Coldwell Banker Raises More Than $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity

In its biggest-ever fundraiser Thursday for Silicon Valley’s Habitat for Humanity, Gilroy’s raised more than $10,000 during a luncheon event at , said Toni Morris, senior office assistant at the real estate office.

It was the sixth time that Gilroy’s local office has had the event, part of the company’s national effort to raise money for the housing nonprofit.

“We were hoping for 150 people, although I really wanted to have 200 people there,” said Morris, in an email. “We went beyond the 200 mark, somewhere between 212-225 people!”

Organizers had hoped to raise $3,600 at the event­, but raised $6,400 more from donations and dozens of raffle items, Morris said.

“I’m so proud of our office, as this is our most successful fundraiser to date,” said Nancy Robinson, manager of Gilroy's Coldwell Banker.

Since Coldwell Banker began supporting Habitat for Humanity 12 years ago, it has raised more than $2.1 million and helped with the construction of 159 Habitat homes in Northern California, Morris said. 

Alongside other Northern California Coldwell Bankers, the Gilroy office helped raise $105,000 for 10 Northern California chapters in 2010.

The local fundraiser has come a long way since it began, Morris said. What started as a barbecue in the parking lot outside of the office has become a large-scale event, with catering from The Westside Grill, live guitar music by the local Jeff Strametz and wine tasting from Fortino Winery.

As recently as Aug. 6, the Silicon Valley Habitat chapter celebrated the construction of six new homes for low-income families in Morgan Hill. To date, the organization has built more than 400,000 houses around the world.

Look for the fundraiser next year—Morris said Fortino Winery has already started asking about scheduling the event again.