Community Corner

Family, Community Appeal to ABC For 'Extreme Makeover'

The village president and a state representative support 12-year-old's bid for a new home that accommodates her disability.

Grace Ligon needs a new house. And with a simple online signature, you can help.

A 12-year-old Western Springs resident and McClure sixth-grader, Grace loves baseball, sled hockey, racing video games and her black Lab, Giselle. She is friendly, upbeat, and loves to chat. She is a diligent student with a terrific work ethic.

But Grace also has a condition called athetoid quadriplegic cerebral palsy—a brain disorder that severely limits her motor functions. Braces, a power-wheelchair, a communication assistant device, and the danger of a bad fall are ever-present elements of her life. And while her current home on Johnson Street is pleasant, it is not designed for someone with a disability.

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There's one more thing Grace loves: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And, along with her mom, Kathy Becker and grandmother, Carol Becker, she hopes the popular ABC show will grant her the home she truly needs.

"I'm applying to Extreme Home Makeover because I've been watching it for forever and ever and I've always wanted to apply," Grace says. "I want a house where if I walk and fall, I'm not really going to get hurt."

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Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is a reality TV show that launched in 2003 and features host Ty Pennington and a crew of volunteers who tear a family's home to shreds before completely rebuilding it from scratch, customized to the family's needs. The family is sent on vacation during the renovation, and the new home is shown to them upon their return.

"Grace has been asking me for years and years, since she's been watching the show, if we could apply," says Kathy Becker, a single mom who works part-time from her home. "We're just hoping to get all the support we can get. It's really good if our town supports us."

That support has already started rolling in. An online petition to approve the Becker/Ligon family for the show now has approximately 3,000 signatures and growing. And both Village President William Rodeghier and State Rep. Jim Durkin have endorsed Grace's bid in separate letters to the producers of Extreme Makeover.

"The Village of Western Springs is extremely proud to nominate Grace Becker to be selected for the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition television program," writes Rodeghier. "The Beckers are an outstanding example to all Americans that physical disabilities do not limit one's capacity to thrive."

"[Grace] would benefit greatly from a safe and accessible environment to live," adds Durkin. "Her past and current homes have all created barriers to her independence and compromise her safety… A chance to get an Extreme Home Makeover would truly make an easier way for these two inspirational people."

According to Kathy, with effort, Grace can rebuilt much of her body function. She works hard at her physical therapy—320 hours annually—to build her motor skills, and having a dedicated room for this would help immensely. She can use a bathroom and a normal computer, and almost completely dress herself. Because her speech is difficult for most people to understand, she uses a special electronic communicator (though she prefers a less-expensive and sleeker option: her iPad.)

The family's needs in a home are not lavish. Mostly, they say, Grace needs wide-open space, lowered counters, lifts for dealing with stairs, ramps for her power-wheelchair and general accessibility. Giselle, the family Lab, is a service dog trained to open and close specialized doors or flip light switches (she can already pick up dropped items, and obey dozens of other commands)—but the doors need the specialization.

And unfortunately, the family lost a lot of equity on their former Western Springs home on 47th Street when the housing market crashed, and don't have the funds they would need to modify their current residence.

"We try to do as much as we can to make [Grace] independent" says grandma Carol Becker. "There's quite a few other things we'd like to do but—costs, you know?

"It's just tremendous what they do for people [on the show,] especially people with someone in their family who has a disability."

Being accepted to the show would certainly be a life-changing event for the family.

"It would give Grace the one place in the world that's completely accessible to her," says Kathy Becker. "When we live our lives every day coming into obstacles… it would be nice if we could just have a [home] that's accessible where we don't have to worry about it."

You can sign Grace's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition petition at www.graceligon.com.


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