Daily Real Estate News  |  October 23, 2008  |   Good Neighbor Winners Take Community Focus
The five individuals that the National Association of REALTORSŪ has named as this year’s REALTORŪ Magazine Good Neighbor Awards recipients embody this extraordinary commitment to improving the lives of those around them, from enhancing children’s access to education and health care to reducing homelessness and supporting breast cancer care.

The 2008 Good Neighbor Award winners are:

• Lei Barry, Keller Williams Real Estate, Blue Bell, Pa., Inter-Faith Housing Alliance and Hope Gardens
• Scott and Robin Gwaltney, Coldwell Banker at Your Service Realty Ltd., Rochester, Minn., Rochester Better Chance
• Reita Hutson, John Hall and Associates, Scottsdale, Ariz., Gabriel’s Dream Inc.
• Caroline McCartney, GSH Real Estate Corp., Norfolk, Va., St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
• Sheila Stevens, Prudential Georgia Realty, Suwanee, Ga., The Sport of Giving Inc.

“REALTORSŪ play an important leadership role in building strong communities,” says NAR President Dick Gaylord. “These five Good Neighbor Awards winners exemplify the compassion and commitment of thousands of other REALTORSŪ who volunteer in their communities and help so many others.”

The Good Neighbor Awards have been awarded annually since 2000 and are presented by NAR’s REALTORŪ Magazine. Winners will receive a $10,000 grant for their charity and a $2,000 Lowe’s gift card and are profiled in the November issue of REALTORŪ Magazine, www.realtor.org/realtormag.

The five winners will also receive a crystal trophy and the right to use the Good Neighbor Awards logo on their Web site and in promotional materials. The recipients will be presented with their awards at the 2008 REALTORSŪ Conference & Expo in Orlando, Fla., in November; 25,000 RealtorsŪ and guests are expected to attend the conference.

REALTORS Giving Back

Lei Barry founded Inter-Faith Housing Alliance more than 20 years ago to help prevent low-income families from becoming homeless. Inspired by her own experience in the 1960s as a single mother with no place to live, Barry has worked to provide temporary housing for thousands of people through a network of more than 20 local churches and synagogues. In 1995, Barry raised $1.4 million to open Hope Gardens, which offers transitional housing for up to eight families at a time.

Scott and Robin Gwaltney for 16 years have been unpaid resident house parents for up to six teenage boys at a time and have mentored 46 young men over the years. As volunteers for Rochester Better Chance, they help academically talented minority inner-city youth who might not otherwise succeed by taking them out of at-risk neighborhoods plagued by crime, drugs and weak schools. During the school year, selected students move away from their parents to live with the Gwaltneys, who help them focus on high school and prepare for college. The Gwaltneys act as surrogate parents by providing discipline and a nurturing environment, attending parent/teacher conferences and sporting events, and treating the students as they do their own two teenage children.

Reita Hutson founded Gabriel’s Dream Inc. after learning about the plight of the Lost Boys, refugees from Sudan’s civil war. Since 2003 she has helped more than 400 of these young men obtain apartments and furniture, job skills, health care and medical services, education and hope to start a new life. Hutson also recruited more than 100 dentists who have donated over $1 million in free dental care for these young men, whose five or six front teeth were pulled as part of a cultural ritual. She has awarded nearly 100 merit scholarships totaling $70,000 to the men.

Caroline McCartney has worked for 18 years to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, one of the world’s premier centers for research and treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. The hospital takes all children regardless of their family’s ability to pay. McCartney raised millions of dollars for the organization over the years, culminating in a Dream Home Giveaway in 2007 that netted nearly $1 million.

Sheila Stevens is the founder and president of The Sport of Giving Inc., a community nonprofit that funds breast cancer treatment and prevention activities. Since 2000, The Sport of Giving has raised more than $1 million through annual tennis and golf tournaments, running events and other fundraisers. In 2007, the organization donated $215,000 to open a mammography screening center that has already provided nearly 5,000 mammograms and bone density screenings. The Sport of Giving also helped fund a mobile mammography van to reach women who would not otherwise have access to a mammogram.

Five other REALTORSŪ have been recognized as Good Neighbor Awards honorable mentions; they will each receive $2,500 grants and a $1,000 Lowe’s gift card.

This year's honorable mentions are:

• Mary E. Bacon, Bob Parks Realty, LLC, Mt. Juliet, Tenn., Mt. Juliet Help Center
• H. Burton Foster, Century 21 Gold Standard, East Aurora, N.Y., Matthew Foster Foundation
• Victor Kee, Pete Anderson Realty Inc., Astoria, Ore., Sunday Supper and Sunday Meals on Wheels
• John Neibarger, Key Properties, REALTORSŪ, Johnstown, Ohio, Mary E. Babcock Library Inc.
• David Pap, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Cambridge, Mass., Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund.

Source: NAR