Paula T. Morrow of Astoria sent a newspaper clipping in to the Ear about her son-in-law, Astoria native and 1960 Astoria High School graduate, Vern Malen. Vern and his wife, Susan Malen, now live in Portland, but are frequent.

visitors to Astoria, and still have friends and relatives here. The clipping Morrow sent was about Malen’s involvement with the first Oregon home makeover on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

The family of Rachel and Rob Byers, of Corvallis, was chosen to get the home of their dreams because 8

year-old Jenessa “Boey” Byers, who is fighting a rare form of childhood cancer, captured the show producers’ hearts with her crusade against cancer on YouTube. Boey also has two brothers, one of whom is autistic.

The Byers’ old home was full of toxic mold, and had an unstable foundation. They wanted a Legend Home for a long time, but Boey’s medical bills made such an expense impossible.

Oregon’s Legend Homes (www.legendhomes.com) was chosen by ABC to build the home, and Malen, the production manager for the Portland office of Legend Homes, was the project director. His function was scheduling and overseeing the construction of the new house, which had to be done in one week – including the tear-down of the old house.

Thanks to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” Legend Homes and Mark Stewart Home Design, the deed was done. “In less than a week, actually,” Malen said.

Malen told Theresa Hogue of the Corvallis Gazette-Times that he got goose bumps from how well the nearly 2,000 volunteers worked together to meet the one-week deadline. “It looks great,” he said. “The inside is really beautiful. Every room has vaulted ceilings.”

On July 14 more than 1,000 people watched as Ty Pennington enacted the now famous “Move the bus!” scenario for “The Reveal” of the new home (www.komotv.com/news/local/8518717.html). The show will air on ABC at 8 p.m. Oct. 7.