Realtor(R) Award Finalists Volunteer to Make a Difference

CHICAGO, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Realtors(R) across the
country are making extraordinary commitments to improve the quality of life
in their communities. The National Association of Realtors(R) today
announced 10 such individuals as finalists for REALTOR(R) Magazine's 2008
Good Neighbor Awards.

The Good Neighbor Awards program, now in its ninth year, recognizes
Realtors(R) who generously volunteer their time to help others. These
Realtors(R) often donate countless hours and dollars to organizations that
help those in need and make their community a better place to live.

In October, five winners will be selected from among the 10 finalists
and will receive travel expenses to the 2008 REALTORS(R) Conference & Expo
in Orlando in November, national media exposure for their community cause,
and a $10,000 grant for their charity. In addition to the winners, five
honorable mentions will receive a $2,500 grant. The winners will be
announced in the November issue of REALTOR(R) Magazine.

"The Good Neighbor Awards is our way of thanking our most outstanding
Realtor(R) volunteers, who are not only making a difference in the lives of
many, but also are helping build stronger, healthier communities," said NAR
President Dick Gaylord, a broker with RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists, Long
Beach, Calif. "We are extremely proud to recognize these finalists and are
truly inspired by their enthusiasm and commitment to giving back to the
communities in which they live and work."

The Realtor(R) Good Neighbor Awards finalists are:

Mary E. Bacon, Bob Parks Realty, LLC, Mt. Juliet, Tenn., Mt. Juliet
Help Center

The Mt. Juliet Help Center provides food and assistance to those in
need. In 2006, after serving the community for decades, the center lost its
lease and was forced to shut down. But Bacon knew the need for the center
was great, so she located office space and manned the center herself for 6
months in a 10x12-foot room. By 2007, Bacon had persuaded the community to
donate land and a modular building to give the center a permanent home.
Today, with Bacon as president, the center has two employees and serves 400
families a month with food and emergency assistance for utility bills, gas
and prescription medicine.

Lei Barry, Keller Williams Real Estate, Blue Bell, Penn., Inter-Faith
Housing Alliance

Barry founded Inter-Faith Housing Alliance more than 20 years ago to
help prevent low-income families from becoming homeless. Inspired by her
own experience in the 1960s as a single mother with no place to live, Barry
has worked to provide temporary housing for thousands of people through a
network of more than 20 local churches and synagogues. In 1995, Barry
raised $1.4 million to open Hope Gardens, offering transitional housing for
eight families at a time. I-FHA also offers life skills; parenting and
budget training; family therapy; an emergency help hotline and job
counseling.

H. Burton Foster, Century 21 Gold Standard, East Aurora, N.Y., Matthew
Foster Foundation

After losing his 17-year-old son to cancer, Foster decided to use his
experience to help other families of children with the disease. In 1999 he
created a foundation to help families relieve some of the financial burden
that often occurs when a parent must stop working to care for a child
undergoing cancer treatment. The foundation pays for day-to-day non-medical
expenses, such as mortgage payments, insurance copayments, wigs for
children who have lost their hair as a result of treatment, and when
necessary, funeral expenses. The foundation has helped 250 families with
grants of up to $2,500 each. Another $2,500 is available for families who
have funeral costs.

Scott and Robin Gwaltney, Coldwell Banker at Your Service Realty, Ltd.,
Rochester, Minn., Rochester Better Chance

For 16 years, the Gwaltneys have been unpaid resident house parents for
up to six teenage boys at time; they've mentored a total of 45 young men
over the years. As volunteers for Better Chance, they help academically
talented minority inner-city youth who might not otherwise succeed by
taking them out of at-risk neighborhoods plagued by crime, drugs and weak
schools. During the school year, students move away from their parents to
live with the Gwaltneys so they can focus on high school and preparing for
college. The Gwaltneys -- who also were foster parents for 5 years -- act
as surrogate parents, providing discipline and a nurturing environment,
attending their parent/teacher conferences and sports events, and treating
them as they do their own two teenage children.

Reita Hutson, John Hall and Associates, Scottsdale, Ariz., Gabriel's
Dream, Inc.

Hutson founded Gabriel's Dream after learning about the plight of the
Lost Boys, refugees from Sudan's civil war. Since 2003 she has helped more
than 400 young men start a new life in Arizona, helping them obtain
apartments and furniture, job skills, health care and medical services,
education and hope. Hutson has recruited more than 100 dentists who have
given over $1 million in free care for these young men whose five or six
front teeth were pulled as part of a cultural ritual. She has awarded
nearly 100 merit scholarships totaling $50,000. She is now working with
Lost Boys to raise money to build a school in their village in Sudan.

Victor Kee, Pete Anderson Realty, Inc., Astoria, Ore., Sunday Supper
and Sunday Meals on Wheels

For 16 years, Kee has run the Sunday Supper and Meals on Wheels program
at Our Lady of Victory Church. He coordinates 120 volunteers from five
local churches to cook, serve and deliver food to 175 homeless, low-income
and elderly people per week. Kee plans the menus, orders and picks up food,
cooks and recruits volunteers. In December 2007, in the aftermath of a
terrible storm that left the area without power and communications for six
days, Kee led an effort to feed people affected by the storm, running his
kitchen on generator power.

Caroline McCartney, GSH Real Estate Corp., Norfolk, Va., St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital

McCartney has worked for 16 years to support St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital, one of the world's premier centers for research and
treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. The
hospital takes all children regardless of their families' abilities to pay.
McCartney, former president of the Southeastern Virginia Chapter of St.
Jude's, has led successful fundraising efforts for years, raising millions
of dollars for the organization. In 2007, McCartney chaired The Dream Home
Giveaway, which raised an unprecedented $900,000. McCartney had one of the
lowest cost ratios in the fundraiser's history by securing donations for
the land, materials, construction services, labor and furnishings and by
selling 11,000 tickets at $100 each.

