James Huling, voted “America’s Favorite” house guest on season 17 of the “Big Brother” television show on CBS, returned home to Tara Hall Home for Boys with a special gift Oct. 29.
He donated $1,250 in proceeds from his “#Hillbilly Asian BB17” T-shirt sales to the school where he lived from ages 10 to 17.
“This was my place of serenity growing up,” Huling said, while touring Tara Hall Thursday morning. “I would love to come back as a boy and live here. This is like paradise now.”
He said he would have liked to raise more money for the school, but he started the T-shirt promotion in the middle of the “Big Brother” season instead of the beginning.
“I didn’t have a lot of time to really push it,” Huling said. “But for what the shirts sold for and what people bought, I thought it was pretty cool.”
Tara Hall Executive Director Jim Dumm thought so, too.
“I think it is really great that he raised money for us,” Dumm said. “He could have blown off this part of his life, but we are glad that he appreciates his time here.”
Huling, who now lives in Texas, was adopted as an infant and was 10 years old when he went to Tara Hall in 1996, Dumm said. When he was a senior in high school, his adopted mother died and he left the school in 2003 to help his father take care of his younger brother and sister.
“He left here at the highest level, level 4,” Dumm said. “He had a job, a drivers license and a car.”
Huling said he would jump at the chance to be on a “Big Brother” All-Stars show and try for another half-million dollars, but he is not sure when – or if – that will happen. He will appear on the Halloween episode of “The Bold and The Beautiful” on CBS at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 30, Huling said.
He said if he is chosen to be on “Big Brother” again, he will use the same strategy he used on season 17.
“My whole strategy with that game was to be honest and own up to your mistakes and lies,” Huling said. “If you get caught, that’s what hurts you even more if you lie about it – just like in life.”
He said he learned that and many other lessons at Tara Hall. He recalled a mischievous time that he and a friend borrowed the Tara Hall van to go to the roller-skating rink in Georgetown. He was caught for driving too slow – about 10 miles per hour, according to a police officer who called Tara Hall.
“It wasn’t even about getting caught with the van, it was about letting Mr. Dumm down,” Huling said. “I can’t remember if we even went skating. I think we just went there and came back.”
Jennifer Cribb, administrative assistant at Tara Hall, is a “Big Brother” fan and said the James Huling on the show was the real James.
“What you saw on the show was him being himself,” she said. “He didn’t pretend to be anybody else.”
She referred to Huling’s tendency to scare and play practical jokes on his fellow contestants, especially the women, was not a surprise.
“James was always a prankster and that definitely showed on ‘Big Brother’,” she said. “He always knew how to brighten up a room.”
Dumm said Huling always had an outgoing personality and genuine friendliness.
“He was laid back but always very polite,” Dumm said. “He always tried to please people.”
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