Restoration Drycleaners Celebrate 100th Episode with TV’s ‘Extreme Makeover’

When TV star Ty Pennington gave his trademark direction to “Move that bus” on a recent Sunday afternoon, it signaled the beginning of a fresh start for a wounded soldier and his newlywed bride who entered a newly-built and furnished home, complements of ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

The week-long project in Salado, Texas, also marked the completion of the 100th episode of the show for the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network (CRDN).

What began with a project in Michigan in mid-2006 has grown into five seasons of participation in nearly 40 states from coast-to-coast for CRDN, an international organization of insurance restoration specialists. CRDN’s national coverage and daily commitment to helping families recover from fires and floods made the organization a nature fit for the hit show, now in its eighth season.

Out of the hundreds of businesses that support every Extreme Makeover project, CRDN is the one company not focused on new construction; instead, CRDN professionally cleans each family’s clothing and select other personal fabric items that are delivered to the new home before the family returns.

“We are extremely proud of the opportunity to help provide a fresh start to so many deserving families and to make their new house feel like their home,” said Chip Bifano, president of CRDN. “These are amazing projects that require meticulous coordination of resources and volunteers to accomplish so much in such a short time. ”

Bifano said his organization is accustomed to assisting those who have experienced an accident or disaster by restoring garments and other fabric items— items that are very personal.

“CRDN’s involvement with the show has been a natural fit for us, from the corporate level down to the local communities where we live and work,” Bifano said.

The show’s producers say that the community commitment of organization’s like CRDN makes a big difference.

“What allows Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to touch the lives of families time after time is the attention to detail that our partners provide,” said Diane Korman, senior producer for the show which has won back-to-back Emmy Awards. “You can’t pick your family, but you can decide whom you choose to do business with. We know that we can count on CRDN to step-up above and beyond the call of duty every time. ”

She said it is not uncommon to have the business owners hand-deliver the clothing back to the producers and then stay all night to help move in furniture, often sacrificing their own time with their families to make a difference for a perfect stranger.

“From cleaning the family’s clothes and hanging them back in their closets to volunteering for parts of each project, without the dedication and professionalism of CRDN, we would only be building the houses; instead they help us build homes,” said Korman.

Bifano also discussed CRDN’s role with the TV show in a recent interview with Claims Journal.

The show airs Sundays from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET on ABC.

CRDN is an international organization of textile restoration specialists who perform insurance restoration laundry and drycleaning services for all types of loss.