My name is Gina Centauro, and I run a charity called Rescuing Families with my husband, Vinny.

And my brother, Michael.

We rebuild homes for families in need to make them safe and handicapped accessible.

- Our charity helps underprivileged families get back in their homes and live like normal human beings again.

That's the main goal of our charity.

- Because everybody deserves to live in a home that's safe, comfortable and functional for their needs.

We don't want these people to feel forgotten.

We want them to know that there are people that want to help them have a better life.

That's how it's done, folks.

Keith, Karen and Olivia.

Olivia is Keith's stepdaughter, actually.

But he adopted her like it was his daughter.

She's got epilepsy, cerebral palsy, just to name the two major ones, truthfully, she's got quite a few- A compromised immune system.

And then a few years ago, Keith was diagnosed with ALS.

And that's kind of what got us here.

Because Karen, his wife, is basically taking care of the household and him, you know, and Keith and Olivia and working.

So, they really needed help to be able to allow Keith to get around the house easier.

When we met Keith, he was actually walking.

But six months later, he was wheelchair bound.

His body is eventually going to shut down on him.

And it's a rapid progression for someone watching it.

But for him, I would imagine it feels like an eternity.

You know, you're trapped in your own body, and, you know, it's it's rough.

It's rough to watch.

You know, it's rough to see him and say, wow.

Not to be morbid, but I'm not.

This guy's not going to be around, you know, maybe in another 3 or 4 years.

You know, that's hard to imagine.

And I'm not even his family member.

You know, everybody thinks not me.

And these foundations think, well, you know, we're raising money.

You can hire a contractor, is what they told them.

Hire a contractor to modify your home.

And then a small charity like ours has to step in and and do the work for them.

We have a few surprises for them.

One is obviously the window in the bathroom.

Window in the bathroom was a big deal.

They didn't even know about it.

We didn't know about it till we opened the wall.

The next thing we're going to do is we're going to try to do the fireplace.

We're going to put stone on the fireplace for them, because that was another area that they were like, eh that's a surprise.

And both decks.

So we're kind of working double time right now.

KEITH: Well, we bought the house a year before we got married.

We got married in 2018, in February.

We were renting there for a while to try to get a feel for the house and make sure it was something we wanted, and it just fit.

You know, we started doing things to make it our own.

Its a strange story because the house that we purchased, the woman that was there prior to us, had passed from ALS and that was prior to me getting diagnosed.

So this, it's a strange thing that I happened to be there after months of testing.

He diagnosed me It was from one doctor to another.

I kept getting pushed around.

And when he diagnosed me, I felt like I had an out of body experience, because I was so familiar with it and saw the damage, saw how much of a monster it really was, and, got scared.

A year ago, I was walking with a cane.

A few months after that, I was using a walker and then and things just took off from there.

And it's not just the fact that you're losing the use of your legs.

It's.

It's everything else.

It's your limbs.

It's your breathing.

It's your self-esteem.

There's so many things involved with, this kind of diagnosis.

It's, been beyond a challenge.

We're beyond psyched about it.

And excited.

Just, a simple thing sitting in my backyard.

Listening to the birds.

Silly stuff, but, you know, it takes a lot of stress off when you have your own space and you can actually move around.

And it was difficult before I was destroying walls.

I couldn't fit through doorways.

And, I think now it'll be a lot easier.

That's what I'm hoping.

How long did you guys date before you got married?

- Five years?

- Yeah.

- Hey.

Thats like us.

- Close to it.

So who kind of pushed off the-?

- Me.

- Me too.

- He had no idea.

But we were going to wait to get married.

And then With his diagnosis, He said - You know.

- He wanted a big wedding and.

- No time like the present.

I think we closed two months after we got married, so we were already in contract to buy this house.

- Oh, wow.

- Karen painted the fireplace.

That was white.

- Dont look at that.

And I showed her finally.

- How he gets up.

- How I get up.

- GINA: You don't even want to see it because it's probably nerve wracking.

- KAREN: Yeah, its scary.

- KEITH: Ill have a hand on the wall, And then I have one on the counter.

Did I mention?

- Yeah - Towards the shower.

Oh, wait, I got the toilet.

So, I grab the toilet tank.

I got that hand there.

I'll get this hand over here.

So it's like a method.

Oh, am I going to be lost without my toilet to hold on to when I'm coming out of the shower?

- Am I going to miss lifting your leg up?

no.

- My my little plastic handrails - You'll be amazed how easy your life will be after this.

Yeah.

- Trust me.

I look forward to it because showers were my thing.

And now its like ugh.

- Your dad did the same thing.

Yeah.

System.

