Realtors support local charities

As part of its ongoing “Realtors Care” campaign, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors announced that GLVAR gave more than $29,000 to local charities in 2016.

“GLVAR members have a long history of helping others who are less fortunate and doing what we can to make Southern Nevada a better place to live,” said Dave Tina, 2017 GLVAR president. “We look forward to continuing this tradition in 2017 and beyond.”

Tina, who took over as GLVAR president on Jan. 1, said GLVAR focuses its charitable giving on local nonprofits that help people in Southern Nevada with housing, safety, mobility and recreational opportunities. It also supports charities that work with at-risk youth and with low-income and homeless families.

Guided by its Community Outreach Committee made up of volunteer members, GLVAR donated to the following local charities: Rebuilding Together Southern Nevada; Food for Kids Inc.; Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals; Shine Desert of Nevada; Nevada Homeless Alliance; Light of the World Childhood Cancer Foundation; Jewish Federation of Las Vegas; Positively Kids; Leaders in Training; Three Square Food Bank; and St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.

GLVAR generated the bulk of the donations by hosting a bowling event in the spring and a charity golf tournament in the fall.

Tina added that the GLVAR donation total does not count “the untold hundreds of hours GLVAR and its members donated throughout the year to these and other good causes.”

For example, he said GLVAR and members of its Young Professionals Network volunteered more than 200 hours to host a June 10 field day at St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, and to host a similar event for the holidays. GLVAR members also volunteered to feed homeless people served by the Las Vegas Rescue Mission and to collect and donate dozens of prom gowns and suits to homeless and disadvantaged high school students served by local charity Project 150.

Other examples of GLVAR’s generosity include a summer backpack drive in which local Realtors collected more than 1,000 backpacks stocked with school supplies for the Boys &Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.

In late August, GLVAR donated more than 410 tickets to a Las Vegas 51s baseball game, along with hundreds of food vouchers, to children and families served by local charities such as Opportunity Village and St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.

Another highlight came in late September, when GLVAR joined forces with Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas to dedicate a new home in Henderson to first-time homeowner Marian Galinato.

In addition to financially supporting the construction of the three-bedroom house in Henderson, dozens of GLVAR members volunteered a combined total of more than 250 hours of labor to help build the home, from hammering nails and framing walls to painting, landscaping and more.

This effort represents the 13th Habitat for Humanity home that GLVAR has supported over the years.

GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its nearly 13,000 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 communications@glvar.org.