The Roanoke Times | File 2005

With sons Garland (left) and Hunter behind her, Carol Crawford Smith is escorted to a limousine by ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' host Ty Pennington.

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A Blacksburg family's appearance on the ABC television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in February has helped raise awareness and funds for sufferers of multiple sclerosis across the country.

Local chapters of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society held viewing parties in several states to raise money for MS research when the two-hour special featuring Carol Crawford Smith aired, said Fay Painter, president of the Blue Ridge chapter of the MS society.

"People see an uplifting face in Carol and want to learn about her story," Painter said. The show has "helped our whole organization gain momentum."

Crawford Smith declined to be interviewed for this story, except to say that she is doing well. But according to others, she and her sons Hunter and Garland have been busy.

In April, Crawford Smith spoke at a luncheon in Roanoke that raised $33,000 for research into treatments for MS, a degenerative disease that robs sufferers of control over their bodies.

She has also appeared on "The Montel Williams Show" and at the MS Society's national conference in Florida, Painter said.

Crawford Smith's elder son, Hunter, was honored with the society's Young Minds Award. It's meant to encourage kids to become scientists who might one day help find a cure for MS.

The family joined Hunter on a trip to Johns Hopkins University medical school in Baltimore to spend a day with Peter Calabresi.

Calabresi is the lead researcher on a grant looking at therapies that may help restore nerve function to MS sufferers, Painter said.

Crawford Smith, who performed with the renowned Dance Theatre of Harlem before coming to Blacksburg and opening her own dance studio, was stricken with MS six years ago.

She has since lost some of her ability to walk and teaches dance classes from a chair with help from assistants.

Friends helped her apply to the show after seeing her struggle to function in her 1950s-era home on Ardmore Street. The show's producers chose the family from thousands of other applicants.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," now in its fourth season, features a cast of star designers who host the episodes.

In television land, the designers, assisted by volunteers, build specially designed homes for people in need.

But in reality, hundreds of local businesses donate the bulk of labor and materials to the projects. Under tax rules, the donations are not considered charitable and therefore aren't deductible.

Virginia Tech architecture and industrial safety professors and their students also donated hundreds of work hours to the project.

Robert Dunay and Joe Wheeler, professors and licensed architects, headed the team that designed Crawford Smith's new handicapped-accessible house.

They and their students designed and built a meditation and exercise studio for Crawford Smith using solar technologies developed at the university.

Those technologies have been featured in Dwell magazine and PBS' "This Old House" show, according to Tech spokeswoman Heather Riley Chadwick.

Building Specialists of Roanoke volunteered as the general contractor to oversee the demolition and construction of the house in fewer than seven days in subfreezing temperatures coupled with sleet and snow.

Local companies worked 24 hours a day without pay to finish the project on time. And other businesses have donated ongoing services such as housecleaning and lawn care to Crawford Smith.

Building Specialists President Bob Fetzer estimated that the total of the local donations exceeds $1 million.

While it didn't create many new customers for his company, Fetzer said the project paid off in the friendships he built with the family and other companies.

Since last year, Building Specialists has raised about $11,000 to help Crawford Smith with mortgage payments on the old home loan she must continue to pay and to offset higher property taxes on the new house, Fetzer said.

According to Montgomery County records, the old home was assessed at $121,000, which under current local tax rates would cost the family about $1,100 per year.

The new home, however, was recently assessed at $407,000, which could push the family's annual tax bill to about $3,600.

Building Specialists is still collecting money for the family. For details, visit www.bsiva.com.