Northeast Georgia Board of Realtors stuffs the bus
The Northeast Georgia Board of Realtors (NGBR) gave back to Gilmer County last week with a $1,000 donation to Stuff the Bus.
“We like to give back to our community,” said the group’s president, Kirbi Smith. “We are always looking for ways to give back.”
Stuff the Bus is an annual fundraiser by the Gilmer County Optimist Club.
The club parked a school bus in the Walmart parking lot Friday, July 17 to Saturday, July 18. During this time, donors and people in the community were invited to drop off back to school items of all kinds.
After the fundraiser, the Optimist Club distributes the items to kids in need with the help of Gilmer County Schools.
For the NGBR, helping the community is important.
In the north Georgia counties of Gilmer, Fannin, Union and Towns, the group has helped numerous community organizations.
Just a few include food pantries, humane societies and community projects.
This is the second year that NGBR has helped Stuff the Bus.
“We are all trying to figure out how we can give back to the less fortunate and make our community a little bit better by trying to give back the little bit that we can,” Smith said.
Although Stuff the Bus often means buying supplies to put on the bus, the NGBR donated its money directly.
“We were just giving them the money so that they could choose what they were missing once everything was collected,” she said.
If the bus needed more crayon packets, lunch boxes, backpacks, pencil cases or anything else, the Optimist Club would be able to buy it.
Giving to charity together is a complex operation, Smith said.
The NGBR works to find a worthy cause, then send liaisons to members to ask them to give.
The group chose to help the Optimist Club because of how efficient it is at providing for kids in need, she said.
“What impresses me is the number of people that actually use the Optimist Club to help supplement the items that they need for their children’s back to school, especially in times when everything is expensive,” Smith said.