From http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/0413piestewa.html
Mark Shaffer and Betty Reid
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2005 07:15 AM
FLAGSTAFF - The never-ending roller coaster of emotions for the parents of deceased war hero Lori Piestewa has reached a new high.
Terry and Percy Piestewa of Tuba City are about to settle into a new $500,000 house north of Flagstaff, with a glorious view of the San Francisco Peaks, courtesy of the popular ABC program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
And, the kicker:
They were nominated for the home by Lori's best friend, former POW Jessica Lynch, whose riveting story of capture and near death dominated the first few weeks of the Iraq war.
Lynch also will be assisting in the design of the 4,300-square-foot home, which will be built during the next week by a crew of 1,300 workers from Shea Homes of Phoenix and filled with more than $65,000 worth of furniture.
In addition to the new home, the ABC program is arranging for a new Navajo Nation Veterans Office to be built in Tuba City, also within the next week.
For years, the Piestewa family has lived in an overstuffed mobile home owned by the Tuba City Unified School District, where Terry has worked as a maintenance man and Percy has been a secretary. Both will be retiring soon.
Piestewa and Lynch had talked about the house that Piestewa, the only Native American woman killed in combat on foreign soil, some day wanted to build for her two children and parents, said Lynch's publicist, Aly Goodwin Gregg, in West Virginia.
TV executives told Lynch in early March that they had selected the Piestewas, and Lynch was with them when they surprised the family at their residence in Tuba City on Tuesday morning, Gregg said.
Plans have been coming together during the past two weeks, she said.
"We had to keep this a secret, that is the beauty of the whole show," Gregg said.
Shortly thereafter, the Piestewas were ushered out of Tuba City by ABC workers to an undisclosed vacation spot without being told what would await them when they come back next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Coconino County sheriff's deputies set up a roadblock Tuesday afternoon on a dirt road off U.S. 89 near the home-building site in the Timberline area, north of Flagstaff.
They only allowed in local residents, film crews and tractor-trailers hauling building materials, temporary restrooms and dumpsters to the construction site.
"We're overjoyed about this," said Bob Tourse, a general contractor who owns a home in the Timberline area. "The Piestewas are going to own the nicest home in the area with an unobstructed view of the Peaks, and it's going to lift the property values for all the rest of us."
A dedication for the new veterans building in Tuba City and a parade will be held Monday. Tuba City's veterans office had leased its space from a federal facility.
This is Tuba City's first facility specifically built to serve veterans, said Leo Chischilly, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation Veterans Affairs office.
He envisions a veterans counseling program and other services operating out of the new office.
"I think it's a great thing, I just wish they could give a home to every soldier, every veteran, every gold-star mother," said Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. "I wish they could do that, but I appreciate what they are doing for one of our heroes."
Lori Piestewa was half Hopi and half Hispanic, and grew up in Tuba City, which is the regional center of the western part of the Navajo Nation.
Rena Whiterock, Lori's former mother-in-law, said she is excited for her grandchildren, Lori's children, Brandon, 6, and Carla Lynn, 5.
"I'm happy and thrilled they will have a big house, because they'll enjoy it," Whiterock said.
Reanna Albert, staff assistant to Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr., said the tribe will offer insight about the Hopi culture to Extreme Makeover.
She said Taylor is traveling this week but will be available for the "revealing" when the Piestewas are given the keys to their new Flagstaff-area home.
The tribe selected Hopi artists who will offer their talents with interior decoration, she said. This involves color schemes and artifacts that would enhance the new home.
Lori Piestewa became an icon, especially to Native Americans, after the column of supply trucks in which she was driving was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in March 2003 during the first week of the fighting. She later died of injuries suffered in that attack. Lynch was wounded and held captive.
Since that time, Piestewa's family has suffered the horrors of losing a daughter and mother and having a video shown internationally of Lori's dying minutes in an Iraqi hospital bed.
But, coupled with that, has been the joy of Piestewa Peak and Piestewa Parkway being named after Lori and a number of other posthumous honors. Also, there was Lynch's highly publicized trip last month to Phoenix where she visited the Piestewa Peak area and to Tuba City where she went to Lori's high school and burial site.
