Working the holiday magic
<p>Loretta Reed, Windermere Foundation Boots and Socks Program chair, right, and Midge Smock, co-owner of Windermere Coeur d’Alene Realty, talk about why the annual fundraising program is important to them on Tuesday at the real estate office.</p>
<p>In addition to the Windermere Foundation’s Boots and Socks Program, employee contributions and fundraising collected dozens of items for the Safe Passage women’s shelter. From left, Midge Smock, Cindy Perry and Alison Roberts.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE — Like magic elves toiling away in Santa's workshop, Windermere agents are up to some good stuff this holiday season.
“Our plate’s full,” Windermere Realtor Loretta Reed said Tuesday afternoon.
The Windermere Foundation is celebrating a milestone with its Boots and Socks program, which provides boots and socks to local children in need. Since 1996, the program has given away 10,300 pairs, with 576 of them donated this year alone.
“We started out with 47 kiddos,” said Reed, who serves as the Boots and Socks chairwoman. “The program just kind of blossomed.”
She explained that agents reach out to Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland elementary schools — as well as Children's Village, Health and Welfare and other organizations — and ask counselors and officials which children are in need of new footwear. Windermere partners with Payless ShoeSource for the program.
It all began 19 years ago with one goal in mind: To give back.
“We were just brainstorming how we can help the community,” Reed said. “Each transaction that we close, money goes to the foundation and then we have different fundraisers that add to the coffer for the foundation.”
Realtor Alison Roberts is leading the efforts to provide a warm and filling Thanksgiving dinner to the women and children at Safe Passage Violence Prevention Center (formerly the North Idaho Violence Prevention Center). She was pleased to report the lower level of the Windermere building was filled with turkeys, hams, egg nog, pies and an assortment of holiday foods ready to nourish the hungry tummies of those in the center.
“The goal is to provide Thanksgiving dinner so it’s like home for them,” Roberts said. “We know that we’ll all be home and warm and cozy, and we want them to experience some sort of traditional holiday as well so it’s a little more normal versus being in a shelter.”
She said among the donations for Safe Passage will be "journals for the ladies. Maybe it’s a time in their lives where they want to reflect or get their emotions out.”
Other agents are busy planning the Windermere Christmas program, which brightens the holidays for the elderly, disabled and those who are struggling. Agents are collecting food, clothing, toys and much more to package and deliver to recipients next month.
Agents are volunteering their time and efforts to decorate a girls room at Children's Village. They are also collecting donations for Toys for Tots and working on several other projects to care for their community.
“We’re lucky, we’re blessed," Roberts said. "We're like a family here and we feel like we’re a part of the community, and the community is a part of our family, so we want to make sure that everybody is lifted up and taken care of.”
Realtor Midge Smock said it all works out well because agents have their own special interest groups that allow them to dedicate time to causes that are important to them.
“Everybody has their passion and it’s an opportunity to explore that passion and fulfill it, and we have our framework with the foundation to be able to do it,” Smock said.
The Windermere Foundation will also be donating $25,500 in grants to several local charities and nonprofits in the next week or so, adding to the list of Windermere's goodwill accomplishments.
“We have all been blessed,” Smock said. “We work as a family here. Most of us are very passionate about giving back to the community, so it’s just kind of a natural thing for us. It’s who we are. When you’re a Windermere agent, you know what you’re signing up for.”