Zimsport.com | Extreme Makeover Home Edition | Zimmermanns Ski and Snowboard Shop

We Lend a Hand on Extreme Makeover

Nashua business lends goods, and hands, to 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'

Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
October 25, 2009

Section: Business

When Stefan Hausberger of ski shop Egon Zimmermann Sport Chalet in Nashua received a call from the sister store in Hanover about a potential charitable donation, he had no idea what he was getting into. Less than a week later, Hausberger and his wife, Rena, found themselves painting and building a desk with Ty Pennington at 3 a.m. while filming an episode of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

"When we get a chance to help out in the community, we do all that we can, but this is like the top of the food chain in volunteering," Hausberger said.

The show, which uses local volunteers and businesses to help build houses for families in need, recently made its second appearance in the Granite State, building a house in Lyme.

One of the children in the family had mentioned an interest in snowboarding and mountain sports, which is what led organizers of the show to Zimmermann in Hanover, who then contacted Hausberger at the Nashua flagship store.

Zimmermann has had a location on Daniel Webster Highway for 41 years and Hausberger has been there for 24 of them. Rena Hausberger is the top bookkeeper and accountant for the shop. In the last few years, Zimmermann has become a major sponsor with the New Hampshire Special Olympics and has donated more than 100 pairs of skis and snowboards to the organization.

"We asked them to give us a list of all the products they were requesting and we would try to get as many of the donations as we could," Hausberger said.

After getting significant number of the items on the list, Hausberger worked with his suppliers to help fulfill the request.

The "Extreme Makeover" house is built in a one-week period using the skills and effort of hundreds of volunteers.

"When we got there to give our donation, the weather was terrible, but the volunteers were still working as hard as they could," Hausberger said.

The Hausbergers brought their donation to the Extreme Makeover site as the cast and crew were beginning to decorate the inside of the completed house.

"We somehow snuck past security, and after we gave them the ski supplies, we asked if we could help in any other ways," Hausberger said.

After helping paint for the afternoon, Stefan and Rena were asked to come back the next day to help host Ty Pennington as he worked on his personal project.

"Sometimes you meet celebrities and they aren't what you expect, but Ty is as genuine as anyone could be," said Hausberger, who has continued to correspond with Pennington and his assistant through e-mail and Facebook since filming wrapped up.

While helping Pennington, Stefan Hausberger was asked to build a desk that was made of snowboards.

"I'm not a carpenter, but I'm impressed with how it came out," Hausberger said. "It's amazing what you can do at 3 a.m. when they let you play with power tools."

The Hausbergers were two of the final seven people in the house before the family went inside, and they watched the family's reaction from one of the production trucks.

"I never really understood the feeling that people would express on the show, but now, I get it," Hausberger said. "I got to join all these people doing something good for someone else unselfishly, and it's also this major television production at the same time.

"This was one of the 10 best moments in my life."