WASHINGTON, DC  — The National Association of Realtors today announced Dale Taylor as one of five winners chosen for its 2019 Good Neighbor Award. For 19 years, Taylor, a Realtor^® with RE/MAX 10 in New Lenox, Illinois, has spent nearly every Monday night with 35 homeless men who gather at the shelter site he manages just south of Chicago. From serving food and mopping floors to making decisions as a board member and raising nearly $3 million, Taylor calls his volunteerism a “divine calling.”

Over the past 20 years, the Good Neighbor Awards program has awarded $1.3 million in grants to more than 200 Realtor^®-led nonprofits. Their impact has been felt in 40 states, 15 countries and in Puerto Rico. In total, those efforts have served more than 41 million meals to the hungry, sheltered nearly 300,000 people in need and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various causes, including more than $104 million to fund medical research and healthcare.

“This year marks the 20-year milestone of the Good Neighbors Awards Program recognizing Realtor^® volunteers across the country,” said NAR President John Smaby, a second generation Realtor^®from Edina, Minnesota. “I am proud to honor Dale Taylor for dedicating so much time and passion to making sure people across his community have meals to eat and a safe place to sleep.”

To read Taylor’s full story and watch his video, go to realtorm.ag/Taylor. Taylor and the other four Good Neighbor Award winners will receive a $10,000 grant for their charity and will be featured in the November-December issue of Realtor^® Magazine. The recipients will be presented with crystal trophies on Saturday, November 9, during the 2019 Realtors^® Conference & Expo in San Francisco.

NAR’s Good Neighbor Awards program is supported by primary sponsor realtor.com^® and Wells Fargo. Nominees were judged on their personal investment of time along with their financial and material contributions to benefit their cause. To be eligible, nominees must be NAR members in good standing.

“Congratulations to all of this year’s Good Neighbor Awards recipients,” said Tracey Fellows, acting CEO of realtor.com^®. “All of us at realtor.com^® are very proud to support Realtors^® and the causes they champion in the spirit of building better communities. Given that this year marks 20 years of the program, this recognition is particularly special.”

The Good Neighbor Awards have been granted annually since 2000. More than $1.3 million in grants have been awarded to 200 Realtor^®-led charities. More information about the Good Neighbor Awards is available at www.realtor.org/gna.

The National Association of Realtors^® is America’s largest trade association, representing more than 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Defender.

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