{"id":8295,"date":"2018-02-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wells-fargo-honors-guardian-angel\/"},"modified":"2018-02-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T00:00:00","slug":"wells-fargo-honors-guardian-angel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wells-fargo-honors-guardian-angel\/","title":{"rendered":"Wells Fargo Honors \u2018Guardian Angel\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cynthia Shafer, fourth from left, was presented with a surprise $2,000 check from the Wells Fargo Housing<\/a> Foundation for her longstanding volunteer work to help foster kids and children who have been abused and neglected. The money will go toward her nonprofit, Bedz for Kidz.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Nearly 16 years after Cynthia Shafer was named one of REALTOR\u00ae Magazine\u2019s 2002 Good Neighbor Award winners, her life-changing volunteer work with foster kids and neglected children in Florida continues. And now she\u2019s receiving even more accolades\u2014and funding\u2014for her cause.<\/p>\n

The Wells Fargo Housing Foundation surprised Shafer, AHWD, SFR, a sales associate at Lahaina Realty in Fort Myers, Fla., with a $2,000 check, five boxes of donated books, and 150 Wells Fargo \u201cplush ponies\u201d for her nonprofit, Bedz for Kidz. The organization, which Shafer founded in 2001, raises funds<\/a> to buy and distribute beds to foster families so children in need of a caring and safe home have a comfortable place to sleep. Some foster families are asked to take\u00a0in three or more foster siblings so that they won\u2019t be separated, but often the home will have only one extra bed. Florida does not allow the foster siblings to stay in the home unless there is a bed to accommodate each. Shafer\u2019s organization steps in to help provide families with the extra beds needed to\u00a0make sure\u00a0the kids remain together,\u00a0which also keeps the foster system running smoothly.<\/p>\n

Shafer\u2019s unexpected honor sprung from a chance meeting with Martin Sundquist, executive director of the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation, during the REALTORS\u00ae Conference & Expo in Chicago last November. Shafer approached Sundquist at one of the convention booths, admiring the plush ponies he had brought with him as part of the company’s\u00a0marketing campaign. The ponies serve as Wells Fargo\u2019s unofficial mascots, representing the steeds the company employed during the horse-and-buggy days of the 1800s.<\/p>\n

It was then that Shafer began to tell Sundquist of her charity work. Since 2002, Shafer and her husband\u00a0John\u00a0have driven 120,000 miles throughout the five-county region of southwest Florida, delivering more than 2,300 beds to foster homes. Every week, Shafer divides her time between her real estate<\/a> business, volunteering as a guardian ad litem\u00a0to kids in the Florida court system, and dropping off beds\u2014along with a book, clean sheets, and a stuffed animal\u2014to foster children.<\/p>\n

Her moving story sparked an idea for Sundquist. \u201cI got Cynthia\u2019s information and had the idea to surprise her and deliver plush ponies to her for use in her nonprofit,\u201d Sundquist says. \u201cThe ponies are pretty exclusive to get. We\u2019ve never done anything like this before.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the morning of Feb. 6, Shafer thought she was meeting Sundquist at the South Florida REALTORS\u00ae Association building in Fort Myers to further discuss the work of her nonprofit, but instead she walked unknowingly into a touching ceremony in her honor. Wells Fargo also took time to honor Shafer\u2019s 94-year-old father-in-law for his military service. Shafer says the multiple layers of the event were somewhat\u00a0overwhelming. \u201cIt just snowballed: Here\u2019s the check, here are\u00a0the horses, here are\u00a0the books. It just built to an honor that filled my heart; it pounded a little harder and grew a little bigger,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Some of the foster children she\u2019s helped over the years have reconnected with her as adults, Shafer says. They\u2019ve thanked her for her generosity, and a few have even invited her to meet their families. That\u2019s what helps her stay motivated. \u201cI deliver the beds, and I see the kids jump for joy,\u201d Shafer recalls. \u201cI met a 4-and-a-half-year-old little girl who said to me, \u2018You mean I don\u2019t have to sleep in a bathtub anymore?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sundquist says the opportunity to double down on the good work REALTORS\u00ae do in their communities every day is part of the reason Wells Fargo is a sponsor of the Good Neighbor Awards. \u201cWhen you think about the selfless leadership of REALTORS\u00ae across the country, that\u2019s why the Good Neighbor program has been such a great program to support,\u201d Sundquist says. \u201cThey\u2019re truly heroes. They make such a meaningful difference in what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Lauren Tussey, REALTOR\u00ae Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Realtors <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynthia Shafer, fourth from left, was presented with a surprise $2,000 check from the Wells Fargo … Wells Fargo Honors \u2018Guardian Angel\u2019<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[1403,1231,12908,543,127,1004,41,818,84,123,479,15282],"class_list":["post-8295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opportunities-in-new-markets","tag-buy","tag-foundation","tag-home","tag-home-buying-guide","tag-homes","tag-marketing","tag-property","tag-real","tag-real-estate","tag-real-estate-business","tag-realtor","tag-ross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}