Edward P. Pompeian, Realty Growth Inc., Rochester, Minn. Pompeian founded Gift of Life Transplant House in 1984 to give organ transplant patients an affordable place to live while awaiting an organ donation or receiving post-operative treatment at the Mayo Clinic. Pompeian became aware of the need for affordable temporary housing after his kidney transplant in 1973. He started by letting patients stay in his own home and then began purchasing homes and apartment buildings. The facility now has 87 rooms and logs more than 50,000 guest nights per year.
Beth Smoot, Fonville Morisey, Raleigh, N.C. Smoot and her business partner saw the need for a “food pantry for furniture,” so they decided to put their staging expertise and business acumen to work. Since creating The Green Chair Project in 2010, they have furnished 624 households for people in need and eliminated 577 tons of home furnishings from landfills. Their 25,000-square-foot showroom features stylish groupings of gently used housewares for people who are transitioning from homelessness or incarceration, escaping domestic abuse or recovering from a fire or natural disaster.
Rosemary Tran Lauer, Long and Foster, Vienna, Va. Lauer founded Devotion to Children in 1994 to fund childcare so low-income parents can work or continue their education to break the cycle of poverty. She knows firsthand the challenges of being a single parent, having fled Vietnam in 1975 and come to the U.S. with two young children. DTC, which has helped 3,000 children since it was founded in 2006, also funds preschool and other educational opportunities that are directly related to a child’s future success in school.
Paul Wilson, RE/MAX Unlimited, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Wilson is the founder of the Wolfson Children’s Challenge, an annual fund-raising event that supports Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the region’s only medical facility for children. The event includes a 55-mile ultramarathon and relay events, and it has raised more than $2 million in five years. These funds have helped Wolfson purchase state-of-the-art MRI equipment with groundbreaking technology that can help early diagnose and prevent some surgeries.
For more information, visit www.realtor.org.
