Niagara Rises to change the hearts and minds of those about this wondrous city we call home.

It take a village folks! Wake up!  Do something or the situation will only continue to to deteriorate.    Before you open your mouth to complain about what is wrong, you have to first say the two things that you have done to improve the situation.    I don’t live in the city of Niagara Falls, I live in Amherst, Roger lives in the Town of Niagara and Frank live in Appleton.   But we all have a vision of where this place will be.   There are countless people that believe and live in the city and are part of this movement.

Why is it that an organization like ours has the idea to fix what is wrong and we have a plan, but yet nobody wants to stand up and help with the follow through.    Four thousand volunteers in a week to hopefully get their 15 minutes of fame in front of a TV camera.   What does that say about people?

Don’t get me wrong, it is a great thing for this deserving family.   What bothers me the most is that our organization which is working on improving life in Niagara Falls cannot get as many people inspired to do the right thing.   So I issue this challenge to those that are in the area — on November 17th show up at the Days Inn at 443 Main Street in Niagara Falls NY at 6pm.   Join us in taking back control of Niagara Falls and start anew.   Yes you sitting reading this post have the power to say how things are going to be in Niagara Falls.   All you have to do is show up!