Beyond Shelter Food Drive - Today in Beverly Hills

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I very much enjoy helping companies get the word about events in their specific area. I saw this event on Facebook last night, and contacted Robert Aigner, a Keller Williams Realtor in Beverly Hills, about it. Robert sent this, and, if you are in the Beverly Hills area, please help.

This information proves two things to me: the economy is affecting people everywhere: even Beverly Hills. Secondly, there are a lot of good people - once again even in Beverly Hills! Please help if you can.

News Release

MEDIA CONTACT: Veronica Oliva
(561) 909-7162
veronicao@kw.com

Keller Williams Realty of Beverly Hills
Sponsors Food Drive for Beyond Shelter

Beverly Hills, CA—05/14/2009—The Keller Williams Realty of Beverly Hills Market Center team, believes in giving back to the Los Angele's community. In that spirit, the Beverly Hills office will hold a food drive at our local Ralph’s grocery store to benefit the Beyond Shelter organization.


“We believe in supporting the community that we live and work in. It’s our way of saying thanks to our friends, neighbors, clients and customers,” said Team Leader, Rob Aigner.

Beyond Shelter is a non profit organization helping homeless families find shelter, food, and a new way of life. The organization has an 85% success rate on helping and keeping families off the street. If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile campaign, please contact Veronica Oliva at 310-432-6400. The Keller Williams Realty of Beverly Hills Market Center, located at 439 North Canon Drive, Suite 300, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, is a full service real estate firm with 270+ sales associates. We are currently the third largest real estate company in the United States.

About Keller Williams Realty:
Founded in 1983, Keller Williams Realty International (KWRI) is an international real estate company with more than 350 offices located across the U.S. and Canada. Currently the fifth largest U.S. residential real estate firm in North America, Keller Williams began franchising its offices in 1991. The company has succeeded by treating its 33,200-plus associates as partners, and shares its knowledge, policy control, and company profits on a system-wide basis. KWRI’s agents are distinguished by their level of professional education, their full-time commitment to real estate sales, and their level of business success. For more information, visit Keller Williams Realty online at www.kw.com.

Les Turner ALS Foundation Joins AgentspayingForward.com

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I like telling people when a new charity joins our site, so that you can get a sense of who we are trying to support. Our mission is to help non-profits, schools, and churches. The aforementioned groups do great things, and The Les Turner ALS Foundation is certainly an organization that deserves help. I am proud to have this organization as one of the charities to support, and also proud to be associated with both Mark and Laura Anderson.

I also like having the agents that are on the site write about why they are paying it forward for their particular charity. Many people say their real estate agent is this or that, but I challenge you to tell me you think Mark Anderson of Keller Williams is not a remarkable man. His story is below, and tells why he wants to pay it forward for the Les Turner ALS Foundation. More than that, Mark shows how many American's can turn a negative into a positive. Fighting to find a cure for ALS is personal for Mark - it's not just business. Please take the time to read Mark's information below, and also to help Mark and the Les Turner ALS Foundation find a cure for ALS.

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. This neuromuscular disease currently has no cure, with those afflicted losing their lives 3 to 5 years following a confirmed diagnosis.
Major limbs, either both arms or both legs are the first to be affected; in my mom's case, the legs. A short time later, the strength in her arms vanished, and soon thereafter she was bedridden for the remainder of her life. Mom's condition was very rapid, though there are known cases where the progression of the disease is much slower, yet no less insidious. Such is the case with professor Stephen Hawking, the well known scientist and author.

Statistically ALS is well down the list among fatal illnesses. It's comparative rarity, combined with the lack of test subjects (most die too quickly) means little has been done to isolate the possible cause and develop an effective treatment. Most ALS sufferers lose complete motorneuron activity, while maintaining complete cognitive ability, which makes this disease almost too horrible for most people to contemplate. In my mom's case however, I think the spread of the disease affected the frontal and temporal lobes of her brain, which has been a reported event in some, but not all patients. This phenomenon made it seem like she was losing her mind, and her frequent rants created additional stress, affecting all those who were charged with her care.
So little is known about ALS that it is identified only after all possible diseases are eliminated from consideration. Imagine hoping to be spared your worst fear by receiving news a lesser disease with a more comforting, treatable "label" attached to it, only to be told all other possibilities have been tested for and discarded. That death will come to you as lie immobile with only the ability to move your eyes, with your brain fully aware that your lungs can no longer expel the inevitable buildup of fluid. All ALS deaths are respiratory, unless in cases of a fall, or some other means not related to the illness.Usually, the cause of death is stated as pneumonia.
ALS usually affects males over forty years of age. Race geographic location, and lifestyle are irrelevant. Generally speaking, the disease is very random, though my mom had what's known as a familial strain of the disease.
Two of her brothers had died previous to her own death, a fact her physician found very interesting, though of course nothing could be done to affect the outcome. Research seemed to suggest ALS may "skip" a generation, however this is not true. Subsequent to my mom's death, a first cousin, and the son of yet another of my mom's brothers was determined to have ALS. He died at age 49, after approximately one year of living with the illness.

Mark closed out his note to me with the following words: "ALS is an affliction that is truly the stuff of all our nightmares. This is a bad one...I cannot imagine a worse hand to be dealt.". If you are looking to buy or sell real esate in Minnesota, please consider working with Mark and Laura Anderson with Keller Williams. Your working with the Anderson's will help the Les Turner ALS Foundation fight a horrible disease. You can reach Mark and Laura Anderson at (651) 307-4020 or (651) 428-4996.

WEAVE Joins Agentspayingforward.com

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One of the newest agents on Agentspayingforward is a Realtor named Tom Conway. Tom is with Keller Williams in their Folsom office (916) 257-4864. Rather than just join Agentspayingforward, Tom also went and recruited his favorite charity: WEAVE. WEAVE is the primary provider of crisis intervention services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Sacramento County. Below is a description from their website.

WEAVE provides crisis intervention services to women, men and children in Sacramento County who have experienced domestic violence or have been sexually assaulted. It is WEAVE's mission to bring an end to domestic violence and sexual assault in partnership with our community.

Agentspayingforward.com is dedicated to helping great organizations like WEAVE, and Agentspayingforward.com is made up of people like Tom Conway who care about more than just making money - they care about their community. Join Agentspayingforward.com, or work with those who are part of it: you can help change the world one transaction at a time!