Volunteering has always played a big role in Jamie Shea’s life. As a young man, when all his friends wanted to do was hang out and have fun, he was off searching for places where he could help others.
Today, Jamie uses this passion to inspire his colleagues. A Realtor and broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Woodmont Realty in Nashville, he’s the current co-chair of his office’s charity committee. “We try to focus on local charities every year, and this year, we’ve chosen Second Harvest Food Bank, Operation Stand Down Tennessee, Safe Haven and Nashville Humane Association,” he says. “We try to keep it as local as we can and really try to make an impact.”
Every one of these charities will get a monetary donation, but Jamie also believes in committing time as well. “When you go out and see the people you’re helping and who you’re giving to, it makes you feel a lot better about what you’re doing.”
COVID has changed a lot of the in-person volunteer opportunities, but when he became chair, that’s what he wanted to focus on. “Obviously, we have agents who donate to our charity fund that we split out among the charities, but I want to have a little more community involvement -- something that has more teeth in it.”
With Second Harvest, he and other agents will be volunteering this fall to sort the food that is donated. He’s also hoping that he and his colleagues will be able to be on-site when they distribute the food.
They also recently assisted Operation Stand Down. “We went out and did some maintenance,” says Jamie. “We painted a couple of the decks of the transitional housing units.”
Unfortunately, he says, Nashville Humane doesn’t have any volunteer opportunities right now, so they’re looking to do a donation drive instead. And Safe Haven is still up in the air. “In the past, we could go in and cook meals for families, but right now they don’t have anyone staying in their center,” he says.
In 2019, Jamie also chaired the Habitat for Humanity committee with Greater Nashville Realtors. Its focus was on funding and building homes with Habitat for Humanity. “We held fundraisers like a golf tournament and mum sale,” he says. “In 2019, to raise money for 2020, I created a campaign called $20 for 2020. My aim was to get every agent to give at least $20. At the end of 2018, we had 5000 members, so if many gave $20, we would hit our goal, which was $100,000. Obviously we also wanted more big donors, but this was something where everyone could give.”
Jamie is also active with charitable work outside the office. Along with his running group, he planned to run a half marathon for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and to raise more money, the group challenged him to run the race in a kilt. “It worked,” he says. “I did some research and found that they actually have running kilts!”
Along the way, Jamie says he heard a lot of interesting comments from the spectators about the kilt.
Jamie encourages everyone to find a cause and then volunteer to lend a hand. A great good place to start is: VolunteerMatch.org.
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Who
Jamie Shea
Title
Realtor, Broker and Charitable Chairperson
Where
Nashville
Advice
It’s a great opportunity to help those who are less fortunate. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself knowing that you helped somebody. So get involved and make it a year round thing, not just around the holidays. People need help 365 days a year.