The Penguin Gift Shop goes Prime Time!

As part of our charitable donations, The Penguin Gift Shop made an exception to its usual practice of contributing to local charities. We had the rare privilege to show our care for penguin lovers everywhere, especially those in need, by donating to the ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Renee and Paul Giunta were happy, healthy, and active parents who loved their two children, Dylan and Cameron, and were exited to welcome a third, Brianna, into their family. On the same day that Brianna came into the world, however, Paul was the victim of a terrible car accident that left him unable to walk or speak.

For two years Paul lived with his parents, whose house was much easier to navigate with the aid of a wheelchair. Gradually, and with the aid of four separate brain surgeries, Paul began to regain the use of his legs, and his powers of speech returned. Both Renee and Paul were distraught that this accident had left their three children without a father in the home, and the expensive procedures that Paul needed had left them without the ability to remodel their home to make it wheelchair accessible. Renee decided to go out on a limb and ask Extreme Home Makeover for help. After sending a heartfelt plea to the show, her needs were heard by host Ty and a team of talented designers who unexpectedly showed up at the Giunta's doorstep, announcing that the family would be going to Disney World while they remodelled the Giunta's home.

From that point forward, Extreme Makeover's design team scrambled to figure out how to remodel each area of the home, including the childrens' rooms. When Paige Hemmis, one of the designers, approached us with a request to help them with Cameron's room, which had previously been filled with penguin decorations, we just couldn't say no! We hunted through our warehouse for only the best penguin items to send little Cameron's way so he would have the arctic room of his dreams when his dad came to live with his family.

Here are some of the penguin items we sent along:

When Cameron burst into his room after the family had returned, he only had one word for the camera: "Penguins!!!" The team from Extreme Makeover had turned his room into an antarctic penguin playground, with our stuffed penguins everywhere, a box full of penguin toys and books, walls painted to look like an antarctic landscape, and (we thought this was the coolest part) a slide at the edge of his bed that led down into an igloo-like structure!

We're sure that Da Bruiser, the Peek-a-Boo pillow, YZ Dude, and all of the other penguins were just as happy to join such a loving household as the Giuntas were to have them.

You can watch Extreme Makover: Home Edition this Fall at 8:00 PM on ABC, or watch past episodes at ABC.com. The penguins, of course, you can find at The Penguin Gift Shop!

Here are some photographs of Cameron's room post-makeover: