Hey everyone, 

I was involved in something awesome that aired on ABC last weekend. 

Last November I was asked by the TV show, Extreme Makeovers Home Edition to help out with a family in Kentucky. If you're not familiar with the show, it airs Sunday nights. You can view this week's episode here: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP Select "The Hughes Family" (this should be online until May 2nd.)

Each week Extreme Makeovers Home Edition helps out a family who is coping with very unfortunate circumstances. The family usually lives in extreme poverty, dangerous situations, or a combination of both. To compound matters the families they help are also often times burdened with physical disabilities or illnesses as well. Besides helping the families they often also do something for the communities in which the families live. They really do great things to help people.

The show has won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Reality Program, plus the People's Choice Award for Favorite Reality Show/Makeover and the Family Television Award for Best Alternative/Reality Program. It is the 1 show in its time slot seen by 14 million people each week. I love it, my wife and I watch it every week.

In October, they had an episode where the daughters were musical, and they got the girls new guitars. I turned to my Cheryl and said "wouldn't it be great if I could help some of these families out through my work with Cakewalk?"

I couldn't believe it when less than a month later I recieved an email from one of the design producers for the show. Because of SONAR's (my company's recording software) accessibility features for the vision impaired, we were asked to help build a recording studio for a talented young man who was born without eyes. They had originally contacted Dancing Dots (A company who makes software that allows SONAR to work faster if you are blind by grouping together multiple tasks that would be hard to do if you couldn't see), who told the show if they needed a full recording studio for the vision impaired they should contact Cakewalk.  We had previously worked together with Ray Charles.

Patrick was also confined to a wheelchair and could not extend his arms or legs fully. Despite this he played trumpet in the local college's marching band. His dad would wheel him around in formation during practice and games. The house the family was living in was too small for his wheelchair, so when home he would need to crawl (and remember he had no eyes) or get carried by the parents. The father worked nights to support the family and to care for Patrick and allow him to go to school.

I asked Roland, Audio-Technica, Allen & Heath, Auralex, and Microsoft to donate gear for the studio. Gibson was also involved. They  Every single person I contacted immediately said "yes," no questions asked when I called them up looking for help.  I was floored by the generosity

Roland donated a PCR-800 and Edirol Speakers, Audio Technica donated all the mics for the piano, vocals and trumpet, Allen & Heath donated a ZED mixer, Auralex donated Studio foam, Microsoft donated Vista, Encarta and Office, Gibson donated a Baldwin baby grand (!) and guitars for the other son's room.

Cakewalk donated SONAR 7 Producer Edition, Rapture, Dimension Pro, an SPS-250 from Power Studio, and our time to set it all up.

Bryan Smart & Carl Jacobson

I flew out to Louisville with an employee from Dancing Dots to help set up. Bryan Smart and I configured everything so that Patrick Henry could be empowered to record his own music. This was a daunting experience right down to the last minute. JAWS was still in beta for Vista, CakeTalking was in beta for Vista, and the scripts for SONAR 7 were still in beta...we got it all to work though. This never would have happened without Bryan's help. He's a brilliant individual. I then installed everything in the studio, I even drilled holes to hide the cabling and hung the studio foam... which is a scary thing, ask my wife about my handyman abilities :)

Ty was an amazing individual to get to work with. He really cares. It was awesome to watch him give such lucid direction to people, and then to make people feel appreciated for their volunteer work.

And they really do everything in a week. I was still in the house installing extension pedals so Patrick could reach the pedals on the grand piano when ABC began filming. I got out in the nick of time to join in the thousands of people outside shouting "Move that bus!"

It was such an amazing experience to be part of everything that they were doing for this family. I felt blessed to be part of it all. It felt so good to be helping out such a deserving family, with such a talented musician. The kid is an inspiration. Watch the episode, you'll see why:

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP  Select "The Hughes Family" (this should be online until May 2nd.)

If you'd like more information on Patrick Henry Hughes, you can visit his website.

And don't forget to support the other companies who were so generous in their donations for the show.   

Allen & Heath

Auralex

AudioTechnica

Dancing Dots

Gibson

Microsoft

Roland