- Earlier this season, we met an amazing family
dealing with ALS.
Take a look.
- Matt has been a city of Pittsburgh firefighter
for eight years now,
and he has been diagnosed with ALS for seven.
We had to accept, you know,
the cards that we were dealt with,
and we have.
- Yeah, we've been having fun ever since.
[cheers and applause]
- There is so much going on in your lives,
and the positivity in you saying,
"We've been having fun ever since,"
that just got to me.
- I think we've always tried to be positive,
but, I mean, through this whole experience,
you get to see the love and generosity
of other people on a regular basis.
- And you have all these firefighters
who have taken on your shifts.
They're working extra shifts so you get paid.
- And they've been doing it for over three years now.
- We want to help you out,
and we're gonna give you a check for $50,000.
[cheers and applause]
- [crying] Oh, my God.
- Wow, yup.
[cheers and applause]
Matt and Jess are incredible,
and when our friends at Houzz heard their story,
they wanted to help.
Maybe you've heard of Houzz.
They have a great app for decorating
and remodeling your home.
You can get everything you need all in one place.
Matt and Jess have no idea that Houzz
will be sending one of their professional designers
to work with them and make over their living room,
so we're gonna check in with Jeannie
who's outside of their house right now.
Jeannie? Hi, Jeannie.
- Hi, Ellen. - Hi.
- Say hi, guys. - Hey, guys.
- Hi. Hi, Ellen.
- Hi, who are you with?
- Oh, Ellen, I am here with a few Matt and Jess's
closest friends, some of the firefighters
of Engine 32.
Say hello to Ellen, you guys.
all: Hi, Ellen! - Hi, hi.
Listen, I've said it before. I love firefighters.
Thank you for all that you do.
And I heard that after Matt was diagnosed with ALS,
you helped make their home wheelchair-accessible, right?
- That's right, Ellen. We certainly did.
Through awesome community involvement
and extraordinary donations of time and money,
we were able to install a wheelchair ramp
and put an addition on their house
to make it comfortable for Matt.
- That's amazing,
and you're still covering his shifts
so he gets paid, right?
- Absolutely, we're gonna do this
as long as he needs us.
They're family to us,
and anything that they need, we're there for them.
- Okay, like I said, you guys are amazing,
and he's lucky to have friends like you.
I'm gonna call Jess right now to check in,
and she has no idea y'all are out there.
And we will surprise her.
There goes Jeannie's famous whisper.
[laughter]
[both whispering]
- Come on, here we go, Ellen. - Come on, here we go.
- Hello? - Hey, Jess.
- Hi. - Hi, Jess.
It's your friend Ellen DeGeneres.
How you doing?
- [screaming]
- Hi.
[cheers and applause]
I'm calling to see how you and Matt are doing.
- Oh, my God!
Oh, my God. We are so good.
Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.
We miss you so much.
- What did you do with the check from Shutterfly?
- Okay, so first things first,
we have our priorities straight in this house.
We made sure that we got cable
so we can watch you every single day.
- There you go. - And we do.
- That's right.
- And we got Matt's bed. That was a big issue.
[speaking indistinctly]
And we paid off our van, and, you know,
we wanted to give a small portion
back to the fire department.
- Hey, listen, would you do me a favor?
Will you go to your door, please?
Your living room door.
- [laughing]
- Oh, hey, guys!
Can we come in?
[cheers and applause]
It's been raining-- - It's Ellen!
- Say hi to Ellen, girls.
- Hi. Hi.
Hi, Matt.
- Look who else is here. Who else came, Jess and Matt?
- We have-- - Two other people.
- Oh, my God! - Two other guys.
- We have a surprise, Jeannie.
Do you want to tell them what the surprise is?
- Yes, okay, okay, Jess, Matt.
Ellen sent us here with some pretty big news.
So Houzz is going to completely make over
your entire living room.
They're gonna paint. They're gonna decorate.
They're gonna give you brand-new furniture.
How fantastic is that?
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you so much.
- So we're gonna check in in a couple of weeks.
We're gonna see your brand-new living room
and maybe something else too, all right?
So I will speak with you soon. It's great to see you again.
- Thank you so much. - I'm sending my love.
- Thank you so much, Ellen.
- Oh, I'm sending my love to you.
Thank you so much, Jeannie and everybody, for being there.