BLACKSBURG -- "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" cameras left Blacksburg two months ago. But 1,100 of the volunteers and donors who built Carol Crawford Smith a new house in December gathered again Sunday to watch the episode with Smith and her family.

It was a frigid, snowy night on the Virginia Tech campus for the premiere of the Blacksburg "Makeover" episode.

As for the weather, it was much like the nights crews spent two months ago battling snow, sleet and mechanical failures to demolish the old house on Ardmore Street and build a new one in five days.

In fact, Blacksburg has had only two snowstorms this winter -- both during "Makeover" events. Surprisingly, Jonathan Hirsh, who managed the project for Building Specialists of Roanoke and suffered from sleep deprivation and cold just like many of the workers, called Sunday's weather "perfect" for the occasion.

The crowd filled about half the seats in Tech's Burruss auditorium and watched the show on two giant TV screens. Smith's mother, father and two sons sat together in one row.

When Smith entered the auditorium in a wheelchair, she received a standing ovation. The retired world-class ballerina was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago and now has trouble walking.

Smith whooped, raised her fist in the air and told everyone to "Enjoy the show!" before taking a seat near her family.

The first time her sons, 12-year-old Hunter and 10-year-old Garland, saw themselves on screen, they ducked down to hide their faces.

Some of the volunteers who worked on the makeover wore the blue T-shirts they donned while working on the house.

Tech building construction student Dustin Sordelett was one of those volunteers. He worked mostly on major renovations to Smith's dance studio on Draper Road. His father, Thomas Sordelett, has suffered with multiple sclerosis since the 1980s. And the National Multiple Sclerosis Society awarded Dustin a four-year scholarship to attend Tech.

Dustin Sordelett said he hopes Sunday's show raises awareness about the society, so more people will contact the organization to get emotional support, education services and even financial assistance.

Lora Eakin and Jeannie Manning wore their T-shirts, too. The Roanoke social service workers originally volunteered so they could get near the stars of the show. But while working on the site, the two friends realized that nearly all the work was done by local volunteers.

"The cast are not really the heroes," Eakin said.

More than 4,000 volunteers worked on the project. Nearly 300 local companies donated about $2 million in labor and materials, Building Specialists President Bob Fetzer said.

A gaggle of students and faculty from Tech's architecture and industrial safety departments provided most of the labor for the studio renovation, staffed the projects with safety personnel and gave the time of two architects, Joe Wheeler and Bob Dunay, to lead the team that designed the house.

The project has changed the way Fetzer feels about doing business and gave him "a different perspective on who my friends are."

One new friend he made was Connie Reed Stoner, owner of Reed Lumber in Christiansburg.

"We were up against it," Fetzer remembered, shaking his head and pulling out his handkerchief.

The crew was behind schedule and needed materials. Stoner was caring for her father, Gene Reed, who founded Reed Lumber in Christiansburg in 1948 and was dying of cancer.

But she went to the site, gave a cash donation and opened her lumberyard to the project. Later, Stoner talked to her dad about the show and all the builders at the site who asked about him.

"It was one of the last really good talks Dad and I had," Stoner said.

Reed died four days after Smith moved into her new house.