John Neibarger, Key Properties, Realtors(R), Johnstown, Ohio, Mary E.
Babcock Library, Inc.

In 1996, Neibarger gathered a group of residents to share his vision of
building a public library for their small town of 3,500 residents. Since no
tax funds were available, Neibarger raised $1.8 million to fund the
project, served as volunteer general contractor, and often pounded a hammer
himself to complete construction. The 6,800-square-foot library, opened in
2006, is today a safe gathering place for local students, offering computer
workstations, a children's story hour and book clubs. Neibarger also led
the restoration of an 1886 one-room schoolhouse into a living history
museum and is currently leading a $1.1 million upgrade of the local high
school stadium and locker rooms.

David Pap, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, Cambridge, Mass.,
Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund

Pap is co-founder and chair of the Cambridge Housing Assistance Fund,
which helps homeless and near-homeless families by providing one-time
grants and matching funds for rent, security deposits, and first and last
months' rent -- funds that are difficult for working-poor families to save.
The average cost to help a family avoid eviction is $670, and can prevent
families from ending up in the state shelter system, which can cost $37,000
per year. Since 1999, the organization has raised more than $1.2 million
and helped more than 1,300 families remain in their homes.

Sheila Stevens, Prudential Georgia Realty, Suwanee, Ga., The Sport of
Giving Inc.

Stevens is the founder and president of The Sport of Giving Inc., a
community nonprofit that funds breast cancer treatment and prevention
activities. Since 2000, The Sport of Giving has raised $800,000 through
annual tennis and golf tournaments, running events and other fundraisers.
In 2007, the organization donated $215,000 to open a mammography screening
center that has already provided nearly 5,000 mammograms and bone density
screenings. The Sport of Giving also helped fund a mobile mammography van
to reach women who would not otherwise have access to a mammogram.

"The Good Neighbor Award finalists exemplify the good deeds and
community-building efforts of Realtors(R) across the country and deserve to
be commended for their outstanding contributions to our communities," said
NAR Vice President of Publications Pamela Geurds Kabati and REALTOR(R)
Magazine Editorial Director. "These Realtors(R) are truly role models and I
hope they motivate and inspire others to volunteer their time and talents."

REALTOR(R) Magazine's Good Neighbor Awards is sponsored by
eNeighborhoods, Dominion Enterprises, Lowe's and LandAmerica. A
contribution was also made by Phil McGinnis, CCIM, McGinnis Commercial Real
Estate, Dover, Del. In addition to the grant awards, each of the Good
Neighbor Award winners will receive a $2,000 Lowe's gift card and each of
the honorable mentions will receive a $1,000 Lowe's gift card.

Nominees were judged on their personal contribution of time, as well as
financial and material contributions, to benefit their cause. To be
eligible, nominees must be NAR members in good standing.

More information about the Good Neighbor Awards finalists is available
at http://www.realtor.org/realtormag.

eNeighborhoods, (http://www.eneighborhoods.com), has been an NAR REALTOR
Benefits(R) Program partner offering unique marketing solutions to
Realtors(R) since 2002. As the nation's premier compiler of home and
neighborhood information, this Dominion Enterprises company provides real
estate professionals with a comprehensive set of marketing tools to deliver
current and comprehensive information on local neighborhoods, demographics,
schools and more.

Dominion Enterprises, (http://www.DominionEnterprises.com), a division of
Landmark Communications, is a leading marketing services company serving
the automotive, real estate, apartment, recruitment and marine markets. The
company has more than 500 magazine titles, over 40 market-leading Web
sites, and operates a variety of Web and technology businesses. The company
has annualized revenue of more than $946 million and more than 6,000
employees nationwide.

Lowe's (http://www.lowes.com) has been working with customers to maintain and
improve their homes for more than 60 years. Lowe's is proud to help support
the Good Neighbor Awards and similar community efforts through a
partnership with Habitat for Humanity International and as underwriter for
Habitat's Women Build program. In 2006 and 2007 Lowe's funded 52 Habitat
builds nationwide. Lowe's remains dedicated to educating future homeowners
through Lowe's Toolbox for Education program, which awarded $5 million in
grants to nearly 1,000 public schools nationwide. Lowe's and the National
Association of Realtors(R) have partnered to bring Realtors(R) exclusive
benefits to help build relationships with their customers, build referrals
and build their client base. The benefits program is featured on
http://www.LowesRealtorBenefits.com.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., (http://www.landam.com) based in Richmond,
Va., is a leading provider of real estate transaction services with over
700 offices and a network of more than 8,500 active agents. LandAmerica
serves agent, residential, commercial and lender customers throughout the
United States, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and
Asia. LandAmerica has been ranked Number One in the Mortgage Services
Industry on FORTUNE (R) magazine's 2007 and 2008 lists of America's Most
Admired Companies.

The National Association of Realtors(R), "The Voice for Real Estate,"
is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members
involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate
industries.

Information about NAR is available at http://www.realtor.org. This and other
news releases are posted in the Web site's "News Media" section in the NAR
Media Center.

REALTOR(R) is a registered collective membership mark which may be used
only by real estate professionals who are members of the NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS(R) and subscribe to its strict Code of Ethics. Not
all real estate agents are REALTORS(R). All REALTORS(R) are members of NAR.