Feeding the Soul Through Volunteering

Keller Williams Realty International’s RED Day is the company’s annual celebration of giving back, observed in the communities where its offices are located. Whether it’s in the U.S., Canada or overseas, each second Thursday in May, staff members join forces on community service projects to brighten the corner where they live, work and do business. 

Beach cleanups and blood drives, assisting in erecting a Habitat for Humanity home and donating more than $10,000 in Publix Super Market gift cards to the island’s laid-off restaurant workers during the Covid pandemic – those are but a few of the charitable causes the KW’s Marco office has undertaken in recent years. 

For Renew, Energize, and Donate, RED Day 2023, the office donated time to packing bags of food at the Our Daily Bread Food Pantry in the morning. That afternoon, volunteers traveled to a nearby, off-island community to dispense food to the needy through the Al’s Pals Mobile Food Pantry. 

Al’s Pals is an outreach program of Our Daily Bread. It serves people with limited mobility or those who aren’t able to attend the food pantry’s weekly distribution at its Winterberry Drive home. 

“The people from Al’s Pals were so appreciative of us being there to help in the morning and the afternoon shift, as well,” said Dina Johnson, this year’s RED Day committee chairperson for Keller Williams’ Marco office. “They relayed that it is harder to fill the volunteer spots after season when so many go home…the need is still there.

Working with Our Daily Bread and Al’s Pals was chosen for RED Day ’23 for multiple reasons, Johnson said the day before the event.

“I've always been curious about volunteering, but I’ve never pulled the trigger and done it,” she said. “So my hope was that not only would I see what they do and perhaps get more involved, but for other people in our office that have maybe felt the same way, it would be an opportunity to expose them while doing something good in the community.” 

 Afterward, Johnson said she and her fellow volunteers had a great day, one topped off by the smiles and expressions of gratitude from those served as the food giveaway.

“I gained so many different things. First and foremost, my goal was to see how I and others might be able to help on a regular or sometimes basis,” she said. “As Red Day is usually just a one-time project, by choosing this, all who served that day now know how they can serve in the future, wherever their schedule may allow. Our KW team leader said he would love to see if we could organize a group to do this once or twice a month.”

Johnson also enjoyed the opportunity to work with my peers in a capacity totally unrelated to what they normally do.

“Lastly,” she added, “serving the families was humbling and makes you really stop and appreciate how much you have. We delivered food to a few people that physically were not able to come the short distance to collect it themselves, to see what little means that they have, there are no words.”

Keller Williams Realty Marco Island is located at 830 Bald Eagle Drive. For more information, visit marcoisland.yourkwoffice.com/or call 239-393-1350. For more information on the Our Daily Bread Food pantry or to donate, visit ourdailybreadfoodpantry.org/ or call 259-5188. To volunteer with Al’s Pals for the mobile food pantry or its other services, call Allyson Richards at 770-366-0653 or email her at allysonrichards@me.com.