The Forecast feeds the homeless...

Written by Gemma Beierback

On Wednesday, January 20th 2010 roughly 1400 members of the Calgary Real estate board converged on the Telus convention centre for the annual forecast conference and trade show. This fantastic event is hosted by the Calgary Real Estate Board for its membership and provides expert panels and speakers on all sorts of topics of interest.
The event begins with breakfast and the presidents speech. This years incoming president Diane Scott was very well received and numerous attendees commented on her wonderful speech. Following the breakfast participants had an opportunity to stroll through the trade show booths and preview a variety of products and services related to the real estate industry; home staging, mortgage lending and virtual tours...
There were numerous breakout sessions throughout the morning including and economic panel, a speakers forum and a technology discussion.
Lunch was a brown bag style lunch box with fruit, a sandwich, a bag of chips and a bottle of water. Once all of the REALTORS® had finished eating the conference volunteers, themselves real estate agents, noticed that many of the lunches had not been used. This is when some quick thinking on the part of the volunteers at the event made sure that there was no waste. The troops quickly rallied and we loaded a car full of lunch boxes and headed over the Mustard Seed to drop them off. The staff were very pleased and the delivery created a lot of attention from onlookers interested in what was in the boxes. Thanks to the generosity and quick thinking of REALTORS® roughly 300 lunches along with additional chips, apples and juice boxes, got to the homeless last wednesday. It isn’t enough to change the world but it may have improved a few lives for a day.
It makes you wonder what happens to all of this left over conference food? There are conventions and conferences everyday and I hope they have the same opportunity to take a few minutes and improve the community. I must say while we were at the Mustard Seed I was touched by the volume of donation traffic making it to the facility. In the short time it took to unload there were numerous Calgarians dropping off donations. It is a powerful reminder of the charity of Calgarians and the misfortune of those who are in need of the services of the Mustard Seed.
I want to challenge you to take a moment to reflect on everything you have in your life and see if you can spare a few dollars, some used clothing or mittens, blankets or sleeping bags or better yet a few hours of your time to share your wealth and fortune with those who have much less. If everyone gave just one dollar that would make a difference. Nothing you have to give is too small. Every donation is a reflection of human kindness and that is the biggest and brightest gift of all!