Contact: David Bruce or Nikki Nietz, 808-990-3103

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii, Aug. 7, 2012 /Standard Newswire/ -- When ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew gave the McPhail family the keys to their new home, C.J. McPhail made a promise to pay it forward. Now he's getting the chance.

McPhail is traveling to Kona, Hawai'i with Rush Behnke, the lead builder of the McPhail home in the popular TV show, to participate in the Kona Summer Surge - a development initiative of the University of The Nations, Kona campus (UofN). According to Behnke, all UofN staff are volunteers and student tuition costs are based upon the economic strength of the student's home nation. This allows students from developing and economically challenged nations the opportunity to receive an education.

With the increase of student and staff numbers, the University has undertaken a major development initiative, Kona Summer Surge, the streamlined and concentrated construction process of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Through this initiative the university will construct new student dormitories, staff housing, cafeteria/kitchen, culinary school, and the Lokahi Transmedia Center.

Inspired by the vast number of volunteers that came to help Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build his new home, McPhail stated, "It doesn't stop there. When you do something that magnificent and that beautiful and that incredible, big things continue to happen." Thus, McPhail wants to "pay it forward'" to the University of the Nations because "[UofN] is about people that come together for a common cause, and I want to help tell this story."

This is will be the second time McPhail and his family have paid it forward to the islands. He is the father of two autistic sons, and an active spokesperson for Sparrow Clubs USA - a youth-based charity, providing financial and emotional support for critically ill children and their families. Sparrow Clubs partner with local schools to empower students to help families of special-needs children through charitable service to their communities. During the filming of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode, McPhail represented Sparrow Clubs USA to inaugurate its first chapter in the State of Hawai'i - in partnership with Island Pacific Academy in Kapolei, Oahu.

MCPhail will be speaking on his experience as an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition recipient at the University of the Nations, Kona campus, in the Ohana Court on Thursday, August 9 at 6:00 PM. The public is welcome.

More information about the McPhail family and this volunteer build, and Sparrow Clubs USA can be found at www.konasummersurge.com and www.sparrowclubs.org.

Founded in 1975, the University of the Nations, Kona campus is an international and interdenominational Christian university with an emphasis on changing lives that transform nations.