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Windermere Foundation Has Raised Over $1.5 Million This Year!
Windermere offices throughout the Western U.S. have been busy raising money and making donations to non-profit organizations in their local communities that provide services to low-income and homeless families. And their efforts are paying off; so far this year we’ve raised over $1.5 million, bringing the total raised by the Windermere Foundation to $39.5 million since 1989.
Here are just a few examples of how our offices are giving back to their communities:
Fort Collins, Colorado
The Windermere Real Estate office in Fort Collins held its 5th Annual Windermere Foundation Tailgate Party on Friday, September 20. The family-friendly event featured food, drinks, a bouncy house obstacle course, corn hole, face painting, and live music. Over $1,800 was raised for the Windermere Foundation during this event. All proceeds from the tailgate “party with a purpose” benefitted Partners Mentoring Youth and Crossroads Safehouse.
Centralia, Washington
The Windermere office in Centralia, WA sponsored the “Down Home: A Toledo Shindig” event held at Bonanza BBQ on September 14 to benefit Toledo School District students in need. Local businesses and residents came together to donate auction items, food, and volunteer their time. Windermere owner Dan Gorton spearheaded the organization of the fundraising event, seeing a need in the community that was not being met. The Gortons provided the venue and the BBQ. Other sponsors provided additional food items, entertainment, and big-ticket items for the auction. The event raised $34,000 for a fund to help provide basic needs for students in the school district, things that low-income families couldn’t otherwise afford.
Photo Courtesy of Josie Ray Photography
Spokane, Washington
The Windermere office in Spokane, WA held their annual Windermere Shoes and Socks Event at their local Big 5 sporting goods store on August 24. Windermere agents and family members volunteered their time to help 132 children select a pair of shoes and socks. An additional 250 pairs of socks were also donated by Liberty Lake Rotary. In total, the Windermere office donated over $5,400 to provide shoes and socks to local children in need.
Windermere offices are proud to host events in their communities, like the ones mentioned above. These generous donations to the Windermere Foundation further our mission to support low-income and homeless families in the areas where we live and work. If you’d like to help support programs in your community, please click the Donate button.
To learn more about the Windermere Foundation, visit WindermereFoundation.com.
Investing in home: building a foundation for memories
Posted in Buying, Selling, Community, and Living by Tara Sharp
“Of course, thanks to the house, a great many of our memories are housed, and if the house is a bit elaborate, if it has a cellar and a garret, nooks and corridors, our memories have refuges that are all the more clearly delineated. All our lives we come back to them in our daydreams.”
Gaston Bachelard, the Poetics of Space
I have been following the news about the housing market pretty closely and am pretty disappointed with some of the articles declaring a case against homeownership. I couldn’t disagree more. If anything, I see the value of homeownership: responsible financial investment, social stability and community connection as more important than ever.
I was particularly moved by the story in the Seattle Times yesterday about the Lutz family in Ballard, a family with seven adopted siblings that are helping their parents move from their family home to a smaller condo now that their children have left the nest. Though their story is far from typical, it really resonates how home is the center of family life, a place where memories are created and how houses tell the stories of the lives we build while in their shelter.
Homes do that for people. They are the places where some of our most intimate stories unfold.
Finding and creating a home is an emotional, psychological, social and financial investment. There is a lot of energy involved in finding the place to envision the future, raise a family, and perhaps retire. There is no other investment as enjoyable as your own home. Investments in gold or stocks cannot compare to the feelings about a place where you collect memories, create spaces that reflect your ideals and develop to fit your needs over time.
Beyond the emotional ties to home, a number of studies have shown that home ownership has a great impact on feelings of personal autonomy, life satisfaction and increased investment in the community. The sense of satisfaction goes beyond the ability to paint walls whatever color we want, or make improvements to our homes on our own terms. It goes deeper by improving our sense of well being. Furthermore, when we have a stake in the community we live in, we participate more, making our neighborhoods safer and healthier for all members.
