The Howard Hanna Real Estate Company has always been very active in charity fundraising. One of the Company’s favorite charities to raise money for has been the Howard Hanna Children’s Free Care Fund and they held a holiday gift raffle which raised approximately $3,000 last Monday at the Aurora location.
“We have had a lot of great success with community contributions in terms of supporting this fund throughout the years as well as this year,” Aurora Sales Manager Kady Overton told The Weekly Villager.
The Children’s Free Care Fund was established in 2012 by a Board of Directors who advise on the management of the fund. The CFCF was a fund specially created to support the free care funds of children’s hospital partners and pediatric programs through yearly fundraising campaigns in all of Howard Hanna’s market areas.
According to Overton, Howard Hanna has raised about $18 million nationally to support the CFCF.
“It is more than $1 million per year that is raised,” she added. “It is super important. This is something that is always going to be necessary. Unfortunately, kids are going to get sick, and families will have financial hardship as a result of that. It has really been important and we always have a kickoff event where we go to a local children’s hospital and hear about how the funds are used and it just reinforces every year how the funds are used.”
The Aurora location had always done a different fundraiser each year to raise money, such as Queen of Hearts drawing but decided to have a gift raffle for this year’s event.
“We just wanted to try something different and were able to get donations from different local businesses and that gave us the ability to just have the gift raffle as a community event. It would be available to everyone around them and the nice thing is we do not have to reinvent the wheel,” Overton noted.
Tickets for the holiday raffle started going on sale on Nov. 27 and registration ended on Dec. 15. Despite the CFCF only existing for 12 years, the Aurora community had become quite familiar with it.
“We have had a lot of great success with community contributions in terms of supporting this fund throughout the years and even this year,” Overton said. “Howard Hanna really values being a part of the community in Aurora, and we like to do things that will give back.
Overton added that other offices in Aurora had done an event like this before. The Company and its agents utilized the connections they developed in the community to receive several donations from local businesses.
Some of the businesses that participated this year were Mazzulo’s Market, which donated an Italian food basket, Spa Waldon contributed a six-month dining membership and Gavalier Carpentry offered a toolbox for the raffle.
According to Overton, the greater variety of gifts available made the draw even more appealing.
“We were just trying to appeal to everyone. A lot of it depended on the connections that the agents and the office had as well, so there is something for everyone and especially with this time when everyone is trying to get ready for the holidays,” she said.
Overton said that news of the raffle spread quickly and credited the Aurora Area Chamber of Commerce with helping Howard Hanna promoting their gift raffle.
“Luckily we were able to have the opportunity to promote it at the Aurora Holiday Luncheon and that was thanks to Karen Bosley,” she said. “She said it would be fine if we brought our fliers with us and she also shared it with the Weekly newsletter which was very helpful for us.”
Once all of the tickets were purchased, the Aurora location did a private drawing at the office and called each lucky winner to inform them of what they had won.
“People always like to hear that they have won,” Overton noted. “It is a double whammy or perk that you are helping these children and these programs and also you get to win something as well.”
In addition to the funds raised for the CFCF, the businesses which donated items to the raffle were rewarded with self-promotion. It was only a three-week period but Overton said the community reception was more than inviting for this fundraiser.
Although the holiday gift raffle has ended, Overton said the Howard Hanna Aurora Branch is already brainstorming for next year’s fundraiser.
“We are always trying to think of doing it from the following year and have learned from the things that we have done and been like ‘ok I liked how that went but I did not like how this part went,’” she said. “We are always thinking about how we can make a difference next year.”
