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Greetings from the Windermere Foundation,
Happy 2013 – hope this New Year is off to a great start! We have many stories (and raves!) to share with you about how your support of the Windermere Foundation translated into meaningful and necessary help for so many struggling families in 2012. Collectively, we raised an impressive $1,359,032. This is up 13% from 2011. And for the thirteenth consecutive year, over-and-above contributions have exceeded transaction fee income, with 35 percent coming from transaction fee revenue, and over-and-above revenue at 65 percent. But, equally astonishing is how much has been raised since 1989. We’ve reached an impressive milestone with over 25 million dollars raised, allowing us to help thousands of low-income and homeless families with the most basic of needs.
New to our newsletter is a rave section. We asked many of you to send us a rave about someone going above and beyond in your office and have received a great response. Please keep them coming as we will continue to share these in our Quarterly Foundation Reports.
Please remember to read our blog posts as they include more in-depth stories about what offices are doing throughout the year. Facebook is also a great resource for upcoming events, and shorter posts about our offices’ involvement in their local communities.
RAVE:
“Sharon Harriss has been an active member of the Snohomish County Realtor Food Drive for many years. She is our “number one” cheerleader and Chairman for the event. She is so encouraging to all and is so humble making sure all the credit goes to the individual office team leaders. Peter Paterno, SCCAR President elect and a Windermere Broker, said, Sharon is so committed to this cause and enthusiastic, we simply wouldn’t have a successful food drive without her.”
-Meribeth Hutchings, Lake Stevens
Cronin and Caplan Realty Group donated $114,000 to 35 organizations in 2012. Following is a quote from one of our Foundation Reps describing what it means to give back.
“2012 was a year of hardship for many families. I smile when I think about how we bought eye glasses for a little boy that had none; that we helped a mother in need with rent money; that some children whose families are without resources will take a
backpack full of food home for the weekend. A favorite quote by Arthur Ashe
captures all of this, ‘From what we get, we can make a living: what we give, however, makes a life.’”
—Teri Beatty, Portland Heights Foundation Representative
Windermere Real Estate Company donates a holiday party to Sibling House, a foster care organization.
Every year, Sibling House sponsors a holiday party where foster children and their caregivers get together to celebrate the season. Sibling House creates a store where foster parents can shop for food, clothing, and toys for the children in their care.
RAVE:
Marcy Farris has served as a Board Member for the Nevada Windermere Foundation Committee and Community Service Day Committee for five years. Marcy has helped at the Las Vegas Mission Soup Kitchen serving dinners to homeless men and women; she leads our Windermere Wednesday’s after school program at our YMCA adopted school, Twin Lakes Elementary, helping students with homework and playing games; and every year Marcy helps stuff Christmas Stockings for the Blue Star Mothers, an organization of Mothers with daughters in the Military.
Marcy is so passionate about helping the homeless that she randomly sports brown bag night. She invites her friends over, they make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and with a piece of fruit creates a brown bag lunch! Then they all jump in the car and drive the streets of Las Vegas randomly giving a brown bag lunch to homeless men, women and children they find on the streets. Marcy also does this with blankets and jackets. Marcy calls upon her friends and says “It’s time, I need all your extra blankets and jackets!” She collects them, and again, Marcy and her friends jump in the car and drive the streets where they feel the most needed individuals are that could use a blanket or a jacket.
We would like to send in our RAVE for Marcy Farris, as she is truly a “giver” to human kind, helping those in need, giving of herself on her own time! Marcy is making a difference to our homeless here in the Las Vegas Valley and an inspiration for all to follow!
-Deb Shields, Las Vegas – Henderson
RAVE:
“Karen Hayes is a long time Foundation Rep for the Windermere Northwest office. Karen has found a groove as the rep and over the years has found creative ways to involve the entire office, such as “Pig Dollars”, which are collected at every office meeting. We deposit dollar bills or IOUs in gratitude for recent events or for good karma, but this is no little amount of work in dealing with the bookkeeping alone. Karen works very hard, but makes it look incredibly easy and fun.”
BIG Thank You!
Thank you to all of the offices who held fundraisers to benefit the Windermere Foundation in 2012. I realize they are a lot of work, so please know your efforts are appreciated not only by the Foundation, but by the families and children who benefit from your hard work.
As always, thank you for your continuing support of the Windermere Foundation. Many low-income families are receiving basic necessities because of your commitment to helping others.
Best,
Christine Wood
Executive Director
Windermere Foundation
Blog: http://foundation.windermere.com/
