Washington, January 21, 2010
The REALTORS®
Relief Foundation of the National Association of
Realtors® is contributing $550,000 to the relief of
victims of the Haiti earthquake, and is
calling upon its 1.2 million members to help.
“Realtors®
help build communities and there is no better time than
now to do that in Haiti,” said NAR President Vicki Cox
Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson,
Ariz. “Our thoughts and feelings go out to the people
made homeless by this disaster. Realtors® have a history
of helping people, as we did after the 2004 tsunami
struck South Asia and in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina
ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.”
The
Foundation is donating $500,000 to the Clinton Bush
Haiti Fund which is supporting earthquake recovery
efforts with immediate relief and long-term support to
earthquake survivors. The fund is headed by former U.S.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
A $50,000
contribution has already been made to The Harvest of
Haiti, founded by a 2007 winner of REALTOR® Magazine’s
Good Neighbor Awards, Patrick Moore. Moore’s
humanitarian outreach program in Haiti supports orphans,
delivers clean water and provides medical care to more
than 3,500 people a year.
Moore, a
sales associate with JoAnn Wine & Associates in Fort
Gratiot, Mich., is currently planning his 64th trip to
Haiti on January 29. While in Haiti, Moore and his team
will deliver six month’s worth of food to an orphanage
in Anse Rouge as well as focus on helping residents in
communities in and around Port-au-Prince.
Part of the
funding came from Lowe’s, a partner of NAR’s REALTOR®
Benefits Program, who contributed $100,000 that was
matched by NAR. Lowe’s is a sponsor of the Good Neighbor
Awards.
Realtors® are
being encouraged to donate to Haitian victims through
the REALTORS® Relief Foundation. All contributions will
flow through the Foundation, and no Foundation money
will go to NAR administrative costs. NAR members and
others who wish to make a donation should go to
www.realtor.org/relief
and complete the contribution
form.
The National
Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,”
is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2
million members involved in all aspects of the
residential and commercial real estate industries.
