COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
BLANKET DRIVE
28th Blanket Drive: Your help will keep someone warm this chilly winter!
Don’t donate your winter clothing yet!
The annual Blanket Drive is returning for the 28th year in a row! The Blanket Drive will be running from November 14 to 21, with only one goal: Collect and distribute to those who need it the most!
Last year, despite catastrophic weather events, and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the 27th annual REALTORS Care® Blanket Drive proved to be a great success. Over fifty FVREB member volunteers helped to collect hundreds of bags of warm clothing and blankets. In addition, FVREB members collectively raised $25,421 for the Canadian Red Cross’s British Columbia Floods and Extreme Weather Appeal. These funds support those who have been affected by the devastating floods in the winter of 2021.
In a collective effort between the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board, REALTORS® raised over $134,000. With the provincial and federal governments’ pledge to match flood relief donations, this year’s fundraising efforts resulted in a total donation of $403,899 for BC!
Below is a list of charities being supported in 2022:
- Riverside Shelter (Lookout Housing & Health Society)
- Centre of Hope (Salvation Army)
- Cyrus Centre
- Gateway Community CRC (Extreme Weather Shelter)
- Raven’s Moon Resource Society
- SARA for Women’s Society
- Lighthouse Shelter at the Red Lion (Lookout Housing & Health Society)
- Gateway of Hope Shelter (Salvation Army)
- Ishtar Women’s Resource Society
- Wagner Hills Farm Society (Women’s and Men’s Campus)
- Kimz Angel
- Langley Community Services
- Langley Vineyards
- Hope Central Ministry (New Heights Church)
- Lydia Home’s Alcohol & Drug Recovery Program (Union Gospel Mission)
- Mission Community Services Society
- Mission Youth (MY) House
- Hyland House (Options Community Services)
- NightShift Street Ministries
- Surrey Memorial Hospital (Volunteer Services)
- Surrey Urban Mission
- Gateway Shelter (Lookout Housing & Health Society)
- Atira Women’s Shelter
- Sources (Newton)
- Lookout Housing & Health Society (Guildford)
- Extreme Weather Shelter (Part of New Hope Church)
- Cloverdale Community Kitchen (Extreme Weather Shelter)
- Atira Women’s Resource Society
- Bill Reid Place (Options)
- Sources White Rock/South Surrey Food Bank
- Sources Community Resources Centre
- Temporary Weather Shelter (Part of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church)
REALTY WATCH
Since 1995, Fraser Valley REALTORS® have joined forces with police acting as “extra eyes and ears” to fight crime in their communities. REALTOR® members at the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board joined the Realty Watch program in 2003. In 2006, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver members launched Realty Watch for their areas.
Realty Watch is a crime prevention program whose mission is to reduce and prevent crime by assisting police in time-critical situations — usually lost, missing or abducted children or vulnerable adults.
Police contact the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and request a fan-out for the missing person. The information sent out as a text message to REALTORS®. After receiving the fan-out message, if a REALTOR® sees or hears anything that could help police with that case, he or she calls 911.
REALTORS®, with their smartphones and community mobility, are an excellent resource for police. Over 14,000 REALTORS throughout the Lower Mainland of BC, from Whistler to Hope, can be mobilized within 30 minutes.
Fore more information, visit www.realtywatch.net or call 604.930.7630.
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
CHARITABLE GIVING GUIDELINES
Given our modest budget, we have specific criteria when reviewing submissions, as follows:
- Preference shall be given to shelter-related causes. These include charitable efforts that support the provision, creation, or modification of temporary or permanent human shelter.
- Preference shall be given to submissions that address the needs of people who live within the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s areas of operation.
- Submissions shall only be considered from fully registered Canadian charitable societies, preferably with a BC division.
- A complete submission, including a description of the need for funding, must be provided. Organizations are expected to carry out the project as funded, and to submit written reviews as requested.
Charitable societies are expected to maintain proper fiscal accounting practices and to provide, upon request, interim and/or annual financial accounting of use of funds.
Submissions will be reviewed through the lens of the Quality of Life principles:
ensuring economic vitality
providing housing opportunities
protecting property owners
building better communities- Submissions must demonstrate the opportunity for public recognition of the donation, with such recognition to go to the REALTORS® of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board.
Submissions will be reviewed annually. Please address any submissions to the attention of the Communications department. A printable PDF of these guidelines is available here.