I’m elated to announce very successful results for the Project 680 Underwear Drive. Last night we had a finale BBQ and we counted 2,983 pairs of new underwear that were donated by the community for the sake of homeless students in the FCUSD. This effort was pulled off by a long list of so many community members, churches and businesses.

I’d like to personally thank Orange County Cellular, Coldwell Banker Steve Ostrom & Team, CTP Business & Personal Development Coaching,  Jenny Lundquist – Author, Market Small, Body Investment Studio, The Appraisal IQ, Janice McNally Appraiser & Vice-Mayor David Sander for responding to a specific vision from my company to team up to knock out a chunk of Project 680′s overall goal. It was so good to be a unified front for this vision and we did it together! Here is some footage from the finale BBQ last night. Enjoy.

“We can do no great things, only small things with great love” Mother Teresa

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook. 

What can it look like for local businesses and households to network together for the sake of homeless students? I wanted to share a vision with you and ask you to consider getting involved.

Project 680 is doing an underwear drive for homeless students, so I figured a group of us could team up to help this important effort by pitching in. If 17 local businesses or familes each donate 25 pairs of underwear and my company donates 100, we’ll hit 500 pairs with ease. This team-approach will help us maximize results and put a big dent in Project 680′s goal to collect nearly 3000 pairs of new underwear by May 11, 2011.

If you do join the team, you’ll get a link below, links on the Project 680 website and SacTube, recognition on the P680 Facebook page, kudos on Twitter (and some other stuff too). Of course, the best thing you’ll get is the knowledge you did something good.

The All-Star Project 680 Donor Team
1.   Orange County Cellular
2.   JanMac Appraisals (Janice McNally)
3.   RosevilleandRocklin.com: Coldwell Banker Steve Ostrom & Team
4.   CTP Business & Personal Development Coaching
5.   Jenny Lundquist – Author
6.   Market Small
7.   Body Investment Studio       
8.   Soroptimist Organization in Rancho Cordova
9.   Mitchell Middle School in Rancho Cordova PTSA   
10.  Vice-Mayor David Sander City of Rancho Cordova     
11.  TBA      
12.  TBA      
13.  TBA      
14.  TBA      
15.  TBA      
16. TBA
17.   Lundquist Appraisal Company

This is a great way to maximize results and do a little good together. Business isn’t just about making money, but about making a meaningful difference in people’s lives. Let me know if you’re interested in getting involved.

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook. 

You might remember me heading to Kansas City last June for the All-America City Awards. It was a real honor to be a part of the team from Rancho Cordova due to my involvement with Project 680. Anyway, the National Civic League interviewed me via Skype last week, so I wanted to share it with you in case you might be interested to hear some of what I think about local government and civic engagement. Enjoy. 

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook. 

I wanted to let everyone know that Project 680 will be holding an underwear drive for homeless students from April 1 to May 11, 2011. A group of neighbors and I founded Project 680 a few years ago to address student homelessness in our community. I wanted to invite you to consider getting involved. This is a grassroots effort with no paid staff and it’s all about local households, businesses, churches and organizations coming together to advocate for local kids. Please see www.project680.org/underwear-2011 for more information and check out a video announcement below. Thank you so much for your support.

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

If you’ve been spending any time reading this blog (thank you), you’ve heard me talk recently about Project 680 and a drive to collect 680 new hooded sweatshirts for homeless students in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. Well, last night we had our finale celebration at Rancho Cordova City Hall and I am very pleased and excited to officially announce we met our goal of 680 hoodies since we counted a total of 687 hoodies last night.

It’s been amazing to watch the community rally together for the sake of homeless students in the FCUSD. Local residents, businesses, churches and organizations really stepped up their game to to make this happen. Thank you everyone for your team-oriented mindset and support, whether big or small. 

Here is a brief video I shot to give you a glimpse into last night’s festivities.

I wanted to share with you that there are three weeks left in the Project 680 Hoody Drive. It’s been great to see everyone get involved so far, and I’d love to see others embrace the vision too. We definitely have some work left in our quest to collect 680 hoodies for homeless students in the FCUSD. Let’s keep going strong and advocate for homeless kids in this very practical and relevant way. If you have any questions or a desire to get involved, let me know.

By the way, this was the first video I took with my Flip Ultra 4GB video camera. I am really excited to have this camera. The lighting wasn’t great and there is a freeway close by, so settings weren’t ideal, but overall I am impressed with the quality so far for a $150 product. Are you a Flip owner?

As I mentioned previously, I’ll be heading to Kansas City next week as a part of delegation from the city of Rancho Cordova for the All-America City Awards. I wanted to invite you to follow this exciting journey next Wednesday through Friday through videos, Facebook & Twitter. Technology is going to help us connect!!! It should be great fun. Watch the videos below or here and here.

