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RSVP In Full Swing This Week


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Friday, May 7, 2010

This week, 275 volunteers from SILVAR's five districts were busy helping 152 seniors and the homebound with household tasks they can no longer do on their own. A sign the volunteers placed outside these homes and the t-shirts they donned displayed a blue and yellow logo that identified them as volunteers of the REALTOR® Service Volunteer Program (RSVP).

Every year in May, REALTORS® and affiliates take time from their busy work schedules to help seniors and the homebound with household tasks, like washing windows, installing smoke detector batteries, flipping mattresses, light vacuuming, dusting, replacing light bulbs, changing furnace filters and trimming bushes.

The seniors are grateful to receive the free service. "I really appreciate the help. I still do quite a bit of the work myself. I even used to climb the step ladder, but my son gets worried about that, so I don't do it anymore," said one Sunnyvale senior, who is 84 years old and has requested the help for the past two years.

The team of Bill Moody, Wayne Haraguchi and Felice Hollingsworth were at her home on Wednesday washing the outside windows of her home, moving a stove and refrigerator so she could clean underneath, and replacing her smoke detector batteries.
Hilda Balakhane finds volunteering for RSVP gratifying. "Before I became a REALTOR® I was a social worker. I have always enjoyed helping others," said Balakhane.
"This way, even as a REALTOR® I can get the experience of social work."

Outside the home of a 90-year-old Mountain View senior, Balakhane, Nick French and Carol Casas loosened the dirt in homeowner's flower bed, swept her patio and carport, trimmed the ivy in her front yard and washed windows.

In Palo Alto Michael Hall and Dennis Deslauriers wrestled with a furnace filter and flipped the mattress for a 93-year-old senior, while Tamiko Barry, Erika Schuman-Fitch, Dante Drummond, Jeff Beltramo and Lanny Danenberg washed windows, flipped a mattress and replaced smoke detector batteries for another senior resident.
In East Palo Alto, volunteers from the Menlo Park/Atherton District Dave Barca, Whitney Barca, and Tina Medeiros sorted expired canned goods, raked leaves and cleaned gutters for a needy senior.

These are just some examples of the many good deeds performed by SILVAR members this week, said Eileen Giorgi, chair of SILVAR's RSVP program. Giorgi, Dave Tonna and Jorja Smith were spotted cleaning windows and trimming shrubs of a Saratoga senior resident on Thursday.

A phone call from a Los Altos senior expressed the sentiments of the seniors who received the help. She wanted to convey her thanks for the work the RSVP volunteers did in her home that morning. She said they really helped her because she had not been feeling well the past couple of days.

"RSVP is about helping our seniors who have done so much for our communities," said Giorgi. "We're all glad to do it. It's our turn to give back to them and to our communities."

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The Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS® (SILVAR) is a professional trade organization representing over 4,000 REALTORS® and Affiliate members engaged in the real estate business on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. SILVAR promotes the highest ethical standards of real estate practice, serves as an advocate for homeownership and homeowners, and represents the interests of property owners in Silicon Valley.

The term "REALTOR®" is a registered collective membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the National Association of REALTORS® and who subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics.

For further information, please contact Rose Meily at SILVAR Public Affairs, email , or phone (408) 200-0109.

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