#halstead helping hands

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Halstead Helping Hands: The Street Project

On Sunday, June 24th our very own Halstead agents took to Fort Tryon Park with local volunteers to participate in Fort Tryon Park Beautification Day. The Halstead Helping Hands crew – consisting of agents from Washington Heights, Harlem and the Upper West Side – helped clean up a section of the fence from ivy, pulled weeds, cleared up ground around trees for healthy roots, and cleared away many branches and trimmings along a large plot of land.  

Caring for the trees and plants meant getting down and dirty, but as #theagentsofchange they are willing to do what it takes to make a difference and start a movement.

The Street Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization entirely run by volunteers. We serve as an important bridge between worthy charitable organizations that need volunteers and enthusiastic young professionals who are looking to get involved.

To learn more about the Street Project, click here.

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RISMedia Features Halstead Helping Hands Successful Contribution to The New York Cares Coat Drive 

This week RISMedia published a feature story on Halstead Property’s incredible contribution to the New York Cares 2016 Coat Drive. Halstead agents collected nearly 3,500 coats this winter throughout our Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens offices making our firm the largest R.E. corporate donor and the second largest corporate donor! Halstead’s efforts in the coat drive were spearheaded by the firm’s philanthropic arm, Halstead Helping Hands. 

“With so many in need of a warm coat this winter, it is amazing that we can unite in this effort to make such a real and tangibly positive impact.  I’m incredibly proud of our agents for all their hard work and dedication in consistently devoting their time to helping make our community a better place,” said Sara Rotter, Executive Director of Sales for Halstead’s Village and SoHo offices. Rotter co-leads Halstead Helping Hands with John Wollberg, Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Halstead and Trish Martin, Managing Director of Sales for Halstead’s Brooklyn offices.

The firm gathered coats by using a multi-tiered strategy, which included placing donation boxes in the majority of Halstead’s storefront offices, managed buildings, and residential buildings that they serve throughout the city, as well as creating a targeted email campaign to Halstead’s agents and their customers, and distributing building postcards to encourage residents to donate. Halstead partnered with Scanio Movers to coordinate pickups of the coats to ensure a timely delivery to New York Cares and their recipients.

To have a strong focus on community initiatives and nonprofit causes for its 1,300 agents throughout New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, Halstead Helping Hands identifies local initiatives or charities that are in need of help and opens the opportunity up throughout the firm.

The coat drive was just one of several initiatives sponsored by Halstead Helping Hands this past year. Agents in Halstead’s Hamptons offices collected for Toys for Tots; and those in Connecticut collected gifts on behalf of Inspirica, one of the state’s largest providers of services to the homeless, and Toys for Tots in order to help struggling families enjoy the holiday season.

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Sundae Sermon Christmas Party & Coat Drive!

Brrrr it’s cold out there!

As part of our Halstead Helping Hands initiatives and in partnership with New York Cares, we present the Sundae Sermon Christmas Party and Coat Drive!  Bring your gently used coats, jackets, bombers, overcoats, raincoats, windbreakers, furs, and top layers to gift to someone in need. The event will be held at Solomon and Kuff Rum Bar in Harlem. Expect to dance and be merry to the tunes of DJ’s Masai, Cosi, Stormin’ Norman and Kamala on Sunday, December 18th from 5pm-11pm.

Already in New York, we have seen the temperatures drop to below freezing. New York Cares will take your gently used coats and provide them to the needy at coat walk-in centers in Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx. Children sized coats are greatly needed.

Halstead has been working all winter to collect coats at our offices. If you aren’t able to attend this event but still want to participate in the coat drive you can drop coats at any of our Halstead Managed Buildings or at our many Halstead Property Offices.  We amplify our personal power by joining as a community. We do hope you join us in Harlem to dance in playful celebration and offer healing to the world around you by helping out this great cause.

