Driving home from the gym one morning I was anxiously awaiting a green arrow at the intersection of 228 and 19 in Cranberry. For whatever reason, I wasn’t engrossed in my phone and was staring ahead at an electronic bulletin board for the community. It was August. A message flashed up, “Sign up to be a Leaf Angel”.
The light turned green. I continued on, but the message stuck.
Several weeks later at our regular team meeting, we discussed starting to do a quarterly service event.
Bingo…Leaf Angels.
We signed up and waited. In early November we were assigned to our yard.
We made our plan and arrived with a caravan of three cars and 12 bodies (4 adults and 8 kids ranging from 7 months to 16 years). We were armed with rakes, bags and a few blowers.
We got to work immediately and were a few minutes into cleaning up when Sandy came outside. After a few minutes chatting, it became clear that she didn’t sign up for this service, and assumed the office at her community signed her up, but was so thrilled to have us. Her husband had been in a car accident during September and life had changed for them. He has been confined to a wheelchair since while healing.
We raked, we bagged, we laughed, and at one point, I looked around and saw my own kids jumping into leaf piles next to my team’s kids. We weren’t just a real estate team that day, we were a family, living out what #KlimaChange is really about: showing up for people, and making change visible…together.
When the couple came outside, tears welled in their eyes. They kept saying, “We can’t believe you’d take the time to do this.” But to us, it wasn’t time lost…it was time gained. A reminder that real estate is about home in every sense of the word, and home extends far beyond four walls.
Volunteering isn’t just about helping others; it’s about reconnecting with what we’re capable of when we come together. It’s about reminding ourselves that kindness still moves mountains…or in this case, leaf piles.
From the entire #KlimaChange crew, to yours. Let’s keep changing lives, one small act at a time.