Real Estate Information Archive

On Tuesday, July 6th, volunteers from my John L. Scott KMS Kent North office and I had the privilege of serving dinner and dessert to families and staff of the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle.  This was our third time doing this, but from what I understand a John L. Scott office provides one meal at the RMcDH every week of the year.

The day began at 1:00 pm when some of us met at our office and carpooled to Costco to shop together.  After loading up our two cars with all the groceries, we caravaned to the Ronald McDonald House.

We arrived just before 3:00 pm with the rest of the volunteers from our office and began meal preparations.  We took a brief tour of the RMcDH house and I was even let into the supply room to look at the toiletry items.  Why was that so fascinating to me?  Since 2007, I've been running a toiletries drive for the Ronald McD House and with my blog readers, past clients, friends and family, we've donated lots of items to help the facility.  It was fun to see where all of our supplies go!

After preparing and serving the meal, we ate, packed up leftovers for the families and then cleaned up and sanitized everything.  Coincidentally, my friend's daughter was admitted to nearby Children's Hospital on Saturday (sadly, she seems to be admitted to the ER every holiday!), so I managed to visit her before visiting hours were over.  It was a long and fun day, and we all enjoyed helping and giving back!  We could not have provided this meal without John L. Scott KMS's generous managing broker Jim Willner and broker-owner Sol Avzaradel.

Jim Willner and I filmed some video snippets of the event and I made a little video montage for you.  It starts out shaky but gets more steady.  :) 

Volunteers were: Jim Willner, Rob Renner, Bonnie Stuart, Christie Merrill, Joan Posanke, Sarah Posanke (of Kentlake HS), Tanner Trial (of Kentlake HS), Shauna Monge, Darlene Figg, Caol Walker, Laura Draughon, Jan Cadice and Stephanie Dawson.

Thank you to everyone who donated food or money (or both!) to our John L. Scott Kent North & Renton Holiday Food Drive Blitz!

Our last-minute Holiday Food Drive Blitz was a great success - at the end of the drive on December 23rd, we counted seven large, VERY HEAVY boxes of food and diapers as well as over$300 in cash donations.  When Collin Noia, the office manager at John L. Scott Renton, delivered the food he spoke with the donations supervisor who thanked us quite a bit while mentioning how tough this last year has been for Northwest Harvest.  The food and money that everyone donated went to help several Washington families put food on their tables this past holiday season, and in to the start of 2010. 

If you didn’t get a chance to donate but wanted to, you can still drop food off at several locations around the area.  All of the Lowe’s Hardware and UPS stores have boxes to take donations.  The food eventually makes it back to the same place, so don’t think it’s too late to help out the families who rely on the kind folks at Northwest Harvest.

Thank you again to everyone who helped make this a food drive a success!

“You can’t help everyone, everywhere but you can help someone, somewhere.”

John L. Scott Kent North has a long history of helping families in need during the holiday season.  In the past, we have participated in the Children’s Hospital Holiday Program buying gifts for several families whose children were being treated at the hospital.

This year we decided to do something a little different and set out to find a local family that is in need.  We asked a real estate agent in the office to approach his church in the hopes that they could recommend a family. The family that we chose to “adopt” is a young couple with two small children who have gone through two rounds of job layoffs and are currently unemployed. When our office manager spoke to the mother on the phone and offered to make their Christmas wishes come true, she said ”We never would have imagined being in this situation or that it could get this bad... but we know that it will get better.”  They were truly overwhelmed with our offer to help make this a special Christmas to remember.

The staff, brokers, and several of the real estate agents and I gave money for gift shopping or purchased items from the family's modest wish list on their own.  We were like Christmas elves, giddily buying things and going overboard fulfilling their wishes.  We even bought them a Wii and some Wii Fit games for the family, and we also had money leftover for a dinner certificate and a grocery gift card. 

Yesterday, some of us gathered at the office to assist with wrapping the gifts and I made a special card for the family.  This morning our broker Sol Avzaradel donned a Seahawks Santa hat and went with Linda Timmerman and Roberta Keeton to deliver the Christmas gifts to this deserving family.  They were overcome with tears of gladness as they saw an incredible amount of gifts fill their living room.

I love being part of the team at John L. Scott Kent North.  It warms my heart to be surrounded by so many like-minded, giving, and caring individuals!  May you, my readers, be richly blessed with love and wonderful moments this Christmas.

Wrapping the Gifts

Stephanie, Jim, Linda, Janet, Shawna, Debby          Shawna, Debby, Linda, Jim, Stephanie

The Card

Most of the Christmas Gifts (JLS office lobby)

Our Brokers

Jim Willner and Sol Avzaradel, the brokers of John L. Scott Kent North

*All photos by John Arthur Harrison - used by permission