STURBRIDGE, Mass. -- Although it didn't make prime-time television, the residents in the town of Sturbridge recently rallied around a young woman recovering from a terrible illness in their own version of ABC's "Extreme Makeover Home Edition."

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Jim Boyd Reports On Project

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that Hollie Vilandre lost her legs in a long battle with meningitis.

Hollie played high school basketball at Tantasqua Regional High School, but now she walks on artificial limbs and has limited use of one hand after contracting bacterial meningitis in October 2003 during her junior year in college. She was hospitalized until March this year.

As she was about to come home, neighbors in Sturbridge got together and essentially built new living quarters for her.

"We added a deck, an elevator, a bedroom, handicapped bathroom and a living room," said volunteer and developer Mark Judson.

Judson and 42 of his builders, trades people, and suppliers built the accessible addition on to Hollie's parents' home, at no cost to the family. It took about five months to build and would have cost about $85,000.

Hollie's dad, Michael Vilandre, works in a tire shop and said he could not have made the changes without the help of his neighbors.

"Eventually it would have got done. I would have to take loans, probably go into debt to get things done -- but not like this," he said.

The original idea was to build a ramp on the house. But builders soon realized that was unrealistic. Instead, the addition was built so Hollie could have her own space and access to the rest of the house.

"This addition has (given me) my own privacy again, and get ready by myself again, and get my life back together again. This meant, like, so much," Hollie said.

Don Alarie did much of the fund raising for the project.

"We had our own little mini-version of home edition of 'Extreme Makeover' here in town. It's the biggest thing I've ever seen and the most rewarding thing I was ever involved in," said Alarie.

In addition to the work on Hollie's home, her neighbors are also trying to educate people, especially students, about the need not only to make sure they are vaccinated for meningitis before going off to college, but to get second shots.

The initial inoculations are said to lose their effectiveness after about two years.