Independent retailer Bob and Ron’s World Wide Stereo recently installed a $16,000 home theater system for an episode of ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”
The store’s founder and president Bob Cole, also the president of the Home Entertainment Source buying group, estimated that all told between the costs of installation, labor, time and other expenses, his store donated the equivalent of around $30,000 out of pocket.
This particular episode featured the Kilgallon family, headed by single-mom Marynoel who works two jobs and discovered too late that the house that she had recently purchased had such extreme termite and structural damage that it wasn’t safe to live in. The Kilgallons couldn’t afford to get the home up to snuff on their own so Marynoel’s sister wrote to the home makeover show. ABC stepped in and dismantled the original condemned 1,100-square-foot home and put a new, fully finished three-story, 3,700-square-foot home in its place.
The home theater that the retailer installed in the home included two 42-inch plasma TVs, a home theater surround system, a distributed audio system and a programmed remote to control everything. The TVs were supplied by Hitachi and the audio equipment was supplied by SpeakerCraft.
“We’re really proud to be able to take part in such a great local cause,” said Cole. “We believe a home theater is a fun way to help families spend more time together. To be able to help the Kilgallons enjoy that experience is a very cool thing.”
The “Kilgallon Family” episode is scheduled to air Sunday, May 6.
