In 2008, KW Cares provided substantive financial assistance totaling $1,233,000 to 237 Keller Williams associates and their immediate families in 25 of the 30 regions. We helped children, seniors, and those in between. Victims of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, house fires, have received food, shelter, and clothing, and grants to help restore their homes and their lives. Associates faced with life altering accidents and serious medical illnesses have received financial assistance to help with co-pays and deductibles, medicines, therapies, and rehabilitation services not covered by medical insurance. We have helped those recovering from emotional illnesses. More that one KW associate has received assistance to obtain surgical intervention in order to not lose the gift of sight. KW Cares assistance augmented assistance already provided from within the associate’s market center. Working together, market centers, regions and KW Cares are providing much needed emotional and financial support to those in dire need.
KW Cares is able to assist KW family members faced with hardship due to an emergency, with expenses for higher education. In 2008, a young widow who lost her husband quickly to cancer received an education grant to help her pursue a nursing degree enabling her to provide a better future for her sons.
With your support KW Cares is making a difference in the lives of many in the Keller Williams family. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Partners in a Battle Against Cancer
David Kratovil, diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma on his 21st birthday, is fiercely supported by his primary caregiver and dad, Dave, an agent at the Marysville Market Center. After receiving a grant from KW Cares to assist with the unmet costs of David’s aggressive chemotherapy treatment, Dave wrote:
Dear KW Cares,
Your support has enabled us to spend more time with David as he goes through this struggle. Allowing more time to be a family, a support to one another, concentrating on the things that are truly important, one another and David’s health and well being, while having peace of mind that he’s got a roof over his head and expenses are being met. I can’t imagine where we’d be today if KW Cares hadn’t been there, it would have been so much more difficult for all of us.
God Bless,
Dave Kratovil
KW Cares Grant Provides Assistance for Brain Surgery Costs
During summer break, Jordan awoke with a severe headache and was rushed to a Children’s Hospital where she was diagnosed with an AVM - Arteovenus Malformation of the brain, a tangling of the blood vessels that can eventually lead to an aneurism. Three surgeries later, mom Corey, the Call Coordinator at the Jupiter, FL Market Center owed an insurmountable figure in medical bills. Her market center responded with a fundraiser and KW Cares followed suit with a grant.
In a letter to KW Cares Corey said:
Dear KW Cares,
I wanted to thank you for helping my daughter and me. This grant has made a huge difference and I am so glad that I don’t have to worry about these bills any more. I really appreciate KW Cares for caring about Jordan. Here are the pictures I promised you. Word can’t express how grateful we are to have people like you in our lives. We just call you guys ANGELS!
Love always, Corey & Jordan
Hurricane Ike Relief
KW Cares Provides Grant to Assist with Kidney Disease Costs
Rodney Noble’s real estate career was on the way up. After working as a front-desk associate at the Studio City (Calif.) market center for two years, Noble had obtained his real estate license in 2005 and began conducting business as a real estate agent. His 2007 year was successful, but towards the end of the year he began feeling weak and ill. He was diagnosed with stage two kidney disease in January 2008.
Noble sought medical care at the county hospital, where he waited for treatments that always seemed to take a long time to receive. “I knew I had to do something else, because I wasn’t getting any better,” he recalls. “I was always tired and nauseous, but the shortness of breath was the worst of it. You always feel like you are dying.” Noble determined to consult with a specialist and applied for Medi-Cal assistance in order to do so. By May he was receiving specialized medical care and undergoing surgery that would ultimately enable him to begin receiving dialysis treatments.
“I’ve been on dialysis ever since,” says Noble, “but this entire time I have been unable to work. I had no income – none whatsoever – so I finally went to speak with my team leader, Gary Reavis.” After revealing his illness and the challenges he had been facing, Noble was encouraged by Reavis’s response.
Atlanta Associate Fights Breast Cancer with help from KW Cares Grant
In September 2004, Christa Michael was excited about having joined the Atlanta-Canton market center. After eight years in real estate with another company in Atlanta, Christa realized that her financial opportunities would be greater with Keller Williams Realty and she had plans to invest as an owner of a new market center.
Those plans changed quickly. Two months later, Christa was diagnosed with breast cancer. By January 2005, after two rounds of chemotherapy, she had become extremely ill and was hospitalized. With her parents and 18-year-old son, Jay, by her side, the doctor told her that she had only weeks to live.
“I looked at my son’s face,” Christa recalled. Jay was mid-way through his senior year of high school. “I didn’t want to be responsible for him dropping out of school, and I didn’t want him to come home one day and find me dead. It was like a switch went off in my head and I just made up my mind right then that it was not going to happen like this.”
After two years of radical treatment, it was clear that it wouldn’t be enough. Her medical insurance had capped out by then. “We had nothing, but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.” The only option left for Christa was a very rare, specialized surgery on her left arm and shoulder to remove the cancer; in fact, her entire arm was at risk of amputation. With nowhere else to turn, Christa applied for a KW Cares grant. “I just didn’t want to lose my house,” she said. “It was the only thing I had left to give my son.”
Within days of sending her grant request, Christa received an envelope containing a KW Cares check that helped cover the surgery and medical expenses.
KW Cares Helps New Hampshire Associate Return Home
Less than a month after joining the Portsmouth, NH market center, Joshua Matthews was flooded out of his riverfront property, as water levels rose by 12 feet within a span of 90 minutes.
A few days after the emergency evacuation, Matthews learned that his property was just over the line of the county that had been declared a Federal disaster area – meaning that he was not eligible for financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA).
As one of the market center’s newer faces, Matthews had few expectations that existing associates would pay much attention to his plight. He was in for a surprise. Nathan Dickey, operating principal, encouraged Matthews to contact KW Cares and request a grant the financial damages resulting from the flood.
Show Your Support of KW Cares with These Great New Items!
Sport your support under a new umbrella, note cards or with a red or black "IncREDible" t-shirt! The new video presentation Take it to Heart! is a great way for Market Centers to share with associates how their donations make such an important difference in the lives others. A number of inspiring stories of hope, caring and support are presented in theDVD!
Keller Williams Realty agents have been awarded "Highest Overall Satisfaction For Home Buyers Among National Full Service Real Estate Firms for Two Years in a Row!"*
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