VINNY: One of the many reasons why Keith and Karen bought this house, was because this porch, For us, what we're going to do for Keith, we're going to make this space a lot larger for him.

Right now, this space is not handicap accessible.

We have a staircase there.

We have an obstacle right there where he can't even exit the house or enter the house using this deck, we're going to give him a new one.

We're going to use a composite decking where there's no maintenance, there's no splinters, there's nothing they have to worry about.

They can just hose it down and that is it.

And that's for years and years.

So this bathroom has many challenges One of the first challenges you see before you even come in here is the doorway is too narrow.

Okay, on the left side, we have their kitchen.

On the right side we have their bedroom, which we can't go into either one.

We're going to work in the in the footprint we have.

From the vanity to the wall is not big enough measurements for him to get in here safely.

So that's going to be one of the first things we take out.

We remove it and we're going to give him a sink, a floating sink that he can come onto here and access.

The toilet bowl- There's not enough space from the wall to the toilet bowl for him to access and safely make the turn into the shower.

So our design that that Gina and I had come up with, we're going to turn the toilet.

This is your standard shower pen.

It has a four inch lip.

He's unable to get over that lip and step over.

We're going to install a barrier free shower where he can roll in from that door and be able to make this turn and roll right in.

Were still filling up.

That's what I'm saying.

Something's not right here.

And thats even with the main of the whole house shut down right now.

So if we disconnect this toilet, the chance of it flooding into the downstairs is pretty high.

Once we remove this wall, the water is going to continue filling.

And we have so much demo to do in this bathroom, get the vanities out, get the shower out, This is going to be- This is going to be on our way.

When you're doing demo of something breaks here, we're going to have a flood.

Lets just turn that here- We're not going to take that out just yet, We're going to start with the vanity, do our thing.

- MICHAEL: Well work around that.

- VINNY: I don't need this delaying the whole day and getting nothing done here today.

Initially, you know, we wanted to give them a window for their bathroom because, you know, they needed more light in there.

So, Gina and I decided we were going to go ahead and do that.

So today as we started the demo to get the window installed, we found out that there's so much things that were wrong on this wall that were done previous, that they had contractors here that did this shoddy work.

And here we are now wanting to give them a nice, beautiful window.

And we're tackled with extra and extra days of work.

at this moment, we were smooth sailing until today.

But, you know, doing construction, we anticipate these struggles and these things that pop up all the time.

Hey, we had a problem.

But.

When we chose the family, this situation, I knew It was going to hit me very hard, this situation- My dad had a similar disease to this where it attacked his muscles.

And again, he was wheelchair bound.

So I know exactly, what Keith is going through.

And I know what the family is going through because I faced that.

I had faced that every day until he passed away suddenly.

I know, what Keith needs in his home because I've done these renovations for my own family.

Keith is very similar on in his actions and the way he, the way he is about himself.

Very similar to my dad.

Well, the hospital called to give us an update about my dad, was kind of like an urgent matter.

My dad has been unresponsive since this morning with a very, very bad infection in his lung.

This has happened to us before with my mom.

So we're not unfamiliar with being in the middle of a job and having a family crisis.

Yeah, we're stopping for today, and, I'm I'd like to be closer to home God forbid anything happens or they need us there.

So, you know, he's being properly, you know, taken care of and, you know, get more information from the doctor.

Today we're finally getting the deck project.

This is one of the projects that that Keith is going to be so surprised when he sees it.

He has no idea we're doing this for him.

We're building this deck mainly because he's never been able to come out in front of his house and enjoy the neighborhood.

He's always been restricted to the back of the house.

Good.

What you see here in the holes, Thats our footings.

That's where the columns are going to go.

And they're going to hold the girders.

After this part gets completed, finally, we'll start being able to put the decking boards on and start building the railing system and so on.

So one of the beginning steps, what we did, we put the ledger board on the back of the house.

This is only our second day on it.

I think in the next few days you're going to see this deck really transform into something great and beautiful, that the familys really gonna be surprised when they see.

Yep, place.

Okay.

First yard sale of the season.

Our charity yard sale.

We usually hold them April to November throughout the year on the second weekend of the month, practically, it is our main bread and butter, you know, for fundraising.

And this is how we pay for building supplies, Or electricians and plumbers.

But as where were growing so quickly that you know, we're not going to be able to hold it just that our family, it's going to be growing a lot larger.

So maybe down the road we're going to see maybe we'll set up teams all over the nation, to help these families with these rescues, that would be the ultimate goal.

In ten years from now.

In about a year's time, it has grown into this monster.

Usually on a weekend, we can pull in close to almost $4,000 in a weekend.

