RE/MAX Alliance VB Makes a Difference as ‘Miracle Office’ for CHKD for the 22nd Year
RE/MAX Alliance has made a difference in Virginia Beach and the overall Hampton Roads community by receiving the Miracle Office designation by fundraising over $166,000. Primary funds are generated by the Miracle Home and Miracle Property programs, RE/MAX Associates can make a donation to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® after each residential and commercial transaction that the company has streamlined to make it an easy process for their agents. All donations benefit Virginia’s only free-standing children’s hospital, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD), the local CMN Hospital. Miracle Office is a designation awarded exclusively to RE/MAX brokerages through their national partnership with the Children’s Miracle Network organization. The Virginia Beach office has successfully achieved this designation for 22 years, ever since the launch of the Miracle Home program and partnership. This office is to join just two other offices total with this privileged designation for 2018.
The second major source of support to this local hospital is an internally-initiated ‘full service’ Holiday Toy and Gift Drive hosted at the real estate office, complete with personal gift wrapping (wearing ugly holiday sweaters of course), followed by hand-delivering to the patients with their very own Santa. After over 14 years of participating in this annual staple, they now collect 1,000+ gifts per year- truly spreading holiday cheer throughout the four hospital floors. Due to their large presence, the RE/MAX Alliance VB-provided Santa is now the only Santa, replacing what was three that would share duties.
Holiday Gift Drive organizers Trudy Hoff (Co-Owner and REALTOR®, RE/MAX Alliance VB), the late Mick Hoff (Co-owner, RE/MAX Alliance VB), and Traci Lewis VanCamp (REALTOR®, RE/MAX Alliance VB) initially started this venture with the wish to support local terminally ill children, which progressed naturally from hospital tours by inviting their colleagues and friends, turning into an annual Christmas visit, ultimately advancing to the now mega 1,000+ gift collection annual event.
RE/MAX Affiliates across the U.S. and Canada have raised more than $165 million for 170-member hospitals across the country to support children’s services. In 2017 alone in Hampton Roads more than $37,000 was raised to support CHKD. RE/MAX Miracle Agents, Offices and Teams are dedicated supporters who pledge to donate after each closed property sale and take the time to personally thank their clients for choosing them and that a donation was made in their honor, known as Honor Cards.
The immense participation in both the commission program and the gift drive have resulted in value and connection to the Hampton Roads community out of the natural need to support their personal friends, colleagues, and clients who need this hospital at difficult moments in their lives. The Miracle Office and Miracle Home program is a simple yet impactful way to help raise awareness for the local CMN Hospital.
With the goal to continue to make a difference in the lives of kids such as “Ironman” who pens thank you notes to Santa via the real estate office, the little girl who dreams of ballet shoes, and the 16-year-old with depression who have had a lasting impression on their team and who serves as their ongoing motivation to continue to expand their program. “The few minutes Mick was there as Santa they were not in pain, as Mick was completely immersed in helping these special children” says Trudy Hoff. Per RE/MAX corporate, 62 children enter a CMN Hospital for treatment every minute. As Ms. Hoff continues to explain, as leaders in the Virginia Beach business community, “it’s vital that we show our support for the kids and their families”.
RE/MAX Miracle Agents, Offices and Teams help make a significant impact on the lives of sick and injured children treated at CMN Hospitals across the U.S. and Canada. Over the years, their support of CMN Hospitals has helped provide life-saving treatments, advanced medical equipment and valuable research and education. And the local hospitals determine the best way to allocate those funds based on local need. At CHKD this year, the funds raised support specific programs for Child Life (patient and family support), Buddy Brigade (pet therapy), pastoral care, social work, and more.
The Child Life program is particularly close to the heart of Trudy since her personal creation of her Santa Mick Memorial Fund, to honor her late husband Mick, is the only endowment for Child Life at the hospital. Mick Hoff retired as a Navy Captain for the Civil Engineer Corps. in the Navy, where “supporting military children and families” was a true calling and purpose they shared in together, says Trudy, as they continued to build their relationships and real estate business in Virginia Beach since being stationed here for Mick’s Naval career. One of the hospital’s primary focuses this year is “seeking approval to build a pediatric mental health facility here in Norfolk to improve access to critically-needed inpatient psychiatric care for children and adolescents in our community”, as Kate Ryan in Development for CHKD explained.
As co-organizer of the Annual Christmas Gift Collection event, Traci says, “over time we have developed a system to fully categorize the gifts by gender and age so the donated gifts can be distributed throughout the year”. The future goal of this program is to turn it into a Foundation to be able to receive more outside donations so they can impact even more families year-round.
This office truly proves that that they are actively engaged and remain consistent with their stated mission “To be the Hampton Roads real estate leader, achieving our goals by helping others achieve theirs. Everybody wins.”
Many homes on remax.com are flagged as a Miracle Homes with a CMN Hospitals yellow and red balloon icon. For more information about the Miracle program or RE/MAX Alliance office, please visit www.remax-alliance-virginiabeach-va.com or call 757-456-2345.