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ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, KISS and Marvel pay it forward Feb. 21

By April MacIntyre Feb 16, 2010, 20:04 GMT

Gene Simmons © Leslie Redden / PR Photos

Father, rocker and reality TV star Gene Simmons and his bandmates from KISS have performed a mitzvah (good deed) of sorts lending their star power to the popular ABC reality TV show "“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” along with Marvel Entertainment.

On December 7, 2009, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” traveled to Gainesville, FL, to meet Tobin and Jill Wagstaff, college sweethearts who started their own non-profit music school to provide services in the arts that would provide significant experiences for everyone, including those with financial limitations or disabilities. 

The Wagstaff's have put all their energy into their school which has left very little for the vast repairs needed to fix their rotting home. 

Enter our superheroes: The band KISS, plus artists and designers from Marvel Entertainment participate in this episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” on Sunday, February 21 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on ABC.

The background:

Growing up in Gainesville, Jill Wagstaff always noticed the huge impact the arts had on the lives of her friends and family.  In college, she met Tobin, who shared her love of the arts, and they eventually married and had four beautiful children: Tobin James Jr., 7, Rudy, 6, Dallas, 5, and Larissa Jolene, 4.

In 2002, the Wagstaffs started Studio Percussion, Inc., a non-profit music school and arts center specializing in the use of drums and percussion to encourage and inspire students towards community involvement and leadership development.

The family runs this organization out of their home, in the space where Dallas and Larissa Jolene currently sleep. The studio currently serves about 200 people, half of which receive financial aid or a full scholarship. 

Their devotion to their family, their school, and their community leaves little time and resources to tend to their home, which is in dire need of repair. 

Now, it’s up to the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” team and hundreds of local volunteers to build a safe, new home that will allow this family to continue to support the arts in the lives of their family and their entire community.

There are also two other special surprises for the Wagstaff family: they fly to Tulsa where KISS stopped as part of their KISS/Alive 35 tour.

Together, the family and the band worked with Gibson and Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation to provide instruments for a local school, as well as the family's own non-profit music school in Florida.

Additionally, artists and designers from Marvel Entertainment collaborated with the “EM:HE” team, providing artwork and merchandise to create a Super Hero themed room for TJ, and created an original piece of art featuring TJ and several Marvel Super Heroes, which will also be used as an actual cover for an upcoming Marvel comic book scheduled to be on-sale April 14.

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” designers this episode are team leader Ty Pennington, Didiayer Snyder, Paul DiMeo, and Eduardo Xol. .