GLVAR gets into the spirit of giving

While this might be the season most closely associated with giving, members of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors have been in an especially giving mood throughout the year.

“Our members don’t just donate their time, talents and money around the holidays,” GLVAR President David J. Tina said.

As part of GLVAR’s Realtors Care campaign, Tina said, the association and its members contributed more than $75,000 throughout 2017 to local charities. That’s even more than GLVAR donated to worthy causes in 2016, he added.

“In addition to the time and dollars we donate to deserving local charities throughout the year, we felt it was important this year to do what we could to help people harmed by the Oct. 1 tragedy on the Las Vegas Strip,” Tina said. “So GLVAR donated $25,000 to the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund.”

Tina, a longtime local Realtor, said GLVAR has established guidelines for its community contributions. The association generally focuses its charitable giving on local nonprofits that help people in Southern Nevada with housing, safety, mobility, issues related to veterans and recreational opportunities. He said GLVAR also supports charities that work with at-risk youth and with low-income and homeless families.

As in past years, GLVAR members raised much of the money it donated by hosting a bowling event in the spring and a charity golf tournament in the fall. It also supports local charities at its annual GLVAR officers and board of directors installation event, with Three Square food bank and Par for the Cure being the most recent recipients in 2017.

These donated dollars don’t count the untold hundreds of hours GLVAR members donate throughout the year to these and other good causes.

Tina said members of GLVAR’s Young Professionals Network devote dozens of hours working with Leaders in Training high school students, whose goal is to “empower first-generation college graduates who will become the diverse leaders that change the world.”

GLVAR members also volunteer throughout the year to feed homeless people served by the Las Vegas Rescue Mission.

This year, he added, many members also volunteered to help local students through Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada’s Realtors in the Classroom initiative.

Other examples of GLVAR’s generosity include a summer school supply drive where local Realtors collected hundreds of backpacks stocked with school supplies for the Boys &Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.

“We want to thank all our members who do their part throughout the year — and especially this year — to show how Realtors truly care and to make Las Vegas shine even brighter,” Tina said.

GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its more than 14,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors, GLVAR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. Each GLVAR member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visit LasVegasRealtor.com. E-mail your real estate questions to ask@glvar.org.