Main photo: Board members and staff of the Lakelands Association of Realtors (from left) Doug Monett, Crystal Henderson (Lakelands Association of Realtors executive director), Heather Scott, Mike Taylor, Wendy Webb, Mike Stahls, Debbie Gilbert, and Sean Hill present a cheque to Bev Lashbrook, Hospice Huntsville executive director (at right)
The Lakelands Association of Realtors presented an early Christmas present to Hospice Huntsville this morning, December 19: a cheque for $3,264.
The funds are from the Ontario REALTORS Care Foundation, which all area realtors contribute to.
“We donate monthly through our dues and at the end of the year we donate back to our community,” said Mike Stahls, President of the Lakelands Association of Realtors. “We give about $18,000 per year (to shelter-based organizations) throughout Muskoka, Haliburton and Almaguin.”
Stahls said a member suggested Hospice Huntsville as a recipient, one that the association hasn’t donated to in the past.
Bev Lashbrook, Hospice Huntsville’s Executive Director, said that donations like these ones help the organization cover its high monthly operational costs. It must raise half of its annual operating costs, or $534,000; the other 50 per cent comes from the Local Health Integration Network.
“We have to work hard through the year to make up the difference,” said Lashbrook. “This definitely helps us for equipment that we really need.”
The Ontario REALTORS Care Foundation was established in 1967 as the Canadian Real Estate Board Foundation – Ontario Fund. It became a provincial organization in 1978 — the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) Foundation — and was renamed the Ontario REALTORS Care Foundation in 2006. Starting in 1999, its efforts focused on supporting shelter-based charitable organizations, and since 2004 OREA has paid all administrative costs so that all donor dollars go directly to the causes.
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