So that is a major source of our fundraising Four people can do amazing things, but four people are spread very thin for all of this, so we can't always help everybody.

So our goal is definitely to to get bigger.

We need, we need more help.

We have a few more walls to tile All right.

What you notice here, this is pretty obvious, You'll see these self-leveling clips.

That's exactly what they are.

They're a self-leveling clip.

This is making sure that there's no lipage here.

So if tiles are uneven, you're going to see that, and then we got the sink to do and then lastly, we're going to finally tile this floor, give this place, a nice paint job and get this job completed, and get the toilet bowl back in, get this shower hooked up.

More of like an infinity edge.

It's just the design that we came up with.

So he'll be able to get under here with his wheelchair, which is the main goal of this thing.

And not hit his knees and be able to work comfortably at this station right here.

Again, it's the same product that you see on the walls.

So this is 100% waterproof, mold resistant, mold-free.

He'll never have no maintenance with these products that we're using.

Obviously this is going to help out Keith.

But Olivia as well, this is going to be a big help for her as well.

- MICHAEL: Gina, Vinny and I went to go see pop in the hospital, last Wednesday.

And, we saw him.

We were with him for about an hour, and I conked out about 11:30 at night.

Then I get a telephone call at midnight.

Woke me right up out of a dead sleep.

This can't be good.

And it was the resident, and he- the resident physician.

And he had said that I'm sorry, but your father passed away.

I guess in between all the craziness of the yard sale and working, at the Mauros you know, running back and forth to the hospital with my dad, we got a phone call on, Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday My days are all messed up now.

- That my dad had passed away.

You know, I wish people really understood that yes, they're out of pain.

And they're with God.

But I'm a little selfish.

I want them here.

I want my mom here.

I want my dad here.

I just think that we're a little too young to not have our parents.

You know, both parents are gone.

It's just, it's a little surreal for me right now.

I don't, I haven't completely wrap my head around it.

I have moments, I guess, where I'm fine.

You know, I feel fine, which makes me feel guilty because I feel like he's already becoming a memory.

We are seven days away, just about from reveal day.

Which is which is crazy because we have so much work to still do.

You know, we added a lot of things extra for this family.

We didn't just give them the upgrades they need.

We saw other things in the home that would make their living space even better for them and more enjoyable.

Naturally, we're contractors by trade, so we see things that are not right in the home, even though it's not going to make his getting around the home easier.

But aesthetically, it's going to make the home more beautiful for Karen and Keith.

Okay, so when we came in, it was not, it was lovely.

It was a brick, brick fireplace.

The brick had been painted and it looked like glazed.

And every time I pointed it out, Karen would, Karen Mauro would make a face at me and say she hated it, but, she's definitely not expecting this.

So it's going to be a nice surprise for her to come in and and be able to say, wow, you know, I'm expecting her, truthfully, to probably the minute she sees this to start crying because I kept asking Karen, what are we doing for you?

You know, it's.

Yes, it's about making it, handicap accessible for for Keith and for Olivia.

Yes.

And that does make her life a little easier.

But what is it that would make you smile at the end of the day?

What can we do for you?

We are getting all the, the the leveling spaces, off the tiles.

That's the goal today.

I think we can achieve that goal.

- I don't see why we couldn't.

We got a lot of cut outs for the, shower box and the window, which is going to take some time.

So what we want to do here, what with the, the pattern that Gina wants to follow through with it.

If you see the direction on the tiles on the ceiling, we want that to swoop down the back wall, and it's going to sweep through the shower and right out the door.

The same pattern.

We have a nice - Oh my god.

- This is an engineered hardwood floor.

- Thats hardwood?

- Yes, thats hardwood there.

Oh wow.

Hi!

- Hi!

So now we painted, this is all painted.

I used a linen color.

So it's not yellowy.

It's not white.

- Oh my god.

Wow.

- I repainted your kitchen.

It's a little bit darker than the color in the hallway.

You know, I told you you hated it.

Did you think I wasn't going to change that for you?

I knew you hated it.

It's not just about form, you know.

and function, It's about something that bothered you.

And I wanted you to love to love your room the minute you walked in.

Okay?

And it was getting so difficult to get in and out of this house, and, just being able to enter with these was amazing.

What they've done for us.

Rescuing Families did so much for us that, they don't know how much we appreciate it.

And they helped and changed our lives for the better.

I know you haven't even seen it all, No, we havent even seen it all - What is your reaction to what youve seen?

I was amazed by the backyard and I couldn't even come in because I forgot that there was so much more here - My leg is slipping.

Honestly, the other deck you had was hanging on by a thread.

It was.

