A local real estate agency is calling on others in the industry to step up to help some of the area’s most vulnerable people.
Mark Faris, CEO of Faris Team Real Estate Brokerage, and some of his sales staff were at the Queen Street site of Orillia’s future Lighthouse shelter and community services hub Tuesday to launch A Place to Call Home — an effort to raise $100,000 for the Building Hope campaign.
Faris kicked off the challenge with a pledge to provide $50,000 over four years. If 19 other realtors pitch in $5,000 each by April 1, the $100,000 goal will be reached.
“We are so excited to be able to donate this amount to help you in your initiative,” Faris told Building Hope officials. “It’s a very special organization and it’s very much needed in the community.”
The cause is important to the Faris Team, which has offered its support by serving meals at the Lighthouse and by being the lead sponsor of the Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser.
“Our business is helping people find and sell homes, but not everybody has a home and, a lot of the times, we take it for granted,” Faris said. “To be able to have a place to come in and even have a meal a day is so important.”
The donation from the Faris Team brings the total amount left to be raised for Building Hope below the $900,000 mark.
“This goes a long way to helping us fill that gap, and that’s the exciting part,” Lynn Thomas, Building Hope campaign manager, told Faris. “We want to be able to put people in homes, and that’s what you do, so it’s a great partnership.”
“This is a true community partnership,” added Linda Goodall, executive director of the Lighthouse. “It’s not just us as the Lighthouse that’s opening it; it’s everyone in the community.”
The Lighthouse shelter and community services hub, under construction at 75 Queen St., is on track to open in the spring. It will include 40 emergency beds for women, men, youth and families, a youth wing with nine beds and a variety of services. There will also be 20 supportive housing units.
More information about Building Hope can be found here.