For more information about our coat drive, please email [email protected]

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HALSTEAD HELPING HANDS: NEW YORK CARES DAY 2014 

As part an ongoing effort to help those in need and give back to the communities in which we both live, and serve in, Halstead Property is proud to share results from the latest Halstead Helping Hands initiative made possible through the collaborative efforts of New York Cares. On October 18th, 2014 Halstead Property agents from across the entire Tri-State area joined at P.S 109 in Brooklyn for a day spent revitalizing and rejuvenating school grounds to kick off the 2014-2015 school year. P.S. 109 is the newest, and largest building in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood serving over 500 students in Grades k-8 with a special focus on science and technology. The annual New York Cares service day is dedicated to New York public schools where volunteers spend the day engaging the entire school community to prepare for the school year ahead.

In the wake of a new location for P.S 109, Halstead agents divided and conquered into two groups, and were happy to lend a hand through small acts like cleaning, organizing, gardening, and painting. Closets throughout the entire building were cleared out and relieved of a culmination of school supplies from 20 years ago to create more storage space, and a group in the library sifted through boxes and shelved books that hadn't been on them in over 20 years. While storage is a necessary component to an organized classroom for a teacher, a deeded spot to play games and stare at a beautiful mural is equally as integral to a happy recess hour for an elementary school student and in thanks to artistic volunteers, the school ground now boast a beautiful hand-painted aquatic themed mural and brand new hop-scotch area. Others lent a green thumb and used their gardening skills to plant bulbs and various items to start a Fall Children’s Garden.

Through small acts like cleaning and gardening, we have the opportunity to make a big difference and Halstead Property’s Director of Brooklyn Sales, Trish Martin, tells us her biggest take away from the event is that the old Chinese proverb,

“ ‘Good old fashioned many hands make light work,’ still exists, and people will respond to a call to arms to help folks they may never meet.”

It goes without saying, that these efforts exhibit genuine altruism and kindness, for which we commend and extend a sincerest thank you to everyone at Halstead Property and beyond who contributed to a successful New York Cares Day. We look forward to sharing more success stories from the next Halstead Helping Hands event, and are reminded that it's never too late to pitch in.

To find out how you can help today, connect with Halstead Helping Hands over email and connect with New York Cares on Facebook, Twitter, and visit their official website to learn about attending an orientation.

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HELPING HANDS WITH ELAINE TROSS AND HALSTEAD PROPERTY

Halstead Property was proud to honor Park Avenue agent Elaine Tross with this year’s Halstead Helping Hands Award for her outstanding humanitarian and philanthropic achievements particularly in partnership with fellow Halstead Property Park Avenue agent, Lisa Stillerman and New York Cares this winter. As we eagerly make our way towards spring and warmer weather, we are reminded that winter is still upon us and the need to give back remains. The entire north east corridor was met with a brutal winter as 2013 came to an end, further intensifying the need to raise awareness for initiatives like New York Care’s 25th Annual Coat Drive. We are pleased to salute Elaine who contributed to this pressing matter by donating more than 600 coats after organizing a city-wide drive this winter, where she devoted countless hours in her down time to traversing neighborhoods across Manhattan to gather and manage an overwhelming number of donations. Evocative of the sheer generosity behind the program is that Elaine personally hand delivered every single box that she collected to New York Care’s Midtown service center, a task that we can all imagine was not simple considering transportation constraints in New York City. 

Nevertheless, the response from fellow New Yorker’s was both overwhelming and heartwarming. In truly commendable fashion, Elaine illustrated humility and gratitude when reflecting on what the experience meant to her and noted that the pinnacle of it all was marked by first-hand encounters with donation recipients.

“The opportunity to witness someone who needed the coats and see an entire family drive away makes me feel good to see that they are being used, and that people are getting something." 

Pay it forward.

It goes without saying, that these efforts exhibit genuine altruism and kindness, for which we praise Elaine for such dedication and commitment to an exceptionally worthy cause. Selfless acts of kindness and awareness like this are why we feel privileged to recognize Elaine as a role model who embodies what it means to be a stand-up citizen and a Halstead Property agent; one that excels at her field of work as well as pledges to give back to the community in admirable and praiseworthy ways.  

To get involved or to learn more about how you can help, visit NewYorkCares.org.

To learn more about Elaine and her success both in and outside of real estate, visit her agent website here.

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