Bay Area office gives ghoulish gala for Sunshine Kids
There was nothing scary about the $95,000 the Bay Area/Clear Lake office of BHGRE Gary Greene raised at its annual gala benefitting the Sunshine Kids. This year’s big win brings the event total to more than $700,000 raised in support of children challenged with cancer. The Bay Area Community Center was jampacked for the ninth annual Halloweenthemed gathering.
Many revelers start planning their costumes immediately after the last event, and the creativity displayed through the evening of dinner and dancing just keeps getting more interesting every year. But, attendees report, the highlight of the evening was the standout singing performance of this year’s honoree, 14-year-old Sophia Sereni of League City, a student at Clear Creek High School. Sereni wrote a song about her journey with leukemia and the online video has become an internet favorite. Her live performance drove home the reason for the gathering.
“I’ve always said we’re not just about selling real estate, we work to make a difference in the community,” said Debra Blenderman, branch manager of Gary Greene’s Bay Area/Clear Lake office. “It’s a lot of work, but certainly very rewarding.”
The gala has grown to a year-round effort, but the office also supports a half-dozen other annual activities and events.
“What we’re doing builds a strong community,” Blenderman said. “That benefits all of us.”
••• Heritage Texas Properties’ William Finnorn delivered the goods as the underwriting chair for the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation’s Young Professionals Group (YPG)’s second annual Jungle Book Gala. The event took place under the sparkling chandeliers of The Dunlavy on Buffalo Bayou.
“The venue was the perfect backdrop for the evening that raised $55,000 to aid in the YPG’s effort to combat Houston’s literacy crisis,” Finnorn said. More than 200 young professionals turned out in black-tie to aid in the group’s efforts.
“Our goal for the evening was to raise enough money to provide 500 home libraries to children in underprivileged households, but through the success of the evening will be able to provide over 1,800,” Finnorn said. “We are beyond thrilled.”
••• Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty Woodlands office was a sponsor of The John Cooper Annual Golf Tournament for the fourth consecutive year. In previous outings they fielded a few teams, but took a different approach this year, pitching in to help with manning the hole in one contest, golf cart contest and helping with decorations.
Agents report they had even more fun than they did on the greens and were glad to help. Volunteers included Inaky Strick, Tammy Downey, Monica Brashear, Manley Nolen, Melissa Harrison and others.
••• John Daugherty, Realtors’ Richard Ray recently teamed up with TV personality and interior designer “IT” girl Nina Magon to show off her latest project with her husband, Karun Magon’s company, Capital Builders. The Modern Show House event gave guests, who included designers and agents, a chance to see how interior design and modern technology can come together.
Magon and Ray worked together previously when Magon was featured on NBC’s show “American Dream Builders,” and he represented two of her design projects.
••• Associates of Beth Wolff Realtors Real Living accompanied CEO Beth Wolff to “An Intimate Evening with Melissa Manchester” at Chateau Carnarvon for the special performance to benefit Music Doing Good.
Wolff said the program brings music to children who otherwise would not have access.
“With programs in schools, refurbishing instruments and granting scholarships, this program impacts thousands of lives,” Wolff said. “The concert was outstanding as well as the venue.”
••• October may have set record high temperatures, but the agents and staff of the Coldwell Banker United, Realtors Champions office spent the entire month socking away socks for the Klein ISD Socktober event. The drive delivers socks to local students in need.
Socktober is an event to collect new socks for Klein ISD students in need. Congratulations to Jennifer Carnahan, office administrator, Delaney Moore, agent services coordinator, and agent Margaret Null for leading the charge to deliver Halloween buckets full of new socks to the schools.
••• JDR’s Coleen Phalen and Conn Trussell hosted a cocktail reception at the River Oaks Country Club presenting Quivira, Los Cabos, a proposed luxury residential community in Los Cabos, Mexico that the duo represents in Houston.
“I lived in Central Mexico for over 17 years and owned property there as well as in Nuevo Vallarta,” Phalen said. She met Rafael Covarrubias, sales director of the project, when she bought a condo from him at another development.
“After that we became very close friends and have stayed in touch over the past 15 years,” she said.