News
4 Great Causes
September 20, 2012
| Commercial real estate folks in Boston are incredibly generous givers and organizers for charity. We thought we'd pause for a moment and showcase some of the amazing efforts that this community makes for others, and which we as a company have been privileged to come to know and support. |
| United Way |
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| Terra Nova Partners’ Polly Bryson (here with Cassidy Turley FHO’s Brian Hines and The Beal Cos’ Robert Beal) will be the first woman to receive the Norman B. Leventhal/Edwin N. Sidman Leadership Award at the United Way’s Annual Real Estate and Building Industry Breakfast. Attended each year by at least 1,000 industry folk, it’s a main avenue through which the CRE community has raised $31M for United Way since 1994. Each year since ’07, the industry has raised $3M, which provides: permanent housing for 3,744 homeless families, services, and permanent housing for 12,369 at-risk individuals and families; development of 347 new affordable housing units; and the preservation of 7,836 affordable housing units. |
| Building Impact |
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| Paradigm Properties prez Kevin McCall (center with Charlotte Streat, Katherine Gross and Jon Aram) founded Building Impact in ’04 to connect tenants in office and multifamily buildings with volunteering for community non-profits. Now, BI reaches 643 companies in over 50 metro Boston and Hartford buildings and connects 36,900 people with activities and events that promote literacy, fight homelessness, and deliver holiday gifts to children in need. 100% of the volunteering and giving BI generates goes to the non-profits, Kevin tells us. |
| American Diabetes Association |
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| ADD Inc prez Fred Kramer (here with daughter Lauren, wife Sue and son Jeff) accepted the “Father of the Year” award in June from the American Diabetes Association, for which he recently raised $100k for education and research. For 20-plus years, Fred has supported the ADA and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (Lauren was diagnosed with Type I at age six). Recently, Fred pledged $25k to the Home for Little Wanderers where he once resided before being adopted by a couple (Dad was a doctor, Mom a nurse). End result, he says, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” |
| Heading Home |
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| Heading Home provides supportive services and permanent housing to about 2,500 homeless people a year, says chairman Marc Margulies (of Margulies Perruzzi Architects, back row 3rd from left, with partner Dan Perruzzi, firm employees and their families). This summer, it helped a once-homeless family move into their own Mattapan apartment, providing muscle power and accoutrement, from furniture to dishes. Marc says that the CRE industry is a “huge” supporter of the non-profit. CRE pros provide much of the $10M budget and many of the 700 volunteers that make it work every year. |
