The 2017 REALTOR® Magazine Good Neighbor Award winners have been named, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently announced:
Sal Dimiceli, Sr., Lake Geneva Area Realty, Lake Geneva, Wis.; founder of The Time Is Now To Help
Bryson Garbett, Garbett Homes, Salt Lake City, Utah; founder of Foundation Escalera
Howard W. “Hoddy” Hanna, III, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, Pittsburgh, Pa., for Howard Hanna Children’s Free Care Fund
Louise McLean, RE/MAX Solutions, Merritt Island, Fla.; founder of Space Coast Association of REALTORS® Charitable Foundation
Kay Wilson-Bolton, CENTURY 21 Troop Real Estate, Santa Paula, Calif.; founder of SPIRIT of Santa Paula
The REALTOR® Magazine Good Neighbor Awards recognize REALTORS® who dedicate countless volunteer hours to help others. Each of the five winners will receive a $10,000 grant for their cause and will be featured in the November/December issue of REALTOR® Magazine. The recipients will be presented with crystal trophies on Saturday, Nov. 4, during the 2017 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Chicago.
“It’s amazing how the passion of this year’s Good Neighbor Award winners spurs a ripple effect of generosity among others,” says NAR President Bill Brown. “In addition to devoting thousands of personal volunteer hours and recruiting thousands of volunteer hours from others, this year’s five winners have raised and donated more than $39 million to support their communities.”
More on this year’s winners:
Sal Dimiceli, Sr.
Dimiceli founded a nonprofit to ease the suffering of people living in poverty. He personally responds to requests for help by providing financial counseling and addressing individual needs, whether it’s paying overdue rent to prevent eviction or providing emergency food assistance, transportation or childcare so a person can hold a job.
Bryson Garbett
Garbett founded a nonprofit that provides access to education to children in the rural Chiapas region of Mexico. In 18 years, his organization—which has built 177 classrooms and provides high school scholarships—has helped nearly 100,000 students.
Howard W. “Hoddy” Hanna, III
Hanna leads a nonprofit that donates millions to children’s hospitals to fund treatment for children without insurance or whose treatment isn’t covered by insurance. Since 1987, Hanna and his company’s 9,000 real estate professionals in eight states have raised and donated more than $14 million.
Louise McLean
McLean founded a nonprofit to support the more than 2,200 homeless children in Florida’s Brevard County with necessities such as food, clothing, school supplies, glasses and toiletries. They also provide nonessentials like sports equipment, band instruments and even college scholarships, allowing children to further their education.
Kay Wilson-Bolton
Wilson-Bolton founded Many Meals, which feeds up to 600 people a hot meal every Wednesday. She also distributes 30,000 pounds of food per month through a food bank and, as an ordained chaplain, runs a reception center behind her real estate office where she counsels people in need.
Five REALTORS® have also been recognized as Good Neighbor Awards honorable mentions and will each receive $2,500 grants: Deborah Berg, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Birmingham, Mich., for the United Methodist Women’s Rummage Sale; JoAnn and Joseph Callaway, Those Callaways Real Estate, Scottsdale, Ariz., for Salvation Army; Lara Dolan, Keller Williams Realty Consultants, Roswell, Ga., for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; Mony Nop, Mony Nop Real Estate, Livermore, Calif., for Mony Nop Foundation; and Donna Ting, Tri Isle Realty & Development Co., Wailuku, Hawaii, for La’akea.
Since the 10 finalists were announced in September, the public cast more than 93,000 votes to determine who would be named the Web Choice Favorites. The top three vote-getters will receive bonus grant money courtesy of Good Neighbor primary sponsor realtor.com®.
The Good Neighbor finalist with the most votes, JoAnn and Joseph Callaway of Those Callaways Real Estate, will receive an additional $2,500 bonus donation for The Salvation Army on top of $2,500 earned for being an honorable mention. The Callaways have raised more than $1.25 million to benefit The Salvation Army by recruiting REALTORS® as bell ringers and through an innovative program that increased donations of big-ticket items to thrift stores.
Two more Good Neighbors will receive $1,250 in bonus money for getting the next highest vote totals: Deborah Berg of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, for managing more than 700 volunteers at the United Methodist Women’s Rummage Sale and raising $225,000 per year for nonprofits; and Howard W. “Hoddy” Hanna, III of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, who cofounded and leads the Howard Hanna Children’s Free Care Fund.
REALTOR® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Awards is supported by primary sponsor realtor.com® and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Nominees were judged on their personal contribution of time as well as financial and material contributions to benefit their cause. To be eligible, nominees must be NAR members in good standing.
For more information, please visit www.nar.realtor.
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