By Benita Ovwurie, Sales Representative, EXIT Community Realty, Lanham, MD
Wow! Project Feed 1000 Families was nothing less than amazing, and the feeling it’s left me with is something I’ve never felt before in my life. I would like to thank EXIT Realty Corp. International for matching $1,300 of the donations, which helped us feed a total of 175 families! It wasn’t 1,000 families, but the 175 families we were able to feed equates to 1,000 people or more, so it’s truly an accomplishment beyond measure.
Coming from a low-income family myself, I know exactly what’s it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck – having to make due without some of life’s basic essentials. It felt so amazing to see the looks on those families’ faces when they received their turkey baskets.
We call ourselves EXIT Community Realty because ‘community’ is our middle name and Project FEED 1000 definitely proved that. We had so many people from the community that reached out to volunteer their time and service to help put this event together. When I came up with Project FEED 1000 and expressed it to the brokerage, I received a lot of skepticism as to how we could possibly feed 1000 families, but I didn’t let that stop me. The next morning, I woke up at 7am and created a fundraiser on Facebook and by 12pm we were already at $550 which gave me the fuel I needed to pull this thing together.
Many people reached out immediately to help, such as LaTasha Rozier-Behlin of Behlin Wealth Solutions and Sade Boyea of IMAG Non-Profit. They both donated so much time and resources to helping me put this event together. We partnered with Jody’s Good Mood Café to sponsor a happy hour in which $1 from every drink sold was donated to the fundraiser. We collected a lot of canned goods and cash donations that day. LaTasha also introduced me to Sheewana Kerns who is a mother dedicated to helping her community. She was able to partner with a few different organizations and the U.S. Military to get us many non-perishable donations. These three ladies really dedicated so much time to putting this together.
Each family we provided with a basket showed so much gratitude. I even received multiple texts and emails after thanking us again for our service. One text came from a father of three who said, “Just wanted to thank you again for the turkey and other items. It’s truly a blessing to have caring people such as yourself and those who are there with you. Please thank them as well. God bless you all!” This truly brought tears to my eyes to know that we really helped families in need. We received a lot of positive feedback and recognition online and among the community. I am so grateful.
A portion of every transaction fee received by EXIT Realty Corp. International is applied to its charitable fund. Through the Spirit of EXIT Dollar-for-Dollar Matching Program, EXIT offices and associates can raise money for local, approved, registered charities and apply to EXIT’s head office to have those funds matched from the company’s pledged pool of funds. The Feed 1000 Families fundraising initiative was held to benefit Immigrants Make America Great, an organization whose mission is to be a support system to immigrants, with an emphasis on children. Benita and her team of helpers raised $1,300 which EXIT Realty Corp. International was proud to match for a total donation to Immigrants Make America Great of $2,600.
