REALTOR® MAGAZINE Announces 2005 Good Neighbor Awards Finalists:

WASHINGTON (August 11, 2005) – REALTOR® Magazine, the official publication of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, has announced the names of the 10 Good Neighbor Awards finalists for 2005.

The Good Neighbor Awards, in its sixth year, recognizes the ongoing efforts of REALTORS® who make exceptional contributions as volunteers to improving the quality of life in their communities. There were more than 300 entries—an all-time high.

Five winners will be selected from among these 10 finalists and will be announced in the November issue of REALTOR® Magazine. The winners will receive travel expenses to the Realtors® Conference & Expo in San Francisco in October, national media exposure for their community cause, and a $7,500 grant for their cause. In addition to the winners, five honorable mentions will each receive a $1,500 grant.

NAR President Al Mansell, CRB, said he is proud that the Good Neighbor Awards gives NAR the opportunity to honor some of the many REALTORS® who give of themselves to improve the quality of life in their communities. “These 10 finalists are an inspiration, not only to the 1 million plus member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® but to everyone who cares about helping others. The tremendous response to the program demonstrates how many REALTORS® across the country are active volunteers committed to giving back to their communities,” said Mansell, of Salt Lake City.

The following 10 REALTORS® were named finalists in the Good Neighbor program:

Charlotte Esarey, Buck & Buck, Inc., REALTORS®, Jacksonville, Fla.
Esarey took a leave of absence from her real estate career to travel to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, for two months to help the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami. A former nurse in the U.S. Navy, Esarey worked with nurses and general contractors to set up make-shift medical clinics to treat victims of the disaster and its aftermath. Through her church, the Fort Caroline Christian Church and the Jacksonville community, Esarey raised $22,000 to purchase medicine and medical equipment. She also spent her own money to buy 12 sets of playground equipment for the children living in camps for displaced people. During her trip, Esarey contracted dengue fever, a mosquito-borne infection, which laid her up with a high fever for days.

David C. Forward, Weichert, REALTORS®, Medford, N.J.
Fourteen years ago, Forward founded the International Children’s Aid Foundation, which currently supports more than 200 orphans in Romania. ICAF built and operates its own orphanage, Casa Emanuel, which the Romanian government has called “the finest childcare facility in the country” and also assists state-run orphanages through early childhood education programs. ICAF provides job-training and life skills classes for teenage street kids and orphans who will be released from state care at age 18. Forward has escorted more than 60 volunteer trips to Romania since 1991, often bringing doctors, dentists, physical therapists, and teachers to apply their skills to the crushing needs of Romania’s orphans. He personally raises 50 percent of ICAF’s annual $180,000 budget, set up a dental clinic open to the entire town, and opened a printing business to provide jobs to some of the orphans as they enter adulthood.

Howard G. Freeman, Freeman Realty, Inc., Gainesville, Fla.
Since his daughter Bonnie was diagnosed with leukemia, Freeman has raised money to support research on preventing, treating, and curing cancer in children. He founded STOP! Children’s Cancer in 1981, and has since raised more than $2 million to fund research and purchase equipment for the divisions of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Pediatric Neuro-oncology, and the Brain Institute at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Freeman raised more than $350,000 in 2004 alone. In 2003, STOP! committed $100,000 a year for 10 years to fund additional research grant applications and has built up a $600,000 legacy fund to fund pediatric cancer research in perpetuity. Today, 80 percent of children diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, the disease that killed Bonnie, are cured.

Greg Garrett, greg garrett realty.com, Newport News, Va.
Garrett founded Orphan Helpers to support children in orphanages and detention centers around the world. Currently working at 12 orphanages in El Salvador and Honduras, the organization provides food, shelter, education, and hope to more than 1,000 children, primarily at government-run orphanages. Orphan Helpers hires teachers and caregivers—who often outnumber government-provided staff by 3 to 1—as well as donates food, clothing, books and toys. They also partner with local churches and even the military to build, repair and upgrade facilities. Garrett has led 14 trips of volunteers and donors to the orphanages and has helped raise more than $1 million since 2000. The organization will be expanding into Nicaragua and Guatemala in 2006.

Marla S. Johnson, GRI, Maryland Real Estate Group, Inc., Frederick, Md.
Johnson is President of Spectrum Support, Inc., which supports hundreds of people with developmental disabilities such as mental retardation, autism, and cerebral palsy, 60 percent of whom also suffer from psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, or depression. In the 15 years Johnson has served on the board, Spectrum Support has provided day habilitation, housing, employment opportunities, and family support in Maryland and Tennessee. Under Johnson’s direction, the agency has grown in one year from an annual budget of $4 million to nearly $6 million and has begun a residential program that currently houses 26 people.

Pam Kiker, CRS, The Kiker Team, Keller Williams Realty, Englewood, Colo.
Kiker is Chair of The Adoption Exchange—an organization that recruits families to adopt children who are school-age, have disabilities or have survived abuse and neglect—where she has volunteered for 15 years. The Adoption Exchange, which has placed 431 children since 2004, spends approximately $2,500 to place each child, compared with $20,000 per year it estimates it costs taxpayers for each child in state care. Kiker was the driving force behind establishing the organization’s post-adoptive services program, which trains caseworkers and supports new parents with education, childcare services, and small grants to cover unexpected expenses—with the goal of reducing the number of failed adoptions.

