3 Ways To Give Back You Didn’t Know About

Join CREW Fort Worth and Paul Paine for Adaptive Reuse – Success Stories from Fort Worth South, Oct. 3 at The Fort Worth Club. The trend: reusing and redeveloping existing properties for aesthetic and/or financial reasons. Register here.

We’ve known that DFW’s CRE types possess generous hearts in addition to dedicated work ethics. We’ve shared some of their good deeds with you and told you about some of the great causes. Today, we’re gonna tell you about three more ways to give.

1. MENTORING

Two SRS Real Estate brokers, Jack Burgher and Justin Schoellkopf, mentor children in the West Dallas Community School. Here’s Jack with second-grader Tyrune at Jump Street in Plano this summer. Jack says it’s been really cool to see just how big of an impact a little investment of time can have on a young child. Jack spends time with Tyrune when he can and tries to be a positive male role model, he tells us. Psst, Jack: King Kong is right behind you and not looking happy. Run!

The Mavs Man made some time to visit with Justin and the student he mentors, Kylan (right) with Kylan’s friend, Jose, who was also treated to a Mavs game. Justin is a board member on West Dallas Community School’s Young Professionals group, founded in 2010 to provide opportunities for kids at the school, located in an area of extreme poverty. The school offers a college prep Christian education for children in pre-K through eighth grade with tuition based on each family’s ability to pay.

NAI Robert Lynn industrial division prez Craig Jones started volunteering with The Turner 12 more than six years ago. He likes seeing the results of his volunteer efforts. The organization helps 12 students mature and progress from high school to college grads. “There’s a tremendous amount of accountability that these students adhere to,” he says. The organization also guides these students into becoming positive academic and social influences to their peers who aren’t in the program, too, he says. Here’s Craig among the Turner 12 students and a few board members (photo courtesy of Deandre Johnson II).

2. ART

The Spire Realty Group Children and the Arts Foundation hosts an annual summer sidewalk chalk art event bringing children from Captain Hope’s Kids (a non-profit serving homeless children) to Bryan Tower to create sidewalk chalk art. The foundation was established to foster the arts by young artists, students, and children, and to promote interest in the arts available in downtown Dallas. Spire prez Caleb Smith tells us the idea was born while honeymooning with his wife in Italy. While looking at street art, he thought it looked fun while enhancing the surrounding area. “So, why not do this at Bryan Tower?” he says. The event capped off a month-long school and art supply drive at Bryan Tower; so each child left the event with a backpack full of school and art supplies, too.

As an avid art-lover, it was natural for CBRE VP Jeffrey Eiting to give his time to arts causes. Recently, he was selected to serve on the McKinney Avenue Contemporary board of directors. The MAC is a non-profit that serves as an advocate for creative freedom, offering the opportunity for experimentation and presentation of art in all disciplines. It supports the emerging and established artist’s role in society by providing a forum for critical dialogue with their audiences; this relationship is cultivated through education and innovative programming. Jeffrey, with his wife Brinkley in San Francisco and a Mark DiSuvero work, has also given his time and efforts to the Business Council for Arts and the Dallas Museum of Art.

3. FUNDRAISING

Raising money for charity can be fun, as evidenced by JLL managing director Steve Thelen (second from left with his team in the FORE! The Family Place Golf Tournament). Steve serves the Family Place on its board, the executive committee, and as chairman of the facilities committee. The Family Place eliminates family violence through intervention and proactive prevention, extensive community education, and advocacy. It helps victims and their families by delivering programs that address emotional and physical abuse and incest through free, comprehensive services that prevent violence and fully support women, children, and men on their path from fear to safety.

The CBRE/Baylor team of 85 walkers raised almost $38k in the recent AHA Heart Walk. The team has a goal of raising $56k and has multiple other fundraising efforts in the works. CBRE also hosts its annual Chefs Showcase with the 2012 event raising $175k for Camp John Marc’s summer programs.

We hear about the Salesmanship Club of Dallas each May as it hosts the HP Byron Nelson Championship, but Colliers International’s office agency leasing top dog David Quisenberry (a club member since ’91) tells us there’s more to it. Its mission: transform children’s futures by creating new possibilities for success. The Salesmanship Club Youth and Family Centers works with troubled and at-risk kids and their families by focusing on therapeutic services, education, and working with educators, mental health professionals, and students in community training and consultations. Here’s David, far right, with Dale and Phil Cullum, and David’s wife, Linda.