By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
NILES - When Lesley Bookout found herself jumping up and down and yelling Saturday night, it wasn't to thaw out from Niles' frosty inaugural Hunter Ice Festival.
No, the source of her excitement was something heartwarming she saw on a television program she taped while she was away volunteering on the committee.
In her defense, Bobbie said she did tell Lesley's husband, State Farm Insurance agent Mel Bookout.
Ironically, it was the infamous blizzard of January 1978 which was the last icicle of Michigan winter for the Rices, who lived at 1611 Cedar St. as Steve moved through the grades at Eastside Elementary, Ring Lardner Junior High and Niles Senior High.
Rice said Tuesday afternoon from Phoenix that she can venture into the mountains if she needs a "snow fix," but otherwise, the Blizzard of '78 "was it."
The ABC program was taped Dec. 11-Dec. 17.
Bobbie said "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" volunteers go at it about 20 hours a day, grabbing a few hours of sleep and eating at a kitchen on-site in the gritty Los Angeles neighborhood known in the 1960s as Watts.
Bobbie's husband, Robert, was a Realtor in Niles. They have three children. Daughter Kathy Meyertons is a certified public accountant who lives in Austin, Texas. She is the mother of four children.
Steve and his wife, Therese, gave the Rices their other two grandchildren, Travis, 13, and Garrett, 11.
Their son, Eric, who lives in Phoenix, is a carpenter. He is the reason they moved to Berrien County, so he could attend the hearing impaired program in Berrien Springs.
Bobbie said Steve is a commercial contractor in California who owns RCI Builders in Thousand Oaks. He was invited to participate by swimming pool contractor Tim Ahern, a fellow West Lake Village resident he knows from church.
They didn't know initially they would be building two houses.
At one point, 45 electricians were at work wiring.
Steve was shown overcome with emotion.
She said Steve studied construction management at Central Michigan University and Arizona State University after they moved from Niles. Before he went all the way west, Steve worked for a large contractor in Chicago which was responsible for adding on to Northwestern University. Through Pepper West he transferred to San Diego, where he helped build its tallest residential building before eventually striking out on his own.