Good Neighbors are REALTORS® and Affiliates that dedicate themselves to volunteer service. They donate gifts, money, and – most importantly –  a lot of time to their charity. 

This is our first year GAAR has held the Good Neighbor Awards for our members and we are very excited to announce the recipients.

• Robert Boverie of Coldwell Banker Legacy
• John Kynor of Q Realty, Inc.
• Danielle Clemens of Logic Real Estate 
• Kristine Cannady of Ida Kelly Realtors, LLC 
• Stephen Cecco of Gold Financial Services

Please join us in congratulating our first year recipients and the charities they serve.

Robert Boverie of Coldwell Banker Legacy – for his work with Silver Horizons, a charity that serves over 900 disadvantaged seniors in our community each month.

Silver Horizons is an independent registered 501c3 nonprofit organization located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more than 35 years, Silver Horizons has helped the community’s lowest-income seniors meet their basic needs, have access to nutrition, and remain in their own safe and secure home.

Silver Horizons supports low-income and at-risk seniors by providing programs and resources that help them safely stay in their homes through accessibility and maintenance upgrades; paying utility bills to keep the power, heat and water on; and providing food pantry items, including home deliveries, to seniors who simply do not have enough food to eat.

Can you imagine living on less than $25 a day? About 85 percent of Silver Horizons’ clients are living on less than $750 a month. New Mexico is the second highest ranked state in the nation for senior hunger. And, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, one out of every seven Bernalillo Country seniors lives below the poverty level. Too many of New Mexico’s seniors are living in poverty, and the numbers of seniors in need continues to rise as Baby Boomers age.

John Kynor of Q Realty, Inc. – for his work with Dental Care in Your Home, a charity that provides access to complete and professional dental care for disabled, homebound and special needs individuals of all ages.

Dental care is vitally important for everyone, but homebound individuals have been neglected by the dental community.  Dental Care In Your Home, Inc. was founded to care for homebound individuals of all ages in their own home or care facility.  We were incorporated in September 2010.  We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation with a Board of Directors of nine (9) multi-talented individuals who give generously of their time, talents and funds to further the mission of Dental Care In Your Home, Inc.  Additionally we comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rules .

Our mission is to provide superior dental care to homebound individuals of all ages in their own home or care facility.  Our goal is to restore the mouth to good health, to treat and stop oral pain and to educate our patients and their care providers on how to keep the teeth and gums clean and healthy daily.

Oral inflammation puts a patient more at risk for cardiovascular disease like heart attack, stroke, macular degeneration, and aneurisms.  It also puts a person more at risk for type II diabetes, chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Alzheimer's disease and some cancerous tumors. Gums can be restored to good health with a professional teeth cleaning to remove mineral deposits and then daily home care to keep the bacterial plaque brushed away from the gum tissue.  Poorly fitting full or partial dentures make it very difficult to enjoy eating and sometimes lead to feelings of social isolation by being unsightly or moving around while a person speaks or eats.  This can lead to malnutrition, obesity or depression.
 

Danielle Clemens of Logic Real Estate – for her work with LifeQuest USA, a charity that helps mentor at-risk youth in detention centers and when they get out to help provide them with the job and life-skills training they need.

LifeQuest USA Inc. is a 501c3 Public Charity, non-profit ministry to high-risk adjudicated youth in the juvenile justice system.  This includes youth on probation, in detention and on parole.  Secondary to this population, we will work with any youth that could be considered “at-risk”.  This could include, but is not limited to, youth that are in the protective custody system (foster care).

LifeQuest, working with the local church, provides mentoring relationships to youth in the juvenlie justice system to help them become productive citizens and fully-devoted followers of Christ.

At the heart of all that we do is the relationship between our youth and their mentor.  All other tools revolve around this hub.  In order to initiate a relationship between one of our mentors and a youth, we are contstantly offering experiences that serve as “hooks”, catching their attention and peaking their interest.  Some examples of these “hooks” are: Weekly Bible Studies, Camp Day B.R.E.A.K. (Being Responsible Educated Alert Kids) , Painting and Drawing classes and Cook-outs

Once the relationship is established and in order to effectively support the mentor and further equip the youth, we offer classes such as Basic LifeSkills and Pre-apprenticeship in the trades

and finally, for those youth that have shown that they are F.A.T. (Faithful, Available, and Teachable) over a period of time, we continue to support them with Employment Services.

 
Kristine Cannady of Ida Kelly Realtors, LLC – for her work as a trained volunteer with New Mexico Kids Matter, a charity where she helps to offset the over-burdoned child welfare system by being a court appointed special advocate (CASA) for children that have been abused and neglected and are in the foster care system.

New Mexico Kids Matter mission is to serve children who have been abused or neglected, by training volunteers to advocate for them in courts, in schools and in our community to help them find safe, permanent and loving homes.

Since 1985, New Mexico Kids Matter CASA program has provided advocates for Albuquerque children and over 1,200 community members just like you have advocated for over 10,000 children. In 2012 the CASA program went from court run to a non-profit organization. We remain committed to children by providing trained advocates to speak up for them in court, in school, and in our community.

To ensure he was getting all the facts and the long-term welfare of each child was being represented, Superior Court Judge David Soukup came up with an idea that would change America's judicial procedure and the lives of over a million children. He obtained funding to recruit and train community volunteers to step into courtrooms on behalf of the children: Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers. Implemented in Seattle in 1977, the program provided 110 trained CASA volunteers for 498 children in that first year. National recognition and grants resulted in the replication of the Seattle CASA program in courts across the country.

 
Stephen Cecco of Gold Financial Services, our affiliate recipient – for his work with The REALTOR® Fund of Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS®, a sustainable trust established by GAAR members to help support and develop the community through charitable giving. 

The REALTOR® Fund of the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® provides a permanently sustainable fund to aid in creating adequate housing, building functioning cities, developing productive industries and preserving a healthful environment in Bernalillo, Valencia, Sandoval, and Torrance Counties.

The REALTOR® Fund of the Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS® was created to support these lofty core values.

How it works: REALTORS® have had an integral role in the development of the Greater Albuquerque area for over 90 years. Through their dedicated efforts and involvement, REALTORS® have positively influenced the shaping of our neighborhoods and communities. By establishing this endowment fund, REALTORS® demonstrate their ongoing pledge to honor their responsibilities to the community and to express gratitude for a successful real estate industry.

Recipients will also receive a $500 grant for their charity and will be featured in GAAR's 2016 consumer outreach campaign.

We would like to thank all of our nominees for their work in the community. Please look for upcoming articles about the charitable work and the non-profits they serve.