Carole E. Sharp, Coldwell Banker Neuhaus Real Estate, Staunton, Ill.
Sharp runs the Staunton Food Pantry, which serves more than 60 families a month, up from 15 when she started eight years ago. Unlike larger communities, this town of 5,000 people outside of St. Louis has few national charities for support. Nevertheless, the Staunton Food Pantry has become a model charity in an area where other food pantries have failed. Except for weekly food distributions, Sharp handles the entire operation by herself. She applies for grants and secures corporate sponsors, writes articles for local papers, sorts and inspects all food donations, stocks the shelves—often shopping for needed items herself—and plans food drives through schools, scout troops and churches year round instead of focusing on the traditional holiday season. Sharp acknowledges every donation with a handwritten personal thank-you note.

Ouida Spencer, RE/MAX Executives, Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
For more than 25 years, Spencer has actively volunteered with the United Cerebral Palsy of Georgia, which serves people with developmental disabilities also including Down Syndrome, spina bifida, mental retardation, epilepsy and autism. During her tenure, UCP has grown from serving 100 people in Atlanta to providing daily services to more than 1,000 individuals in Georgia and the Carolinas with an annual budget of more than $17.5 million. Spencer, UCP’s current Chair, is a tireless advocate for housing rights of the disabled, traveling throughout the region to identify suitable single-family homes where three or four adults will be able to live full lives with the help of UCP care providers. She raised more than $100,000 last year, and has helped establish six day-habilitation locations, which provide life skills training, dexterity therapy, job training and employment mentoring.

Robert Thomson, Waterfront Properties and Club Communities, Jupiter, Fla.
After years of supporting children’s causes, Thomson founded Charities for Children in 2004 to provide holiday gifts and other support to poor children through churches, schools, and social service agencies. He donated 28,000 toys last year alone and made donations to such causes as Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Thomson recently donated 120 bicycles to a church toy drive, but when 275 children showed up, he quickly purchased 155 more bikes then found volunteers to assemble them in two days and deliver them to the children.

Jeanne Williams-Livesay, William E. Wood & Associates, Chesapeake, Va.
Williams-Livesay coordinates 57 churches to provide shelter and meals to the homeless from November to April for Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless, Inc. She recruits host churches to house anywhere from 25 to 105 homeless men and women and also provides overnight chaperones and supplies. It can be a complicated task, since churches may be willing to take anywhere from two nights to 10 during the 170 nights of the cold season. Williams-Livesay also finds support churches or local companies to plan, prepare and serve each night’s hot meal. Some guests stay in the shelter only for a short time until they get back on their feet; others are elderly or mentally disabled and will use the services for many years.

“The finalists for REALTOR® Magazine’s 2005 Good Neighbor Awards have made tremendous contributions to their communities—some help out close to home; others fill a need in the global community,” said NAR Vice President of Publications Pamela Geurds Kabati, who is REALTOR® Magazine’s Editorial Director. “Their stories move and deeply inspire all of us. All of the more than 300 nominees—and particularly our ten finalists—exemplify the spirit of community service that is typical of REALTORS®. We’re proud that the Good Neighbor Awards help shine a spotlight on the positive difference REALTORS® make in the world.”

REALTOR® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Awards is sponsored by eNeighborhoods Inc.—which has supported the program since its inception—Fannie Mae, and LandAmerica.
“As founding sponsor of the Good Neighbor Awards, I get energized by what REALTORS® are accomplishing at the grassroots level to help others,” says Stu Siegel, CEO of eNeighborhoods Inc., who also personally contributes to the program through his family’s charitable foundation. “What I find most incredible about Good Neighbor recipients are the amount of personal time they devote to their projects and how they unanimously feel that they would be less successful if they weren’t integrating community service into their day-to-day businesses. These people are truly role models for all REALTORS®.”

Nominees were judged on their level of personal contribution of time, as well as financial and material contributions to benefit their cause. To be eligible, nominees had to be members in good standing of NAR.

eNeighborhoods Inc., (www.eneighborhoods.com) of Boca Raton, Fla., a REALTOR VIP Alliance partner, is the industry leader in providing easy access to neighborhood information for every community in the United States. Real estate professionals who use this everyday marketing solution maintain a competitive edge with the ability to create the most powerful CMA, HomeBook, BuyerTour, newsletter, flyers, and Web site.

Fannie Mae (www.fanniemae.com) is a private, shareholder-owned company based in Washington, D.C., that provides financial products and services that make it possible for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families to buy homes. Since 1968, Fannie Mae has helped more than 63 million families achieve homeownership.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., (www.landam.com) headquartered in Richmond, Va., is a leading provider of real estate transaction services and is on Fortune magazine’s list of most admired companies for both 2003 and 2004. Through its many subsidiaries, LandAmerica serves residential and commercial customers with more than 800 offices and a network of 10,000 active agents throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe.

REALTOR® Magazine is the award-winning magazine of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, Chicago.

The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.