Market Watch

Season of Giving 2023

Posted on November 27, 2023 by ERA Landmark

ERA Landmark's Season of Giving has returned this year! We've been well underway on the charity work our agents contribute to every year, and we're happy to keep the tradition alive. What started out as an annual gift donation/repair project started by ERA Landmark has transformed into our agents and the company serving our community in several different ways throughout the last quarter of the year.

Can the Griz Food Drive

The annual community-wide food drive in both our Bozeman and Missoula communities, lovingly called Can the Griz here in Bozeman, is always a pleasure for our office to participate in. Leading up to the Brawl of the Wild Montana State versus University of Montana football game, our agents are out there calling their sphere of influence, ringing on neighbors' doors, and volunteering to round up doorstep donations to gather food and cash donations for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. The spirit of competition rang true for both our communities raising a collective 1.5 million pounds of food when it was all said and done! We want to give a huge shoutout for having our own personal competition with ERA Lambros in Missoula; our two offices raised a total of 4,446 pounds of food to help fill the food pantries! Keep an eye out next year for our newsletter with the door-step pickup signup form where we come right to your house for any goods you'd like to donate.

Gifts for Children

We get so excited about our Season of Giving fund. It was established in 1984 when we decided to sell Christmas trees out of the ERA Landmark parking lot. It was a lot of work, but worth the fun! We later added a toy drive where we would collect, clean, and fix toys to redistribute back into the community. After several years more, it transformed into designating a set amount of each real estate closing transaction to go toward a Christmas fund with a company match. The next and current phase became “Season of Giving” with individual agents shopping for specific children requests forwarded by local non-profit organizations of Thrive, The Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Montana, Haven, and Operation Holiday. For the past decade, we have decorated our windows and office in our downtown ERA office with over 200 gifts each year for children in the community to accompany our cash contributions.

Annual Gingerbread Competition & Livingston Christmas Stroll

Back again by popular demand, ERA Landmark is hosting our Annual Livingston Gingerbread House Competition! Entries are open now for drop-offs at our Livingston office at 215 S Main up until Friday, December 1st at 1 pm where voting will run during Livingston's Christmas Stroll the same day from 4-8 pm. Whether you're an architect of icing or a builder of biscuit bases, we want to see your sweet creations! Enter for a chance to win cash prizes, trophies, and notoriety in our open and youth categories. Winners are decided by popular vote, so come in, warm up, and cast your vote! While you're downtown, celebrate Christmas and visit Santa in historic downtown Livingston. Shops, restaurants, bars, vendors, music, hay rides, and more.

Downtown Bozeman Christmas Stroll

The Downtown Bozeman Christmas Stroll is on our calendars! Saturday, December 2nd from 4:30 - 7:30 pm ERA Landmark and Thrive will be hosting a Kid's Candy Cane Decorating activity table in front of our downtown Bozeman office once again. Bring the kiddos by to warm up and craft a few fun tree ornaments to remember each year! Bring the whole family down to get your picture taken with Santa Claus, watch the lighting ceremony of the downtown decorations, vote in the Gingerbread House Contest display, sing Christmas carols, engage with local Nonprofits as they host winter-themed activities, and grab a bite to eat from our various food vendors. The Christmas Stroll is the place to find it all! This year is full of even more general activities to entertain all including a holiday bazaar at the Emerson and Bozeman School Foundation's Annual Santa Run For Education that morning from 9 am - 12 pm. Need a Stroll button? You can purchase yours with us at our downtown office for only $4, and enter for a chance to win various prize packages totaling over $3,000! Prizes this year include Bridger Bowl Lift Tickets, an Endeavor Ballooning Flight for 2, Downtown Dollars, and more!

Big Sky Coat Drive

ERA Landmark is once again participating in the second annual Big Sky Coat Drive organized and operated by eleven various real estate brokerages, businesses, and organizations in the Big Sky community. Last year's efforts had over 200 coats donated. We will be gathering any lightly worn and clean adult and child coats as well as hats, sweaters, and gloves in all of our offices from now through December 8th! Persnickety Dry Cleaning has generously offered to clean 200 coats again this year, so get those donations to us and give the gift of warmth to your neighbor in the Big Sky community. Distribution day will be held at River Rock Lodge from 12 pm to 6 pm for anyone who is in need of new winter outerwear. Any remaining clothes will be further distributed into the community.

Big Sky Christmas Stroll

Celebrate the spirit of the holiday season at the 26th Annual Big Sky Christmas Stroll! Three days of festivities kick off the evening of Friday, December 8th at the Big Sky Town Center. Highlights of this festive evening include the tree lighting ceremony, photos with Santa, illuminated cross-country ski/fat bike trails and walkways, sleigh/wagon rides, classic holiday films on the big screen, carolers, music, good cheer, fireworks, skiing and snowboarding at Big Sky Resort, and more! Whether you are participating in the Scavenger Hunt or not, we welcome you to warm up at our office while you enjoy some festive refreshments, enter our Winter Sled Raffle, and pose for a photo in our holiday sleigh.

Categories:

ERA Landmark Philanthropy