Share
REALTORS® work tirelessly to strengthen the communities in which they live and work, as well as improve the lives of their neighbors. For the past 13 years the Good Neighbor Awards program has recognized REALTORS® who do just that. The five individuals named as this year’s REALTOR® Magazine Good Neighbor Award winners value service above self and are committed to helping those in need.
Meet the 2012 Good Neighbor Award winners:
Rocco “Rocky” Balsamo
The Rocky Balsamo Real Estate Group/Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.
Princeton Junction, N.J.
Cofounder of the Center for FaithJustice
Michael Campbell
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Tucson, Ariz.
President of The Hearth Foundation
Regina “Ginger” Dowdle
Sunrise Realty & Development
Statesville, N.C.
Founder of The Shepherd’s Watch Ministries
Ortrud “Trudy” Harsh
Long & Foster
Fairfax, Va.
Founder of The Brain Foundation
Sally Rudloff
Kane & Associates
Alameda, Calif.
Former president of the Alameda Boys & Girls Club
“The Good Neighbor Awards reminds us that a strong community is integral to a person’s quality of life,” said National Association of REALTORS® President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. “REALTORS® strongly believe in this philosophy and work tirelessly to build successful communities all over. Despite the busy career of being a REALTOR®, this year’s Good Neighbor Award winners have remained dedicated to sacrificing their time, money, and effort to improve the quality of life for others. I am honored to recognize them and help them grow their efforts so they can help even more people through their selfless work.”
The Good Neighbor Awards have been granted annually since 2000 and are presented by NAR’s REALTOR® Magazine. Winners receive a $10,000 grant for their charity and a $2,000 Lowe’s gift card, and are profiled in the November-December issue of REALTOR® Magazine.The recipients will be presented with crystal trophies on Saturday, Nov. 10, at the 2012 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Orlando; 18,000 REALTORS® and guests are expected to attend the conference.
Balsamo, is founding board member and volunteer executive director for Center for FaithJustice, a nonprofit that promotes volunteerism among teens and young adults. CFJ runs summer day camps and sleep-away camps, as well as other year-round workshops for schools and churches. Last year, more than 900 teens volunteered more than 20,000 hours in local charities and spent a similar number of hours in education classes.
Campbell is president of The Hearth Foundation, which provides transitional housing for low-income families, typically women with young children. He is credited for reorganizing and stabilizing the organization, strengthening the board, and creating effective partnerships with other organizations to provide services to the residents. Under Campbell’s leadership, the organization applied for and was awarded a $720,000 grant from the Arizona State Department of Housing, which will allow the organization to make much-needed renovations to their apartments.
Dowdle and her husband founded The Shepherd’s Watch Ministries, which hosts a summer camp for children in the community, as well as a year-round residential program for at-risk youths in foster care, on their 60-acre farm. The residential program focuses on teens who will likely age out of foster care without being adopted. The goal is to teach these youths much needed skills to help prepare them for independent living. The Dowdles have foster parented more than 20 youths since 2005, adopting two boys with another adoption in process.
Harsh founded The Brain Foundation in 2003 to address the growing need for affordable housing for mentally ill adults who might otherwise be homeless. The foundation has since purchased six homes that house 24 adults with brain diseases like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or chronic depression. She has formed a successful partnership with another nonprofit to provide residents with services that allow them to live independently. Her model has been copied in Florida and she frequently mentors others who are trying to create similar programs.
Rudloff, former president of the Alameda Boys & Girls Club, is credited with incredible growth that allows the club to expand from serving 1,200 children to a capacity of 3,000. Rudloff led a $10 million capital campaign that built a new 25,000-square-foot youth center. She also launched a dental clinic for uninsured children, recruited math teachers for a new tutoring program, and created partnerships that provide family counseling.
In addition to the winners, five REALTORS® have been recognized as Good Neighbor Award honorable mentions; they will each receive $2,500 grants and a $1,000 Lowe’s gift card. They are Charlene M. Brennan, Strano & Associates Real Estate, Fairview Heights, Ill., for Rotary District 6510’s Belizean Children’s Program; Georgia L. Butterfield, Legacy Real Estate & Associates, ERA Powered, Fremont, Calif., for Adopt An Angel; Geoffrey W. Lavell, Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate-Desert Properties, Henderson, Nev., for Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation; Patti M. Miller, Tierra Antigua Realty, Sierra Vista, Ariz., for Real Wishes Foundation; and Kathleen Peck, All in One Realty Group, Inc., Naples, Fla., for Lighthouse of Collier, Inc.
REALTOR® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Awards is sponsored by Lowe’s and HouseLogic. Nominees were judged on their personal contribution of time, financial, and material contributions to their cause. To be eligible, nominees have to be NAR members in good standing. For more information about the Good Neighbor Awards, visit REALTOR.org/gna.
With fiscal year 2011 sales of $50.2 billion, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. is a FORTUNE® 100 company that serves approximately 15 million customers a week at more than 1,745 home improvement stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world. For more information, visit Lowes.com. Lowe’s is a proud partner in NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® Program, bringing REALTORS® exclusive benefits to help build relationships with their customers, generate referrals and expand their client base. The benefits program is featured on www.LowesRealtorBenefits.com.
HouseLogic, www.houselogic.com, is a free source of information and tools from the National Association of REALTORS® that can help homeowners make smart and timely decisions about their home. With content covering home improvement, maintenance, taxes, finance, insurance, and even ways to get involved in and enrich their community, HouseLogic can help homeowners increase and protect the value of their home by helping them make confident decisions.
Update: The Lowe’s Program for REALTORS® is no longer available through the REALTOR Benefits® Program. For questions, please call NAR’s REALTOR Benefits® Help Line at 800-627-5233.