Stacey Evoy will serve as president of the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors (LSTAR) in 2016.
A native of Sarnia, Ont., Evoy worked in the hospitality sector before becoming a Realtor in 2003. She is a broker with Royal LePage Triland.
She has served on a number of association committees and for many years co-chaired the organizing committee for the annual Royal LePage Golf Tournament in support of Women’s Community House. She participates in a number of fundraising events throughout the year supporting various charities. The association says Evoy is “a champion for children and women’s issues, specifically research and fundraising in support of breast cancer. She describes mentoring five and six-year-old girls as a Spark Leader in Girl Guides as her most rewarding volunteer work.”
At the last 2015 meeting of the London and St. Thomas Association of Realtors Board of Directors, the association’s Quality of Life Advisory Group chair Heather Arnott presented three cheques to representatives of area charities.
LSTAR presented $5,000 to Meals on Wheels.
Tracy Marino, chair of the Organizing Committee of London Hockey Helps the Homeless, along with committee member Dan Grantham were on hand to receive $5,000 in sponsorship for the third annual one-day fantasy hockey tournament, scheduled to take place on May 7. The 2014 and 2015 tournaments raised $235,000 for Merrymount Children and Family Crisis and Support Centre, Youth Opportunities Unlimited and the Unity Project.
“We have been involved with this tournament from the get-go,” says Carl Vandergoot, president of LSTAR. “In both 2014 and 2015, over 200 LSTAR members volunteered, sponsored or participated in the tournament.”
The second donation was to Meals on Wheels London. MOW president Kevin Barry, Sarah Campbell, executive director and fundraising consultant Katie Van Den Berg accepted $5,000 to fund the Home to Stay program. This initiative will provide meals to people at risk of becoming homeless or those who have been recently, and perhaps precariously, housed. “Meals on Wheels designed this program especially for us, knowing that LSTAR has focused on homelessness issues since 1992,” says Vandergoot.
A donation was also presented to the Homes 4 Women program at the Women’s Community House.
The goal of this program is to house and support 50 women and their families. LSTAR donated $2,400, which will be used to subsidize the rent for one woman at a rate of $200 a month.
“This program is using a housing first approach adapted specifically for the women’s needs,” says Vandergoot. “That greatly improves the chances it will be successful.” Shelley Yeo, director of transitional and community support programs for the Women’s Community House and Barhet Woldemariam, program coordinator for Homes 4 Women, were on hand to accept the cheque.
