On Mother’s Day, 2006, after four days of rain that flooded much of southern New Hampshire, Rey and Casey Voisine watched helplessly as their Manchester home became filled with water—and worried about getting their four young sons out of the house.

“The water came in quick,” recalled Rey Voisine. “First it was ankle deep, but then it kept coming up and up. By the time we called the fire department, the water was up to our electrical outlets. It didn’t dawn us until afterward that we were standing in water—and could have been electrocuted.”

Fortunately, the firemen safely escorted the couple and their sons out of the home. The house, however, would be torn down—and the family forced to move into a hotel for a month and then into a tiny second floor apartment—next door to the Voisines’ own vacant property!

“My wife had a hard time looking at that empty lot every day,” Voisine lamented.

To make matters worse, the Voisines faced monthly payments for rent and the mortgage they have on a home that no longer existed. Further, there would be no forthcoming insurance reimbursement. Although the family had homeowners insurance, they did not have flood insurance.

But, the family’s luck would change with the arrival of a crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to build the Voisines a five bedroom, 3,000 square-foot home (plus a garage), erected on a lot measuring just 50 feet wide!

A community comes to the rescue

For Rey Voisine, the entire Extreme Makeover: Home Edition experience was eye-opening. “Such an amazing number of people were here to work and so much was donated to us,” he noted. “Some of the local companies who helped us really couldn’t afford to do what they did—but they did it anyway.”

Even before the Voisines’ new home was revealed to a national audience during the Jan. 27, 2008, edition of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Harleysville had already insured it—free of charge for the next year. And, Watson Insurance Agency, Inc. of Manchester purchased a year’s worth of flood insurance for the family through Harleysville’s flood operation.

The family was the eighth Harleysville has helped since establishing a connection with the ABC series in 2006.

“Being able to have insurance for a year and heating the place are big things for us right now,” said Rey Voisine. “I can’t tell you how much weight it took off my shoulders not to have to pay for an insurance policy this year—it’s huge!”

A visit to the Voisines

On Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, the Voisines received a visit from their new insurers.

The Voisines’ new lighthouse-style home, rising majestically against a gray, New Hampshire sky

Rey Voisine (second from left) receives a certificate symbolizing one year of free homeowners insurance from (left to right) Harleysville’s Dave Sides and the Watson Insurance Agency’s Kim Dowse and Justin Watson.

Trevin Voisine relaxes in the chairlift-style bench in his brother Patrick’s bedroom, decorated in a snowboarding motif by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition designer Tanya McQueen.