Wisconsin Real Estate & Wisconsin Living presented by First Weber Group

To celebrate a successful 2011, First Weber’s Fitchburg office decided to raise funds for Porchlight, a non-profit charity that helps the homeless and less fortunate in the Dane County area, including Veterans who have housing issues. The First Weber Foundation matched the collected amount from the Fitchburg office. $1990.00 was donated in total. That money will go far! Good job!  (In the photo from left to right are: Paul Brown, Fitchburg Office Mgr; Lisa Mohar, Associate Vice President First Weber; Ellen Roche, Associate Vice President First Weber; Steve Schooler, Executive Director of Porchlight; and Diane Balweg, Member of the Board of Directors for Porchlight)

The First Weber Foundation is a public, charitable foundation established to strengthen Wisconsin Communities all across the state through both charitable contributions and volunteer leadership.  It is funded by agents, owners and employees of First Weber. For more on the First Weber Foundation, please see the First Weber Foundation page or read other First Weber Foundation posts.

Thank you for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate & Wisconsin living blog. If you liked this post, please share with the social buttons below.  For more information about Wisconsin real estate, please contact First Weber.

Local Real Estate personalities Nancy K. Smith and Tom Weber, both from
First Weber Group, were a part of the more than 2,500 volunteer dunkies to
take a chilly dip into Madison’s Lake Monona last Saturday, February 18th.

Why jump into a frozen lake, in Wisconsin, during the winter?

To raise money for the Special Olympics, of course.  Nancy and Tom raised money
through donations form co-workers, friends and a matching gifts program
through the First Weber Group Foundation.  Their efforts yielded a combined
donation in excess of $2,400.  Relatively new to the plunging experience,
this was a substantial donation for a one week fundraising efforts.  Current
estimates are that the Madison Polar Plunge raised in excess of $500,000
during the 5 hour event!  Kooky costumes for the plunge and auctioning off
their heads for extreme makeovers by co-workers inspired donations and left
Tom with hot pink hair for several days.  ”It’s all in good fun, and for a
great cause” said Tom.

Just look at the looks on their faces...

When asked if they would do it again, Nancy and Tom replied that they hoped
that this year’s effort and promotion will inspire others to form permanent
plunge teams for First Weber and that they both plan to continue to be a
part of the team.  ”That way we can do even more to continue supporting the
many Special Olympics athletes and plunge events throughout Wisconsin” said
Nancy.  With over 50 First Weber offices located throughout the state, it’s
Nancy and Tom’s hope to eventually have plunge teams in each of the 12
different Polar Plunge “Freezin’ for a Reason” events that Special Olympics holds throughout Wisconsin each year.  If you are interested in making a donation or taking
the plunge yourself, you can get more information at
www.specialolympicswisconsin.org

Tom Weber is Manager of First Weber’s East Madison office

Nancy K. Smith is the Branch Office Manager of these Southwest Wisconsin offices: Dodgeville, Mineral Point, Platteville, Spring Green & Muscoda

Thanks for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate & Wisconsin living blog for information on how the First Weber Foundation helped two managers make a splash with the Special Olympics Polar Plunge, “Freezin’ for a Reason” fundraiser.  If you liked this post, please comment or share. And we’d love to know if YOU ever did a Polar Plunge! Let us know with a comment.  For more on what the First Weber Foundation has been involved in, please see our First Weber Foundation video at firstweber.com or our Foundation category on the blog.  

photo credit IPI Wisconsin

At our statewide retreat, there were five “Pride of the Foundation” awards given out to offices based on the fundraising activities benefitting the First Weber Foundation.  These awards are not based on a percentage of office participation we posted about last week, but by the monies raised through office fundraising activites.

1. West Madison/Fitchburg office. The West Madison/Fitchburg office and the Foundation  raised over $4000 in one night to benefit area food pantries. Here is a post about the Oregon Food Pantry First Weber fundraiser.

2. West Bend office. First Weber’s West Bend office held multiple fundraisers around the holidays including their Project Gratitude providing Thanksgiving meals to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Washington County. Here’s a post about West Bend’s Project Gratitude.

[...]

The Oshkosh Office and First Weber Foundation gave a $5,000 donation to the Oshkosh Area Boys & Girls Club this month.

At First Weber’s annual statewide retreat in the Wisconsin Dells, approximately 500 agents and managers got together to learn from national speakers and learn from each other through breakout panels and networking. It was a wonderful event and gave everyone who attended much energy to jump into 2012.  One of the main events during the retreat was the recognition of the sales offices which support the First Weber Foundation by percentage of participation and also the presentation of “Pride of the Foundation awards”.  Today, we’ll list the office participation awards and feature the “Pride of the Foundation” winners next week.

First Weber Foundation Office Participation Awards

The ability to support the First Weber Foundation through a financial donation from every closed real estate transaction or every pay check is optional and available to all First Weber Group agents, employees and owners.  We’d like to recognize offices based on their level of enrollment in the Foundation giving program.

Platinum

Offices with 100% office participation in giving to the First Weber Foundation:

Appleton, Beaver Dam, Dodgeville, Merrill, Oshkosh, Pardeeville, Monroe (new office just opened), Eagle River, Marshfield, Mauston, Spring Green and Wautoma

Gold

Offices with 90% of the office members participating in giving to the First Weber Foundation:

Janesville, Prairie du Sac, Tomah, West Towne.

Silver

Offices with 80% office participation in the First Weber Foundation:

East Madison, Metro West, Portage, Wisconsin Dells and Wisconsin Rapids

Great job, everyone.  The dollars you donate from your paychecks and commission checks enable the Foundation to support many housing related charities across Wisconsin and provide matching monies for individual matching gift requests and group giving fundraisers. Together we can do so much good.  Thank you for making First Weber Group proud. For more on the First Weber Foundation, please visit our First Weber Foundation page on firstweber.com or our First Weber Foundation blog category to see all the Foundation has done for our Wisconsin communities. For Wisconsin real estate, please see firstweber.com and thank you for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate & Wisconsin living blog.

For the past 15 years First Weber Group’s Oregon office has been sponsoring a holiday food drive to benefit the Oregon/Brooklyn Food Pantry.

This year the office, along with agents from various other First Weber offices and other friends of the pantry, got together to do a “Bowl-a-thon” on behalf of the pantry.

$4,120 given to the food pantry

The bowlers, along with local donors, raised a wonderful total of $2060 and the First Weber Foundation agreed to a matching gift of another $2060 to make the total donation to the pantry $4,120.

In these economic times, First Weber is proud to have agents that recognize needs within their communities and create ways to address those needs.

Many of our offices hold food drives to benefit the Wisconsin communities they serve. This effort in Oregon was outstanding and the Foundation we are so proud to have doubles the goodness. Great job!

The First Weber Foundation is a public, charitable foundation established to strengthen Wisconsin Communities all across the state through both charitable contributions and volunteer leadership.  It is funded by agents, owners and employees of First Weber. For more on the First Weber Foundation, please see the First Weber Foundation page.

Thank you for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate & Wisconsin living blog. If you liked this post, please share with the social buttons below.  For more information about Wisconsin real estate, please contact First Weber.