{"id":19522,"date":"2014-12-25T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-12-25T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=19522"},"modified":"2014-12-25T02:53:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-25T08:53:08","slug":"coldwell-banker-conroy-marable-holleman-provided-a-wonderful-christmas-to-15-needy-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2014\/12\/25\/coldwell-banker-conroy-marable-holleman-provided-a-wonderful-christmas-to-15-needy-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman provided a wonderful Christmas to 15 needy families"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – A few weeks before Christmas; on a cold December morning, a crowd gathered at the Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman<\/a> office on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. 15 Families had been selected to receive a wonderful Christmas gift. One child from each family would soon be boarding the Coldwell Banker Clarksville Olde Town Trolley to shop for Christmas presents for their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s great,\u201d said Mark Holleman. \u201cI think it’s fantastic. And like I said I think the agents will receive as much out of taking these kids shopping, as the kids will get out of shopping for their families.\u201d The realtors mission was to give back to the community by ensuring that these kids and their families had a wonderful Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The children with their Realtor assistants<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Each of the kids were at risk of slipping through the social support systems cracks. Coldwell Banker drew recommendations from one of the guidance counselors at Byrns L. Darden Elementary School, who submitted the name of five children; and the other ten were clients of Radical Mission.<\/p>\n

Once the trolley was loaded, the kids and the agents who on hand to assist them saying Christmas carols as owner Mark Holleman navigated the trolley through the Saturday morning traffic.<\/p>\n

In no time at all we pulled up to the Walmart on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. The kids and their realtor assistants disembarked.<\/p>\n

\"Leah<\/a>

Leah Colclasure and Gabrielle shop for her family<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis was the first time that we have done this,\u201d Leah Colclasure, a member of the Christmas committee for Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman. \u201cWe tried to get elementary school age children to be the shoppers for the family. For example Gabrielle, the young lady that I assisting was shopping for a family of nine. For each of her siblings and her mother she was able to buy a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cWe started out with the goal of raising $25.00 per individual, and we ended up being able to to raise $40.00 per individual; and so we were really excited about that! While we were at Walmart, the store manager was able to give us a $20.00 gift card for each of the families. So that was really nice. He also donated the cookies that the kids are currently out there enjoying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Store<\/a>

Store manager Lanny Barker with Mark Holleman<\/p><\/div>\n

When the kids were done shopping there was a pizza party at the real estate office waiting for them. The kids will also going to get to meet Santa Claus, who gave each of the shoppers their own gifts. The kids had been doing the for their families, and not themselves. \u201cWe wanted to give them the experience of giving for Christmas; and they ended up giving just as much to us! What an amazing experience it was!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the young shoppers<\/p><\/div>\n

In addition to the shopping spree for these kids, the agents also sponsor 10 of the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Christmas Assistance program families. \u201cWe have been working all year long to raise the money needed to support these programs in our community\u201d<\/p>\n

We raise the money in various ways. We had a bake sale of a Halloween where all of the agents made different desserts. We had a cakewalk and that sort of thing. We sold hamburgers and hotdogs at the opening of a business. There were several different fundraisers throughout the year. Plus we had agents throughout the year who as they had closings would donate money from the sale. It came from many different sources.<\/p>\n

\"Realtor<\/a>

Realtor Sherry Davis shows her shopper a Jenga game<\/p><\/div>\n

[320left]When I asked her if there was anyone she would like to thank, Leah responded \u201cI’d like to thank counselor at Byrns Darden, and the folks at radical Mission who helped us gather these families together.\u201d She also credited the Christmas committee that put this all together. The members of the committee included Leah Colclasure, Carolyn Watson, Christy Kitchens, Deborah Cloud, Mark Holleman, Bob Worth. Pat Ray, and Maurice Vaughn.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who experienced it said that they were thrilled to be a part of it and thrilled to be able help these children.\u201d concluded Colclasure.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>

Looking for a gift for mom<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Young<\/a>

Young Jasmine shops with her Realtor<\/p><\/div>\n

There are already plans to continue this program next year Colclasure told me, “and we are hoping to raise even more money so that we can help more families!\u201d<\/p>\n

I got an opportunity to speak with Gabrielle. \u201cIt was fun!\u201d she said. \u201cI don’t usually get to go shopping for all of my brothers and sisters, so it gave me a chance to do that. \u201cI got some toys for the little ones, for the older girls make-up,\u201d said Gabrielle. Leah added, \u201cfor her older brother she got Titans pajamas, and a football\u201d Gabrielle said \u201cI want to say thank you to the agents of Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman for making this possible! I am so glad that I actually went!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Santa<\/a>

Santa visits with one of the shoppers<\/p><\/div>\n

[320right]\u201cChristmas is all about the smaller children,\u201d said Santa Claus after he had visited with the children. \u201cIt was wonderful seeing the smiles on the faces, and in their eyes. It was such a great thing these agents at Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman<\/a> did here today!\u201d<\/p>\n

I most definitely agree!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – A few weeks before Christmas; on a cold December morning, a crowd gathered at the Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman office on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard. 15 Families had been selected to receive a wonderful Christmas gift. One child from each family would soon be boarding the Coldwell Banker Clarksville Olde Town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[11147,24862,24863,24864,19413,24865,15422,24866,1755,5947,5896,1732,72,24867,4340,8920],"class_list":["post-19522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-angel-tree","tag-byrns-l-darden-elementary-school","tag-christmas-comittee","tag-clarksville-olde-town-trolley","tag-clarskville-tn","tag-coldwell-banker-conroy-marable-holleman","tag-lanny-barker","tag-leah-colclasure","tag-mark-holleman","tag-maurice-vaughn","tag-philanthropy","tag-radical-mission","tag-salvation-army","tag-sherry-davis","tag-walmart","tag-wilma-rudolph-boulevard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-54S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19523,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19522\/revisions\/19523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}