Happy Christmas Eve my good friend!
There is a small group of us within our real estate brokerage who are part of the "Coolture" Club. Our role is to lead creative ideas that either create team building within our small Realty ONE Group office in Surprise, or give back to the community.
Years prior we had successfully donated to the Toys for Tots foundation. We'd have a large box in the front of the office where colleagues and clients would buy toys and drop them off. Then a big truck would come by and collect and that was that.
Although a great purpose, it lacks the "giving spirit".. (my opinion) For me, this kind of giving felt more like a trick or treat function. Great costume! Here's a Snickers! See you next year... Pick out a toy, drop it off, cross that donation off the list - onward with your day.
If you know anything about me, if everyone is going left, I'm going right. There's got to be a better way to do things.
Stepping back to August/September time of this year, we wanted to give back to the community but in a different way. Thankfully I was in like company!
So the challenge was:
In the spirit of giving, how do you give in a way that motivates others to back the cause?
How do you do such a thing when everything and everyone has some sort of donation associated with it?
Find the story, lead with emotion..
and people will go out of their way for such a cause :)
There's another Realtor friend of ours in the office who's connected into the Surprise Police Department. Our friend gets a first hand heads up on a family who's legitimately in need. I'm sure your mind can wander where and what kind of stories the Police come across every day.
Someone near to a family reached out to the Police Dept and asked if there was a "something of such that existed" where a local family could possibly get help. To our wonderful benefit, our in office Realtor colleague was informed of this family. How and what took place was up to us on how to make this possible. :)
So, the plan was to get our very own tree for the office and make our own Angel tags for each child. From there, other Realtor colleagues and clients could participate in the purchase of something truly needed. If you were short on cash this season, you could volunteer your time to wrap the gifts, and or also help secretly deliver them to.
There was enough for everyone to make a difference!
And that's exactly what we did.
Then over the course of a couple days this past week a number of us made it into the office to donate time to get our wrap on!
I love wrapping! hot damn!! :)
Here's me last night doing the only tradition I traditionally do every year...
Wrapping presents watching Die Hard! - best Christmas movie evar!
Even rolled in my custom built collapsible table for efficient Martha Stweart'ing!
I digress...
us getting our wrap on!
We had created such a ruckus with our efforts that people kept donating beyond the tickets. I believe we slipped some in there for Mom too. ;)
All in all, there were approximately 75 presents donated.
Next step was to coordinate a particular time when the family would be out!
Before those gifts could be delivered, I needed to deliver a handyman present.
yes! the GÜD Handyman gift handyman work!
With delivery one completed, now time to be a Licensed Christmas Angel
While Mom corralled the kiddos, we snuck in and did some Santa action while they were out!
Although we did not get to see their faces, we know everyone's efforts were felt by the family.
Damn all that felt sooo good!! :)
Thanks for going on this Christmas story with us. :)
We hope you and your family have a wonderful Merry Christmas!
