Friday, June 16, 2017 / by Geoff Appleton
Home-Ward Bound June 2017
June is such a highly anticipated time of year! Kids start to count down the days left at school, sunlight stretches out longer and brighter and the sounds of lawn sprinklers and skipping ropes fill the air. It is also the most popular month of the year for weddings, and for good reason. June is one of only four months with 30 days in it, and boasts the longest daylight hours of the year. The Summer Solstice—June 21—marks the first day of summer and the longest actual day of the year.
Named after the Roman Goddess Juno, the wife of Jupiter, June’s birthstone is the pearl, symbolizing purity of heart and faith, and its flower is the rose.
June marks many important events in the world of sports: The Stanley Cup Playoffs, the US Open and the 85th 24 Hours of Le Mans to name a few. No wonder they chose this month to honour Dad! It is also the official Recreation and Parks Month across Canada. For a list of free events and happenings around Durham Region and beyond, visit: www.recandparksmonth.ca.
In real estate , June traditionally doesn’t just represent the midway point of the year; it signals a transition to a different pace in the marketplace. June has always been the busiest month for the closing of properties but never for the buying and selling of properties. Why? Well our industry follows the school year calendar and the rhythm of the family in society more than anything else. The best kept secret in real estate has always been the summer purchase. We’ll see if that holds true again this year, but if the last few weeks of increased inventory are any indication, I think I may be right. And the shift could be more than just a seasonal one.
For all the business you continually send my way, a million thanks!
To All the Dad’s out there…
Right now, there are kids who are trying to beat the Cancer Monster and other debilitating diseases. The Dad’s with kids fighting for their life are most likely NOT thinking about their special day this month. They are simply just being “Dad” doing what a real loving Dad does.
This is where you can help…
As you probably know Make A Wish Canada does great work in helping Kids fight through and survive nasty diseases and cancers. And as you know Make A Wish® depends on sponsorships and donations to provide top care while keeping family costs to a minimum.
So, YOUR REFERRALS REALLY DO HELP THE KIDS…
Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?
Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, you can rest assured a very worthy cause benefits as well!
I want to make it easy to refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move, so here are your options:
1. You can pass along our business card to them, I have enclosed a couple here for that purpose.
Remember our promises to buyers and sellers!
Life moves fast for some and we are eager to make the Home Selling and Buying experience a smooth rewarding one. Over the last two decades of helping families sell their home and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals, those you know considering a move, that we help – you can rest assured that not only will they get the award winning service we are known for, but that a portion of the income we receive will go toward a very worthy cause.
Why I Support, Make A Wish ®
I grew up right here in Oshawa. Born in Oshawa General Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease that was granted A Wish from Children's Wish Foundation. This was the turning point in this persons recovery. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard working professionals all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people over come unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. I take pride in supporting in a way that I can, the good work these people do at Make A Wish . My team rally’s around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Make A Wish in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Make A Wish shares similar commitments to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.
Sincerely,
Geoff Appleton
Saskia’s wish restored her faith in goodness.
Saskia, along with her family, is no stranger to hardships. She was just a child when she lost her father to a sudden heart attack, and soon after that shock, her family was dealt another blow when Saskia was diagnosed with lupus at just 10 years of age. Lupus is an auto-immune disease that causes the immune system to become overactive and fight when it shouldn’t. The disease wreaked havoc on Saskia’s body, causing arthritis, swelling, kidney disease, and fatigue so bad, that she couldn’t stay awake past 8 p.m.
There’s no doubt that young Saskia struggled in dealing with the effects of lupus. Perhaps one of the biggest emotional factors from this ordeal was that from age 10 to 13, her growth remained stunted, leading people to believe she was younger than her identical twin sister. “Her twin wasn’t sick, and the girls went from looking so much alike that nobody knew who was who, to people saying that Saskia was the little sister,” says Saskia’s mother. “And that hurt her more than you can imagine – she was angry and frightened.”
Saskia was referred to Make-A-Wish® by a social worker at the hospital, early on in her treatment. “We needed an emotional lift for her to be able to take advantage of her physical recovery,” says Saskia’s mother. “I tried to keep her wish smaller, but Saskia wished to go to the Galápagos!”
Looking back, Saskia’s mother recalls feeling nervous about the scope of her daughter’s wish. “I researched the average cost of a wish and tried to keep her from disappointment,” she says. “But when we met her wish granter, she realized I was trying to reduce Saskia’s dreams and made me turn around, then asked Saskia again about what she really wanted.”
Once again, Saskia reaffirmed that she wished to go to the Galápagos Islands.
“Saskia has always loved the great outdoors – she values the environment and she’s relentlessly curious,” says Saskia’s mother. “She values wild spaces, adventure and logic… and the Galápagos has all of that.”
The magic of Saskia’s wish was not just that it gave her hope, but it finally restored her faith that good things could happen – even to her – and it was healing for the whole family.
Today, Saskia is a bright young woman, with big dreams. She is studying international economics at UBC (University of British Columbia), and when she was 18, she ran an ultramarathon across the Kalahari Desert in Botswana for water rights. According to her mother, “Saskia is absolutely determined and is taking on the world.”