It wasn't attached to the house - It wasn't attached to the house It wasn't buried into the ground.

It wasn't anything.

The other deck.

Other than it was going to fall down on you guys.

Our goal was for you on a nice, wonderful day- - Oh wow.

You guys come out here and enjoy the front of your house like you were never able to used to be able to do.

Can I turn around?

- Sorry, I was daydreaming.

- You guys you guys have a nice safe staircase there.

- Oh wow, its normal width.

- Yep, a normal width staircase.

This is what we do.

We're not just going to give you a bathroom.

- We re-did this.

Oh, no.

You told me that- - You needed other things.

And, you know.

Sean was standing there talking to me- And I was putting them all in- Okay, what did I tell you at the fundraiser?

We can take care of everything, right?

We were going to make it easier for you, okay?

Yeah,you definitely have.

- Think we should see the the best part.

- Lets get out of the rain.

Yes, yes, yes!

All right.

- Oh, wow.

Oh, it's a whole different thing when you walk in.

Wow.

It's a whole different house.

Thank you.

One of the biggest obstacles.

Why you couldn't get in here the right way was the doorway was too small.

So the first thing we did was enlarge the doorway.

That was one of the easier projects out of the whole bathroom.

Dont worry if you hit anything he's got steel-toe boots on.

No more issues.

No more issues coming in here.

Wow.

- Come, Come around me.

- There's no transition.

- No transitions anymore.

The sink was handmade by us.

The cabinet.

Everything.

Everything.

The shelves, the window we found We put a window in.

Did you see?

- Its so cool!

You can lean on that, you can brace yourself on this thing.

this is not going anywhere.

One of the biggest challenges for you, was that curve, to get into the shower.

It was a matter of time before I couldnt take a shower.

That's where it was getting to.

- Yeah.

And with the system that we use now, this is called a barrier-free.

All right.

That means you have no more barriers, Keith.

Wow.

That's a perfect height.

Perfect height.

Wow.

We don't want to just give you a handicapped bathroom.

We want to give you a bathroom Then you're going to have, you know, in your home that's that's lovely.

And and it feels like home doesn't feel.

like a hospital.

- Its not a hospital bathroom.

- This one here.

- Whatever one you want to use.

We can- which is great- We can lower it.

- Look!

Lower it down.

Wow.

Yeah.

Perfect.

Today has been a great day.

Today was the reveal.

Keith, Karen, and Oliva came home for the first time in about two and a half months.

Important thing was for it to be functional for Keith and Olivia especially.

But also it's got like a homey feel for them that they're that it's not cold and clinical, that it's got warmth to it.

We thought it wasn't going to go down to the last hour.

But it did.

But most importantly, it's not about us.

It's about this family coming back home and being able to survive in their home again.

That's what's important.

From here on out, we continue on what we're doing and our mission.

We continue on to the next family, another disabled family member that needs help in our community.

And again, we're going to help them out as well and give them what they need to be able survive in their house.

That's the bottom line.

These families have to be able to survive and live like normal human beings.

I think, seeing Keith being able to get in from his back door made me the happiest today, even though that wasn't a, you know, a huge transformation.

We went, you know, we just changed the door, made it a little bit smaller and a working door.

We made it, but for me seeing someone to have the accessibility, to be able to come in their home and leave their home without struggle, that's what it's all about here.

And again, that's what we did.

After all the work that we put in.

It was nice to finally, see them come back into the house to have, like, all these cameras in our faces and everybody just coming over right away.

But it was nice to see the level of support that was there for us and for the for the Mauros.

They've noticed every little thing, every step of the way which, which is amazing.

And to be able to have a true reveal where they never even had an inkling of the level of work that that we actually accomplished.

And to see the look of appreciation, you know, and and just knowing that the house is okay now, you know.

- KEITH: It doesn't seem like a deal to, to most people.

But, to me, it's huge.

That's that's one of my biggest hurdles is, is being able to, get in and out of a bathroom or be able to utilize the bathroom like most people do every day.

It's exciting, you know, because theres so much to see.

And, it's it's very difficult to catch everything at first.

Because you're taken back by the crowd.

But, you know, it's it's a lot of change and, but it's all good stuff.

There's, there's there's nothing I would change as far as the way it was done.

It's perfect.

An experience beyond belief.

I mean, these are total strangers at some point coming in and and offering to make these modifications to your home.

It it's it's unheard of.

What is next?

That's hard to answer.

That's, Live, try to enjoy life, you know.

Definitely having, having people over, you know, I can now kind of enjoy the house a little bit more.

Thats really it, you know, I just want to be able to, not struggle getting around.

And here we are.

So what's next is to live life a little bit.