Mark Shaffer and Betty Reid
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 13, 2005 07:15 AM
FLAGSTAFF - The never-ending roller coaster of emotions for the parents of deceased war hero Lori Piestewa has reached a new high.
Terry and Percy Piestewa of Tuba City are about to settle into a new $500,000 house north of Flagstaff, with a glorious view of the San Francisco Peaks, courtesy of the popular ABC program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
And, the kicker:
They were nominated for the home by Lori's best friend, former POW Jessica Lynch, whose riveting story of capture and near death dominated the first few weeks of the Iraq war.
Lynch also will be assisting in the design of the 4,300-square-foot home, which will be built during the next week by a crew of 1,300 workers from Shea Homes of Phoenix and filled with more than $65,000 worth of furniture.
In addition to the new home, the ABC program is arranging for a new Navajo Nation Veterans Office to be built in Tuba City, also within the next week.
For years, the Piestewa family has lived in an overstuffed mobile home owned by the Tuba City Unified School District, where Terry has worked as a maintenance man and Percy has been a secretary. Both will be retiring soon.
Piestewa and Lynch had talked about the house that Piestewa, the only Native American woman killed in combat on foreign soil, some day wanted to build for her two children and parents, said Lynch's publicist, Aly Goodwin Gregg, in West Virginia.
TV executives told Lynch in early March that they had selected the Piestewas, and Lynch was with them when they surprised the family at their residence in Tuba City on Tuesday morning, Gregg said.
Plans have been coming together during the past two weeks, she said.
"We had to keep this a secret, that is the beauty of the whole show," Gregg said.
Shortly thereafter, the Piestewas were ushered out of Tuba City by ABC workers to an undisclosed vacation spot without being told what would await them when they come back next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Coconino County sheriff's deputies set up a roadblock Tuesday afternoon on a dirt road off U.S. 89 near the home-building site in the Timberline area, north of Flagstaff.
They only allowed in local residents, film crews and tractor-trailers hauling building materials, temporary restrooms and dumpsters to the construction site.
"We're overjoyed about this," said Bob Tourse, a general contractor who owns a home in the Timberline area. "The Piestewas are going to own the nicest home in the area with an unobstructed view of the Peaks, and it's going to lift the property values for all the rest of us."
A dedication for the new veterans building in Tuba City and a parade will be held Monday. Tuba City's veterans office had leased its space from a federal facility.
This is Tuba City's first facility specifically built to serve veterans, said Leo Chischilly, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation Veterans Affairs office.
He envisions a veterans counseling program and other services operating out of the new office.
"I think it's a great thing, I just wish they could give a home to every soldier, every veteran, every gold-star mother," said Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. "I wish they could do that, but I appreciate what they are doing for one of our heroes."
Lori Piestewa was half Hopi and half Hispanic, and grew up in Tuba City, which is the regional center of the western part of the Navajo Nation.
Rena Whiterock, Lori's former mother-in-law, said she is excited for her grandchildren, Lori's children, Brandon, 6, and Carla Lynn, 5.
"I'm happy and thrilled they will have a big house, because they'll enjoy it," Whiterock said.
Reanna Albert, staff assistant to Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor Jr., said the tribe will offer insight about the Hopi culture to Extreme Makeover.
She said Taylor is traveling this week but will be available for the "revealing" when the Piestewas are given the keys to their new Flagstaff-area home.
The tribe selected Hopi artists who will offer their talents with interior decoration, she said. This involves color schemes and artifacts that would enhance the new home.
Lori Piestewa became an icon, especially to Native Americans, after the column of supply trucks in which she was driving was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in March 2003 during the first week of the fighting. She later died of injuries suffered in that attack. Lynch was wounded and held captive.
Since that time, Piestewa's family has suffered the horrors of losing a daughter and mother and having a video shown internationally of Lori's dying minutes in an Iraqi hospital bed.
But, coupled with that, has been the joy of Piestewa Peak and Piestewa Parkway being named after Lori and a number of other posthumous honors. Also, there was Lynch's highly publicized trip last month to Phoenix where she visited the Piestewa Peak area and to Tuba City where she went to Lori's high school and burial site.
Thanks for the post