New home brings fresh start

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Holt — Arlene Nickless watched her late husband’s dreams come true last week: Her family now has a stable home and their three sons have bright futures ahead of them. After entering their new home, built by ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” for the first time Friday, the Nickless family received more good news on Saturday. MSU Provost Kim Wilcox presented them with two-year scholarships to complement the two-year scholarships they had already received from Lansing Community College. “It really was my husband’s dream (to see the boys become Spartans),” said Nickless, whose husband, Tim, died in January after a seven-year battle with hepatitis C.

“He had big, big plans for them and I, truthfully, didn’t know how I was going to make those happen.”

Future Spartans

The Nickless boys — Aaron, 11; Noah, 9; and Andrew, 7 — are the youngest recipients to ever receive tuition waivers from MSU. MSU’s Office of Financial Aid estimated the grant’s value to be more than $107,000, adjusted for inflation.

“It’s always great to welcome people into the Spartan family,” Wilcox said. “The scholarships are one way of assuring their opportunity to do that. But it’s also a challenge — the expectation is that they’re going to prepare themselves, academically, to be Spartans.”

Michael Moloney, a designer for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” said the scholarships were the most important part of the week for the family.

“This is probably better than building a house,” he said.

Community outreach

Arlene Nickless said the experience still has her in shock.

“I’m still having a hard time believing that’s my home,” Nickless said. “I didn’t know where we were gonna be … I seriously was looking at travel-trailers.”

Karen Schroeder, co-owner of Mayberry Homes, said fundraising for the family will continue, but as of Saturday just less than $60,000 had been raised to help pay off the $140,000 mortgage on the old home.

The new home was given to the family for free, but the family will still be responsible for paying property taxes on the home.

In addition to cash donations, many community businesses donated their services to the family, from insurance policies to dental services.

“I am so proud to be a part of this community,” Schroeder said. “You’ve been awesome, thank you.”

Nickless said the outpouring of support for the Mid-Michigan family was overwhelming.

“To know my boys are going to be taken care of … something their dad wanted so much to do … something I worried about every day, ‘How was I going to make things happen for them?’” Nickless said. “And just knowing now that so many people have stepped up and helped us … it’s been incredible.”

Taking it all in

Two of the family’s neighbors, Kim Hallenbeck and Lin Shaffer, said having the commotion of the construction site at 2376 Eifert Road never bothered them. Hallenbeck said she couldn’t wait to see the family enjoy their new home.

“It’s just amazing,” Hallenbeck said. “It’s a beautiful home.”

Nickless said she hoped the experience would allow her sons to be themselves again, after how their father’s illness and death affected them.

After a whirlwind week — being woken up by the show’s host Ty Pennington and his crew Sept. 26, vacationing in Orlando, Fla., at Walt Disney World, flying home and having the home revealed Friday, spending Friday night in a hotel and meeting the press Saturday — Nickless said she was looking forward to slowing down.

“I’m looking forward to just being able to relax,” Nickless said.

“To finally be able to relax after years and years of stress and tension and worry. To not have to worry anymore.”

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