Real estate agents give back to the community with volunteer service day

SEATTLE - They usually negotiate the sale of property.

But today, they got down and dirty in the dirt.

Keller Williams real estate agents all over the state, volunteered for a day.

They helped the environmental group Earth Corps clear out blackberries and horsetail, from Camp Long in West Seattle.

They call it "RED Day," which stands for Renew, Energize and Donate.

"Yeah, these are real estate agents.  So they're used to doing all kinds of stuff to get houses listed,” said Chrisi Webster of Keller Williams.  “It's not unusual for them to be trompin' around getting a property ready to list.  But this is a fun way for us all to come together."

The agents got their hands dirty in lots of projects, dropping all their businesses activity for the day.  They collected school supplies for students in Tacoma,  painted and landscaped a domestic violence shelter in Bellingham and cleaned veterans' headstones at a cemetery in Mount Vernon.

“It’s in honor of our Chairman of the Board Mo Anderson.  It’s her birthday so this is what we do to celebrate her birthday and to give back to the community,”  Webster said.

This is the seventh year for the volunteer service day.  Each year, the second Thursday of May, the real estate agents celebrate Keller Williams Vice Chairman Mo Anderson's birthday by spending the day away from their businesses, serving causes in their communities.

“Last year, we worked at the Log Cabin Museum in West Seattle, cleaning up the logs and restoring the property,” she said.  “We’ve been at Lincoln Park.  We’ve been at homeless shelters.  So we try to rotate it around.”

In Puyallup, the Keller Williams real estate office took on a big challenge.  It decided to tackle the growing homeless problem that has brought discarded syringes, bottles of urine and piles of trash along with a new wave of homeless people to the city.

At Puyallup's Clarks Creek Park North, they installed benches, crafted various landscaping projects and pressure-washed tennis courts.

In Kirkland, other Keller Williams offices helped renovate homes for Sibling House, a non-profit that serves children and families in the foster care system.

In Snohomish County, volunteers served food and collected clothing and food for the Everett Gospel Mission.