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Renovation work on conjoined twins’ home will be community effort

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Conjoined twin brothers Ron Galyon, left and Don relax in their Dayton home. A charity is working to renovate their brother's home to allow them to move in and make it more accessible.

Staff photo by Jim Noelker Conjoined twin brothers Ron Galyon, left and Don relax in their Dayton home. A charity is working to renovate their brother's home to allow them to move in and make it more accessible.

By Kim Margolis, Staff Writer Updated 6:08 PM Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The charity that will conduct a renovation of a Beavercreek home so conjoined twins Donnie and Ronnie Galyon can move in with their brother, is visiting Dayton on Friday, Jan. 29.

Christian Youth Corps Inc., a Machias, N.Y.-based charity, will hold a news conference that day to let the public know how it can help work on the addition to the home of Jim Galyon.

The charity was founded in 2002 and has done work on other homes of handicapped people, but usually stay in the New York state area.

Peter J. Andrews, founder and president of the group, said in December, CYC built a 3,800-square-foot home for the family of Dalton and Wyatt Eisenhardt. Dalton, 10, and Wyatt, 8 have a rare genetic disorder called unbalanced translocation chromosome 15. The boys have no sense of touch, and extensive lung damage. They use tracheotomy tubes to breathe, and feeding tubes to eat.

Before CYC stepped in, they lived in a rental home with poor air flow.

A feature of their new home is a state-of-the-art air filtration system, which will allow the boys to have cleaner air to breathe.

“It’s really making a huge difference for them,” Andrews said.

He said he hopes to affect the Galyons’ lives as positively.

Currently, Donnie and Ronnie, 58, live in a small Dayton house, and are in declining health with the toll of arthritis wearing particularly hard on them.

Christian Youth Corps Inc. will supervise and fund a project that will create door widths able to accommodate the two. Also, a system will be constructed to hoist the brothers, to make showering easier, for instance.

The Galyon brothers also will get a new wheelchair and a new bed. Currently, they have to sleep sitting up, and their wheelchair is in poor condition. CYC has also arranged to have shoes specially made for them.

The project is kind of like the television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” but better, Andrews said. While the television show has corporate sponsors who aid the project, CYC helps create a system of local people who will still help after the build is completed.

“We come in and utilize the whole community so they have a network,” he said. “When we leave, they’re gonna have a whole bunch of friends around them.”

It’s already beginning, as Andrews said he has had offers from nurses willing to volunteer to care for the twins after they are in their new home.

“I’m overwhelmed with just the little bit of information people have and the overwhelming response we’re getting from the Dayton area,” he said.

The work is scheduled to start in early spring.