RISMEDIA, Oct. 24, 2007-Network members of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., joined Prudential Financial Inc.’s ninth annual Backpack Challenge to provide children in foster care something to call their own.
Each summer, Prudential Financial associates join together and fill backpacks with personal care items, school supplies and gifts for children from infant to 17 years old. In many instances, when children in foster care move to a new home, they leave behind everything-their rooms, homes, toys, friends and family. The Backpack Challenge offers a tangible way to ease the transition and give the children possessions to keep. This year, 5,227 filled backpacks were given to children in foster care facilities in 101 cities in the U.S. and Ireland.
Prudential Fox & Roach, REALTORS®, headquartered in Devon, Pennsylvania, was one of many Prudential Real Estate affiliates who took the challenge. They donated 550 backpacks thanks to the generosity of its sales professionals in 43 cities. Recipients were the Philadelphia School District, Homeless Children Program, New Jersey Foster Care Program, and the Delaware Family Services in Newark.
“It’s hard for us to imagine that a child may wake up one morning, go off to school and by the end of the day be going back to a completely new home. The ability to have those few personal possessions that a child holds dear is what the Backpack Challenge helps to achieve for many youths in our community,” said Avie Wheeler, director of Fox & Roach Charities. “We are proud that our company is making a significant contribution in that effort.”
Prudential Network Realty in Jacksonville, Florida, along with partners Gibraltar Title Services and Gibraltar Mortgage, donated 466 backpacks to Children’s Home Society, an adoption, foster care and assistance service organization serving more than 160,000 people.
“I am moved by the generosity of our team and know these backpacks will make a positive impact on the lives of children,” said Linda H. Sherrer, founder, president and CEO of Prudential Network Realty. “This program helps give children something critically important to them.”
Prudential Real Estate and Relocation Services is Prudential’s integrated real estate brokerage franchise and relocation services business. Prudential Real Estate franchises are independently owned and operated.
For more information, please visit www.prudential.com.