To Make A Difference ...
Get Engaged With Your Community
make a difference: to have an effect
A byproduct of working to make a difference in your community can be renewed success with your real estate career.A Breakfast Program
Carolyn Griffis is an agent with Re/Max Hallmark in Toronto, Ontario.
A few years ago, she learned that in a neighborhood near her office, many students were going to school hungry.
Some of them hadn't had a proper meal for several days.
So she decided to do something about it.
Encouraged by Carolyn and a few like-minded colleagues, most of the agents in her office agreed to contribute money to provide food for a breakfast program at the school.
However, they realized very quickly that students in other schools also started their days without breakfast.
Within a relatively short period of time, the Breakfast Program had spread to six schools.
In each case, agents from nearby offices make monthly donations to purchase supplies.
Teams of agents take turns running the program...buying supplies, setting up, preparing and serving breakfast and cleaning up...before classes...and starting their own work.
The organizers plan to take the program city-wide and make a difference for hungry students.
Inspired by work the original organizers, agents from other real estate offices have started similar breakfast programs in schools in their local neighborhoods.
Top
Engaged and Aware
Reflecting on her involvement in the program, Carolyn was surprised at how she was able to keep on top of her work while working on the program.She was also aware of how much time she had wasted in the past.
According to her broker, Ken McLachlan,
“A byproduct of her work with
the Breakfast Program is her success with her real estate career.
She has never been busier.
It is not that she is getting business from her involvement in the program, but she is getting business because she is engaged, and more aware.
“Carolyn has not taken on the work in the program for her personal gain, and certainly isn't getting any business from it, but she is experiencing a renewed success in her career as a happy byproduct.
"Carolyn is a great real estate agent. However she's an all around great person.
“Not only does she do a great job for clients, which is really important for her, but she also knows that to be engaged in life, she has to contribute to the community.
"She would never tell you that she's great...she would say that 'I'm doing what I have to do to make a difference.' ”
It is not that she is getting business from her involvement in the program, but she is getting business because she is engaged, and more aware.
“Carolyn has not taken on the work in the program for her personal gain, and certainly isn't getting any business from it, but she is experiencing a renewed success in her career as a happy byproduct.
"Carolyn is a great real estate agent. However she's an all around great person.
“Not only does she do a great job for clients, which is really important for her, but she also knows that to be engaged in life, she has to contribute to the community.
"She would never tell you that she's great...she would say that 'I'm doing what I have to do to make a difference.' ”
Top
"We Are For Real"
Brad Bussey, another Re/Max Hallmark agent and Breakfast Program organizer explains the program:“[It] addresses the health,
nutrition and education of the very vulnerable of our communities - the
children who attend our primary schools without breakfast, a packed
lunch and in some cases without having had dinner the night before.
We have committed to solving this need by ensuring that breakfast or snack programs are established and sustained in the most financially challenged schools within our neighborhoods...
“The impact at the school speaks for itself. According to school administrators the children in the program are better mannered and more settled in the classrooms...
“We all give to worthy and deserving causes without seeing the impact our contributions make.
“This is an exception to that...the difference and impact this program has made in our neighborhood children is there for each and everyone of us to see.
“There is the little girl who couldn’t afford to be part of the breakfast club ($0.50/day) until we committed and the difference in what was a withdrawn child to the child three weeks later is night and day.
“She smiles, talks and sits with new friends whereas before she was all by herself.
“Yes, we are for real.”
We have committed to solving this need by ensuring that breakfast or snack programs are established and sustained in the most financially challenged schools within our neighborhoods...
“The impact at the school speaks for itself. According to school administrators the children in the program are better mannered and more settled in the classrooms...
“We all give to worthy and deserving causes without seeing the impact our contributions make.
“This is an exception to that...the difference and impact this program has made in our neighborhood children is there for each and everyone of us to see.
“There is the little girl who couldn’t afford to be part of the breakfast club ($0.50/day) until we committed and the difference in what was a withdrawn child to the child three weeks later is night and day.
“She smiles, talks and sits with new friends whereas before she was all by herself.
“Yes, we are for real.”
Top
To Feel Fulfilled...Make A Difference
Each of us has a needs a sense of self-fulfillment...a sense of achieving desirable results.Certainly success in business...achieving desirable results...contributes to our sense of fulfillment.
However, for many successful people, gratifying as it, on its own the
achievement of business goals is not totally fulfilling.
For most of us to feel totally fulfilled, we must make a difference in our own lives and also in the lives of people we know. It is also important to make a difference in the communities in which we live and work.
Top
Carolyn Griffis, Brad Bussey...and countless thousands of others like them are great real estate agents. By helping people buy and sell homes, they have a positive effect on the lives of their clients.
They deliver quality professional services to their clients, which is important for self-satisfaction and success in business.
But they also know that to succeed in life...and in business...they must be engaged and make a difference by contributing to their communities.
As Brad Bussey's explanation illustrates, the Breakfast Program is having a positive effect on classroom behavior in general and in the life one little girl in particular.
Experiencing career success as a happy byproduct of contributing to the community...what great results from working to make a difference!
Top
|
|
