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Getting your children prepared to go back to school is stressful enough. We all want to make sure that they are adequately prepared for the upcoming year. Now imagine that you also have to worry about how you’re going to pay for new clothing, shoes and school supplies—it can be quite overwhelming! Many parents just aren’t able to afford all of the back-to-school necessities.
Fortunately, there are community and school programs available that can help with that need. And at Windermere, we are proud to support a number of those organizations that help provide backpacks, school supplies, shoes, clothing, haircuts, and other back-to-school-related needs, through donations from the Windermere Foundation.
These are just a few examples of how our Windermere offices are helping children in their communities get a good start to the new school year.
The Windermere/Coeur d’Alene Realty, Inc. offices supplied backpacks full of school supplies for the KIDS Camp summer school program offered by the Coeur d’Alene School District at Fernan Elementary School. This program serves second and third grade students that have been behind grade level and are recommended by their teachers to attend camp. These classes give them a boost to catch up, and in most cases, get ahead! When Windermere first started supporting the program, there were only 12 kids. This year the number has grown to 57.At the end of the camp, each student receives a new backpack full of school supplies complements of the Windermere Foundation.
“It’s a wonderful program that we have been involved with for the last four years,” said Midge Smock, Windermere Foundation representative, Coeur d’Alene Realty, Inc. “The first two years we had agents adopt a backpack. This year, all supplies were purchased in bulk and agents sponsored a full backpack. These kids will be ready for school in the fall.”
The Windermere Mount Baker office has been assisting with the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness’s Project Cool back to school supply drive for the last four years. Each summer, the office holds a supply drive and then spends a morning organizing the backpacks for children that are experiencing homelessness. This year approximately 20 Windermere agents volunteered on July 9 to help organize and stuff the backpacks with supplies. These backpacks were then distributed to children in need through various social service organizations and homeless shelters.
The Windermere Seattle-Northgate, Seattle-Sand Point and Seattle-Wedgwood offices have been working with 10 elementary schools in their neighborhoods. With the help of principals, advisors, counselors and teachers, 236 children have been identified to be in need of backpacks and school supplies. Supplies include composition notebooks, reams of copy paper and wide rule paper, erasers, colored pencils, crayons, rulers, 3-ring binders, and much more. Supplies will be purchased through grants from the Windermere Foundation, assembled by Windermere brokers, and delivered to the specified schools.
The Windermere Bellevue Commons office is holding a backpack/school supply drive from July 26 through August 15 to support Congregations for Kids, which helps students who qualify for free and reduced lunch in the Bellevue School District. Over 25 agents will help with the effort. Last year, 1,525 students benefitted from their assistance.
The Windermere Las Vegas-Summerlin office is participating in the Communities In Schools (CIS) “Fill the Bus” back-to-school drive. This event will benefit over 58,000 students in 55 schools statewide that CIS of Nevada serves. This is the second year the office has participated. Last year they helped to fill five school buses with backpacks, uniforms and school supplies for all ages. This year they are hosting a collection drive at their office through August 11, and will bring their collected items to the drop off site on August 12.
A number of Windermere offices throughout our network will be collecting shoes August 1-8 for children in need as part of the Windermere Kicks for Kids shoe drive. Each office selects a local non-profit to receive the donated shoes. One participating office is Windermere Mercer Island which is collecting shoes for Mary’s Place, a homeless shelter for women and children in Seattle, WA. For the past three years, brokers from the Mercer Island office have participated in a back-to-school event at Mary’s Place, where children are paired with volunteers to select a pair of shoes and backpack for school.
If you’d like to help children in need in your community during the school year, or throughout the year, please consider donating to the Windermere Foundation. For the past 27 years, the Windermere Foundation has donated a portion of the proceeds from every home purchased or sold towards supporting low-income and families in our communities. And generous donations from our Windermere owners, agents, staff, and the community continue to make Windermere Foundation grants possible.
To learn more about the Windermere Foundation, visit https://www.windermere.com/foundation.
