SPAAR Is Building Better Communities by Supporting and Serving Bridging
November is #ThanksGivingBack month for St. Paul Area Association of REALTORS® (SPAAR). For the past several years, they have sponsored an annual dresser build at Bridging in addition to volunteering at numerous other community organizations. Together, this service-minded group upholds the REALTORS Charitable Foundation’s mission to improve the quality of life within communities where its members live and work.
In 2021, the REALTORS® Charitable Foundation chose Bridging as the recipient of its $100,000 grant as an organization committed to improving the communities it serves.
The designated funds support Bridging as SPAAR aligns with one or more focus areas including advocacy, community engagement, professional development or communications, also known as the four pillars of SPAAR.
With SPAAR’s focus on Better Agents and Better Communities, volunteering at Bridging is a win/win. After six events hosted at SPAAR in 2022 alone, the Bridging-Roseville warehouse, and Mystic Lake Casino, 360 volunteers that included SPAAR members and their connections, regular Bridging volunteers, and friends of Bridging joined together to assemble 515 total dressers for Bridging clients.
The partnership between SPAAR and Brid
ging deepened when SPAAR’s current Vice President of Advocacy and Community Engagement Joe McKinley, also a former staff member at Bridging, was hired and oversaw SPAAR’s community engagement work.
“Bridging is a natural fit for Realtors®. As they’re helping clients, they meet people with lots of items during moving or downsizing. Bridging provides ways for those items to be repurposed and put into use,” McKinley said. “In addition, the organizations have a lot in common. Bridging builds people up to be successful, and Realtors® are small businesses committed to making communities better for all. We look forward to continued partnership in the years to come.”
Affordable housing and mortgage advocate Bill Schwietz, a volunteer at a majority of the SPAAR team dresser build events, also values the service experience with Bridging:
“I have participated in several dresser builds. Each one of them have been well organized and a lot of fun! Each time I invited a different group to join me and each said they really enjoyed the time. The Bridging organization is a perfect match with SPAAR. Shelter is our business, but making a better community is our passion.”
