Jimmy Gearhart, a security officer for the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show, directs cars and onlookers away from the home of Carol Girard at 100 Preston City Rd. in Voluntown, Conn.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

VOLUNTOWN, Conn. — Lucas Girard, 11, learned this week that he won the role of Willy Wonka in his school play. Yesterday, he learned that he’s going to Disney World and that when he comes back next Thursday, the day he turns 12, host Ty Pennington will send the bus away to reveal the family’s new house.

Lucas is in seventh grade at Voluntown Elementary, near where Route 138 from Hope Valley and Route 165 from Exeter converge in Connecticut not far from Beach Pond.

Since his dad lost his job, their house burned and the bank foreclosed on them, Lucas and his siblings have been living with their mother and grandmother in Old Lyme, commuting the 40 miles to school every day.

Only four months ago, the last day of June, Lucas and his little sister Hannah, 7, went swimming with their dad, Thomas Girard, 45, and their oldest brother, Marc, 18, who had just graduated from Norwich Free Academy. They went to Green Falls Pond in Pachaug State Forest, not far from the pond at Yawgoog Boy Scout Camp in Hopkinton.

Their father started having difficulty in the water. Marc, who intended to study for the priesthood, made sure Lucas and Hannah were safe. Then he tried to save his father. He couldn’t.

Thomas Girard was declared dead at the pond. Marc was taken to Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, where he died the next day.

Yesterday, the four Girard children and their mother, Carol Girard, were greeted by Pennington’s knock, learning they had been selected over four other southeastern Connecticut families.

Lucas also learned that he would be excused from play rehearsals while he and his family spend a week at Disney World.

But first they had work to do.

They had to be filmed and interviewed at their grandmother’s house. Then they rode in Pennington’s famous bus to their old house in Voluntown. They had to get off, get back on and get off again several times for the cameras.

In their old yard, out of view of friends, neighbors, volunteers and news cameras straining for a glimpse, they met the builders and project managers, the camera operators, the sound mixers, the key people from the television show.

Traffic was detoured and burly security officers joked to onlookers they would be Tasered if they didn’t stay back.

Just before noon, the four children walked across their old yard to meet the press, banded together like survivors of a series of unfortunate events, or like they’d just arrived in Narnia.

Lucas stood between his brother, Andy, 17, and sister Jacqueline, 15. Andy held Hannah in his arms. Cameras closed in and microphones were shoved at them. Jacqueline fielded most of the questions. The children brightened when friends from church and across-the-street neighbors shouted greetings.

Demolition will begin this morning. The Girards’ fire-damaged house and the rental unit next door will be pushed into a hole, just as Kenny and Doreen Silva’s house in Warwick was pushed into a hole last February, when Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s Bravo team filmed an episode in Warwick that aired in May.

The Voluntown episode is scheduled to be shown Feb. 8.

More than 2,000 volunteers will work in shifts around the clock. In 106 hours, a dream house will stand where the Girard nightmare began.

After the fire in August of 2007, the family lived in a tent, then a camper. They were evicted for foreclosure, but when Voluntown lived up to its name, as a community that pulls together to help each other, the bank forgave their debt and gave them the deed.

After the father and son died, family friend Johanna Kotecki, of Griswold, started a fund and sent an application to the show. A nearby community of Franciscan Friars made a video to send with the application. Their story caught the production company’s interest and ignited the community’s giving spirit.

The makeover site is at 100 Preston City Rd. in Voluntown. Visitors who would like to see the project are asked to bring a canned good or a toy to the staging area in Plainfield. Shuttles will bring onlookers to the site. A blood drive is being held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Voluntown Elementary.

Lucas will have plenty of time to learn his Willy Wonka Junior lines. The school play won’t hit the stage until March 27.

dnaylor@projo.com