Home Town Takeover’s Dave and Jenny Marrs Recall Sweet Reaction From Fort Morgan Community [Exclusive]
It was as though they won the lottery – which essentially is what happened for the community of Fort Morgan, Colorado on Home Town Takeover Season 2. HGTV stars Dave and Jenny Marrs recalled the heartwarming response from the community when they learned they were chosen for the “takeover.”
“We were wondering if they were really going to be surprised,” Jenny recalled to Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “And the town really did not know. All of the planning that went into it was top secret. And then on the big town rally that is on the first episode, they just thought they were coming to –” Dave added, “Be a finalist.”
Dave and Jenny Marrs said the community reaction was ‘cool’ to winning ‘Home Town Takeover’
Unsuspecting community members gathered to find out if their town was chosen for Home Town Takeover. “And so they thought that this was happening in other towns around the country,” Jenny said. “Everyone was gathering together and they were doing one last big rally. And then when we came out and told them that their town had been chosen, they were genuinely really surprised.”
“It was just cool,” she recalled. “We keep saying it, but you could feel the excitement in the town and particularly that day, but that was the beginning. It just kept building. Every time we went back, it was like they were more excited and yeah, it was pretty cool.”
Dave was especially excited because he grew up an hour away from Fort Morgan. “I grew up in a little town way, way smaller than Fort Morgan,” he said. “So I had been there before. So it was actually really good for me to be able to come back to my birth state and do such an amazing project there.”
What was ‘Home Town Takeover’ with Ben and Erin Napier like for Dave and Jenny Marrs?
Dave and Jenny joined Home Town Takeover Season 1 hosts Ben and Erin Napier. “I think Jenny and Erin have known each other for quite a while and have been talking. Ben and I are typical guys. We talk when we see each other and say, hey, and then we talk the next time we see each other,” Dave joked.
“But yeah, they’re great. They’ve been just great people to work with,” he continued. “I think they share a lot of the same values that we have. They love small towns and just this idea of helping to uplift some of these small towns. It’s just such a great thing that HGTV is doing, Ben and Erin, like everyone that was involved in this project. It’s a feel-good project and we just need more of them.”
Dave and Jenny Marrs will have even more HGTV talent and muscle this season. Special guests include Jonathan Knight from Farmhouse Fixer and Molly Yeh from Girl Meets Farm.
“Struggling small towns can do the hard work to become healthy again. It’s difficult, but nothing great is ever easy,” Erin told HGTV. “And while it is scary to take on a project of this scale, it helps so much to have a team to help carry the load.”
Dave and Jenny felt the collective love from the community
The six-episode season will feature the Napiers and the Marrs as they mobilize 10 all-star HGTV and Food Network talent to help complete 18 renovation projects across homes, local businesses and public spaces.
The goal for the renovations, which range from refreshing a local bowling alley and revitalizing a public park to sprucing up the downtown business district and updating homes of local heroes, will be to amplify the town’s charm, build community pride and catapult Fort Morgan into a new era of limitless potential, according to HGTV.
“What I love is this small town feel of this collectivism, of just coming together to work with your neighbor to make your town a more beautiful, better place,” Dave said. “It was infectious and it just seemed to spread more and more every week we were there.”
‘Home Town Takeover’ will show how people come together
Dave and Jenny Marrs recounted endless acts of kindness and stories from their Home Town Takeover experience. One of the community members owned a sawmill and immediately started collaborating with everyone.
“He really helped a lot of the projects, the woodworking stuff because obviously, Dave doesn’t have a shop there,” Jenny shared. “So Dave would work with Justin and he ended up getting Citizen of the Year from the Fort Morgan Council because of all the work he did on the show for all of the projects. I mean, he was involved in every project. He gave so much of his time.”
“And it was all free. He just volunteered to help however he could,” she added. “And we would call him at 11:00 at night and be like, ‘Hey, we need some more shelves in this house. Can you grab some?’ And he went and got them and it was awesome.”
Home Town Takeover Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 23, at 8 p.m. EST on HGTV and streaming the same day on discovery+
