Out and About in the Community
by Kara Cook
Here at Cook & James we believe deeply in making a difference in this world. That’s why we have committed time and resources to, not only our real estate family, but to the larger Georgia community in which we live, work and play.
Earlier this year, we established “Acts of Kindness,” in which our colleagues and collaborators suggest community service projects we can do as a group or donations our firm can make. We kicked off the monthly program in frigid January with a coat drive for a homeless shelter (thanks to Joan Giles of The Giles Group Atlanta for that wonderful suggestion) and since then, we have generated support for a variety of non-profits including TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation (idea thanks to Linda Martin, Keller Williams), collected items like newspapers, kitty litter and dog toys for Planned PEThood (idea from Jan Clemmons, Virtual Properties), and Bert’s Big Adventure (idea thanks to Heather Roland from Eva Pendley Realty, Inc.).
Just last month, we became an official sponsor of Keep Roswell Beautiful and will regularly clean up a section along Houze Way, close to our home office. Our team will go out and pick up trash several times year to help maintain and enhance our physical surroundings. To that end, we are also sponsoring a duck (yes, a duck, it’s a thing!) in the Great Annual Duck Race on October 19 – so come out and help us cheer on our little water fowl in our maiden derby voyage to help raise money to keep our city beautiful … we promise a quacky good time!
We also have ideas brewing to participate in various fundraising runs, an Atlanta Fire & Rescue Foundation’s Breakfast with our Bravest event in November, delivering coffee and donuts for assorted teacher appreciation events and, of course, handing out breast cancer awareness swag at all our events honor and remembrance of our own Chelsea Clark Lanier, a very special colleague who we lost early in 2018 to breast cancer and still miss tremendously today.
With regard to real estate industry events, it seems like it’s easier to count the places we’re NOT than those where we have a significant presence around town.
In September alone, for National REALTOR Safety Month, we hosted two events: a lunch and learn on cyber security and wire fraud, and a self defense class. You can see a nice round up of those two (and an awesome photo of me in “hand to hand” combat with Mary, our marketing manager!) in Atlanta Agent Magazine. We also participated in the 400 North Safety Seminar, handing out various items to aid cyber and physical safety like USB data blockers (to keep hackers from accessing phone and computers) and RFID wallets (to keep bank and credit card information safe), keychain pepper spray and keychain security alarms.
We have supported various industry golf outings and events throughout the year and, at the Cobb County Real Estate Expo just last week, the Cook & James booth made quite a purple splash, winning Best Booth award (our money machine was a special hit because people could win things like Bluetooth speakers). Speaking of booths, we plan to be out in force to defend our title as Best Booth at this year’s 8th Annual RPAC Chili Cook Off hosted by the Atlanta REALTORS toward the end of next week.
All this activity is in addition to offering a steady diet of multiple ongoing education classes like lunch and learns on the basics of YouTube and a more advanced YouTube class, classes featuring Facebook marketing tips and how to streamline activities for a successful closing, and the basics of real estate law.
Be sure to watch our monthly newsletter and emails for details on upcoming educational offerings – and make sure to watch for us out and about in the community. Please stop and say “hi” because we love to make new friends and spend time with people we haven’t seen for a while. For now, enjoy this little photo montage from our busy lives around town.