I’ll be posting from Kansas City mainly from my Twitter account @SacAppraiser and I’ll be getting some videos up at www.facebook.com/Project680 (directly on my YouTube page at www.youtube.com/lundquistco). The official hash-tag on Twitter is #AllAmericaCity (note it is not “American”, but “America”). I’d love to hear from you during my stint in Kansas City. Your support will be a huge encouragement.

This is a real honor for me to represent Project 680 and my city. Go Rancho Cordova!!!!

A few weeks ago KCRA news anchor Diedre Fitpatrick filmed some of the Project 680 team “Raiding the Sock Aisle” at Target in Rancho Cordova. As you’ll see in the video, “Raiding the Sock Aisle” was coined by Erin Attardi. The story turned out really great. I love how it highlights the simplicity of making a difference in the community, our goal of collecting at least 2000 pairs of socks, and how social media can be used to advocate for local homeless kids too. Great job team!!! See the video below.

If you’re interested in www.project680.org, let me know. You can read more about the sock drive and community bike ride HERE.

If you are on Twitter, we are using “#bikingforsocks” as our official hashtag for the upcoming sock drive / bike ride. You can follow Project 680 on Twitter at @project680 and become a fan on Facebook too. Don’t forget to follow those in the video too: Erin Attardi at @erinattardi and Geoff Sakala at @rcpost and Diedre Fitzpatrick at @fitztweeter.

By the way, it’s cool to see that the Sacramento Association of Realtors highlighted Erin’s involvement in a story entitled “Sacramento Realtors in the News“. It’s great to see too how Real Estate Appraiser Tips put up a post entitled: “California Appraiser Ryan Lundquist on KCRA Sacramento News For A Good Cause“.

I’m very excited to announce Project 680′s upcoming “Biking for Socks” event on May 8, 2010. We are doing a community bike ride in order to accomplish three things: 1) Bring awareness to the problem of student homelessness in the FCUSD; 2) Collect socks for homeless kids in the FCUSD; and 3) Gather up a few bucks to be able to give to the District Liaison for Homeless Services so she can meet the needs of students on an “as needed” basis – meaning that when the neediest of students come to her, she can simply take care of some of the things they need – whether clothing, deodarant, shoes, study materials, etc….

Please have a look at the video below and let me know if you have any questions, ideas, or a desire to get involved in any way. Click HERE if you don’t see the video in your RSS or email subscription. Also, you can sign up for the event on Facebook HERE.

I wanted to share some very exciting news. I am humbled and honored to announce that last week the Cordova Community Council graced me with the “Distinguished Service to Youth” award for my work with Project 680. I was not expecting this in any way and I feel extremely honored to have been selected for this annual award. I never do stuff for recognition, but sometimes recognition happens, and this means a great deal to me and my family.

I hesitated to share this news because I didn’t want to come across as self-absorbed or bragging. For anyone who knows me, you know that’s not the way I am. I crossed the line and decided to share though because this is important, friends would like to know, and it also helps get word out about Project 680.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Together we can make a difference and help solve problems in our community.

This isn’t related to real estate, but definitely worth sharing. My brother recently let me know about someone he heard of named Betty Londergan. Betty inherited some money and she started something called What Gives 365 Project. In short, Betty is giving away $100 every day to causes she chooses. And she’s blogging about it. 

“This is all my money. It comes from what my dad left each one of us kids when he died, and I can’t think of a single thing my mom would have loved more than to see me giving it away to worthy causes. (However, my dad would undoubtedly say that I need to get my head examined.)”

Why am I bringing this up? I am very pleased to announce that Betty donated $100 to Project  680, a grassroots organization I help steer. Read Betty’s post today on Project 680 entitled “Underwear, Socks, Shoes“.

What do you think of this and what Betty is doing?

I have a “Photos from the Field” category on my site that usually includes pictures relating to real estate somehow, but today I want to shift gears and share something a bit more personal – not TMI, but something that really matters to me.

Project 680 is a grassroots community effort to find practical ways to support local homeless students within the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. We dub ourselves Project “680″ because in 2008 we found out there were ”680″ documented homeless students in the FCUSD. That was shocking and unacceptable, so we decided to do something about it. Since then many individuals, organizations, churches and businesses have come together to advocate for local kids.   

Today was a very exciting day because a friend and I were able to go to Sunrise Elementary School in the Anatolia area of Rancho Cordova to say thank you to some all-star students who gathered items for Project 680. Three kindergarten classes ended up collecting 154 pairs of gloves, 67 hats, and 11 scarves for local homeless students. Way to go kids!!! (and teachers) We are proud of you!!!  

This is such great news and I wanted to share it with you. It’s just too good on so many levels, don’t you think?

Please know though that I don’t mention this to brag or boast in any way. I’m not looking for public kudos either. I just think it’s so important to take a stand for struggling kids as well as find a vision in life that makes a real difference. I am so thankful to be actively learning to live out a vision with locals in Rancho Cordova and Folsom through Project 680. That’s easy to write about.

Join the Project 680 Facebook Page.