Not all the news about the housing market is negative, actually there are many great articles: “in defense of home ownership”, “ten reasons to buy a home “and “a dream house after all” to name a few. But regardless of where you stand on the housing market right now, we can all likely agree that there is no place like a home.
All of our experiences of home are unique. Please share your best memories of home.
Windermere Colorado Posted in Blog, Uncategorized Tagged #investing, #memories, #windermere
Windermere Foundation Has Raised over $1,500,000 So Far This Year!
Thanks to the generosity of Windermere agents and the community, the Windermere Foundation collected over $1,537,000 in donations through the third quarter of 2017. This is an increase of nine percent compared to this time last year! Individual contributions and fundraisers accounted for 62 percent of the donations, while 38 percent came from donations through Windermere agent commissions. So far, we have raised a total of $34,643,324 in donations since 1989.
Each Windermere office has its own Windermere Foundation fund account that they use to make donations to organizations in their communities. Year to date, a total of $1,179,202 has been disbursed to non-profit organizations dedicated to providing services to low-income and homeless families throughout the Western U.S.
One organization that has been the recipient of Windermere Foundation funds is SafeHouse of the Desert. Safehouse of the Desert provides a “safe” residential environment for children between the ages of 11 to17 years of age. These young people are the victims of physical and emotional abuse, homeless runaways, victims of human trafficking, emotionally unstable home environments and various other unsafe situations. The facility shelters the children from perpetrators and offers education, therapy, artistic expression, coupled with training for future jobs, skills and coaching in being responsible and making wise choices.
The 16 Windermere Homes & Estates offices in Southern California (Alpine, Big Bear, Del Mar, Escondido, Fallbrook, La Jolla, Palm Desert, Palm Valley, Plaza at Aviara, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Bernardo-The Plaza, Santaluz, Scripps Ranch, South Carlsbad-Aviara, Temecula, and Trilogy) pooled their funds together and donated $5,000 for SafeHouse’s emergency shelter. They presented the donation check to SafeHouse on October 11, where they also spent the day cleaning, landscaping, organizing storage rooms, and providing breakfast and lunch at Harrison House, the 15-unit complex located behind the shelter and houses its transitional living program.
When asked why they chose this organization to help, Selina Sullivan, Regional Administrator for Windermere Homes & Estates said, “We recognize that the youth of today represents the future adults of tomorrow. Asking ourselves what we would want that future to look like, we realized that by contributing to this organization, we were impacting that future and contributing to the welfare of ALL children. In a world that is often covered in darkness, we wanted to serve as a beacon for others and to contribute to future generations.”
Generous donations to the Windermere Foundation over the years have enabled Windermere offices to continue to support local non-profits like SafeHouse of the Desert. If you’d like to help support programs for low-income and homeless families in your community, please click on the Donate button.
To learn more about the Windermere Foundation,
‘Tis the season to give!
Please consider giving a gift that counts this season.
Donate to help those in need in Colorado. Just click the link below… ALL donations will go to one of three organizations in Colorado that benefit low-income and homeless children and families.
Merry Christmas! #TackleHomelessness
To donate, just click here to go to our secure donation site: https://store.windermere.com/content/colorado-tacklehomelessness-donation
Can We GIVE More on ThanksGIVING?
During this week of the year, most are focused on being grateful. Grateful for their homes, health, family, jobs, and everything amazing in their lives. But what of those who have no home? They’ve lost their family, jobs or their health?
Windermere Real Estate is dedicated to helping those in need. We accomplish this through the Windermere Foundation, which has successfully raised over 30 million dollars for organizations that benefit low income and homeless children and families.
In the spirit of being grateful and giving, please consider helping us #TackleHomelessness this season by donating to a local organization through our foundation. All donations are fully tax deductible. Just click the link here: https://store.windermere.com/content/colorado-tacklehomelessness-donation
Happy ThanksGIVING!
