FORD AND “EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION” PARTNER IN ECO-FRIENDLY SCHOOL MAKEOVER CAMPAIGN

Ford will Makeover One Lucky School with Its Educate to Escape Contest Launching in March: Accepting Nominations Now

• Ford Motor Company and Paige Hemmis from ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” is calling for entries in its Educate to Escape green school makeover contest.
• Students, parents, community members, school staff, and teachers are encouraged to nominate a school for the green school makeover by submitting an online survey to www.educatetoescape.com.
• Consumers will also have a chance to win a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid in the Educate to Escape sweepstakes.

DEARBORN, Mich., March 14, 2008 – Schools looking to go green can now enlist Ford Motor Company’s help in welcoming sustainability into the classroom. The automaker is joining forces with ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Educate to Escape—a green school makeover campaign. As part of the campaign, Ford is sponsoring a nationwide contest that awards one lucky K-12 school with an eco-friendly makeover up to $250,000. Ford’s Educate to Escape initiative launched earlier this month, and schools will have their shot at the makeover until May 18, 2008.

Students, parents, community members, school staff, and teachers are encouraged to nominate schools for Ford’s Educate to Escape contest by submitting an online survey to www.educatetoescape.com. Entrants will be asked a series of essay questions about why their school deserves an eco-friendly makeover. The winner will be announced in June 2008, and the makeover completed later in the summer. In addition to the Educate to Escape green school makeover contest, entrants will have the opportunity to win a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid in the Educate to Escape sweepstakes. To enter and for more information on the contest and sweepstakes, including official rules, go to www.educatetoescape.com

“We integrated eco-friendly renovations into our entire season of makeovers on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” said Paige Hemmis of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” “In the long run, thinking green reduces the amount of energy used as well as the costs associated with running old or inefficient appliances. Schools minding their money due to budget cuts may find that integrating eco-friendly renovations will cut their costs dramatically over time.”

While green improvements made to the winning school will be largely contingent upon the winning essay and specific school needs, some eco-friendly solutions may include energy-efficient appliances, athletic fields made of organic/sustainable materials, vegetation roofing, solar paneling, Energy Star lighting and insulation, programmable thermostat and triple-pane windows.

“Ford maintains a commitment to lessen our overall impact on the planet with our products and our manufacturing plants,” said Connie Fontaine, Multicultural and Experiential Marketing Manager, Ford Motor Company. “Our hope is the Educate to Escape campaign will encourage schools to think about what ‘green’ additions or changes can be made to their own campuses.”

“This campaign is a wonderful extension of our on-going partnership with Ford. Our Extreme Home families have benefited from Ford's generosity, now so will a larger community," said John Sadler, SVP, Integrated Marketing and Sales, ABC.

Paige Hemmis
Paige may be an unlikely vision on a construction site, but this statuesque beauty is an accomplished carpenter and skilled homebuilder. Paige is self-taught, with no formal carpentry training, and is rarely to be found without a tool of some kind in her purse. This dynamic and confident Wisconsin-born dynamo considers her role on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" a blessing and feels extremely fortunate to make her living helping others. In between extreme makeovers, Paige volunteers her time to Keep America Beautiful's “Great American Cleanup” and Habitat For Humanity.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sundays, 8 - 9 p.m., ET)

Put together one very run-down house, a deserving family, several opinionated designers, seven days and what do you get? The answer is “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” The show has won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program, as well as the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show/Makeover and the Family Television Award for Best Alternative/Reality Program.

For the fifth straight season, ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” ranks No. 1 in its Sunday 8 o’clock time period in the key Adult 18-49 sales demographic. During the 2007-08 TV Season, “Home Edition” beat its nearest competition in the time period by 6% in Total Viewers and by 10% in Adults 18-49. The broad appealing ABC unscripted series also leads its time slot among Adults 25-54 and across all key women demographics (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

Beginning this season, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” began featuring green elements on every episode with eco-friendly, low energy and recyclable sources being incorporated into the builds. Concluding the show’s two-year, 50-state tour, will be a two-hour Season Finale on May 18 featuring three homes for a family (all on the same lot) and a church in Louisiana. In a first-ever effort to put together a coalition of past builders from all over the country, the show has called on the Building Industry to join forces and help with what might be the toughest challenge yet.

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. David Goldberg is President of Endemol USA. The series is executive-produced by Denise Cramsey and premiered December 3, 2003. The design team includes team leader Ty Pennington, with designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders, Tracy Hutson, Tanya McQueen, Eduardo Xol and John Littlefield. New designers this season are Rib Hillis and Didiayer. The show airs Sundays (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET), on the ABC Television Network.

Ford Motor Company