10-11 Fall Newsletter - Daniel Boone Area School District

John Perella Lends Skills For Local Home Makeover
By samantha eigenbrot
An amazing gift was given this summer
to recently widowed mother,
Trisha Urban of Tilden Township—a
new home. She was surprised by Ty
Pennington and the design team of the
reality-TV show “Extreme Makeover:
Home Edition” at a carnival at the
Cochranville Fire Company in August.
One week later, Daniel Boone Food
Service Director john PErElla considered
himself lucky to have participated
in the life-changing project.
“As I was walking through the house
just before the family came home I
realized, for the first time, that we
did not just build a house—we built a
home,” Perella said.
Perella was one of hundreds of volunteers
from Berks County to help
build Urban and her year-and-a-halfold
daughter Cora a new home on the
site of her ancient farmhouse.
The television show based on the
project was aired on ABC the night of
Sunday, October 24.
Perella was one of six members of
what “Extreme Makeover” calls the
Cobra Team. Each volunteer is assigned
to one of the local project managers
as their assistant, Perella said. He
acted as a troubleshooter.
“As the build progressed, anything
that was missed or overlooked by the
tradesmen was my responsibility to fix
in order to keep the build on schedule,”
Perella said. He added that the
tasks included anything from organizing
volunteers to keeping the work site
clean to re-framing walls to accommodate
last-minute design changes.
“I was there every day from
2 p.m. to 2 a.m.,” he said.
Perella became Daniel
Boone’s Food Service Director
in 2009. He explained that
while growing up he lived
in an old farmhouse; he was
constantly helping his dad in
restoration projects and has
“done just about everything
you can do to a house.” He
added that during college he
worked in a wall-panel plant
at a lumberyard and also as
an electrician. “Although
construction is not my profession,
I am fairly handy,”
Perella said.
The popular “Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition” is
obviously an emotional experience for
all involved, Perella included. He said
the significance of the project really
6
hit him when the family was shown
the home.
“During the week, I was so concentrated
on just getting everything done
that I really didn’t have time to stop
and think about what we were doing,”
Perella said.
Pictures of Trisha, Cora, and Trisha’s
husband Andy—who died of a heart
attack just hours before Cora was
born—were strategically placed in almost
every room. Each step leading
to the second floor was numbered so
Cora could count them as she climbed.
Sections of the mural Cora’s father
painted on the nursery walls of the
old home were displayed around the
house.
Perella said when the bus finally
pulled away to reveal the new home,
knowing what the Urban family was
about to walk into and how much it
was going to change their lives for the
better, tears were on everyone’s face—
including his.
“Let’s just say, I was glad I had my
sunglasses on,” Perella said.
Samantha Eigenbrot is a sophomore
at Daniel Boone High School
New Flag Waves Over Monocacy
A new star-spangled banner was hoisted at the Monocacy Elementary
Center in a flag-raising ceremony on Friday, September 24. The event
was organized to present a new flag to the school by PTC Vice President
MrS. KEri linSEnBiGlEr. The new flag was donated by rEP. daVid
KESSlEr, who also attended the event. Boy Scouts in the third, fourth, and
fifth grades rotated the responsibility of raising and lowering the flag with
the assistance of MEC custodians.
After the new flag was raised, The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Kindergarteners from the classrooms of MrS. johanna laTiMEr and
MS. EilEEn GilMorE were also in attendance. Pictures from the event
were used to create a Photo Story slide show documentary with the help of
computer teacher MS. PaT SMiTh. The boy scouts who participated in the
ceremony were: fifth-graders aaron linSEnBiGlEr, john SKElSTon,
dylon McGrann, jaMES KrinEr, hunTEr auMan, and jaSon
crEMi; fourth-graders KurTiS WolFE, alEX Worral, and Brandon
carPEnTEr; and third-graders auSTin BonETZ and EVErETT FrEy.