Sandy Trujillo to Lead SMDRA
Sandy
Trujillo,
Metro Brokers - Hope Enterprises, was installed as the Chairman of the
Board of SMDRA at the Inaugural Celebration. Her theme for this year is
“United We Stand.” Her mission is to increase the member’s
involvement in the Association. Her plans for this year include
initiating the third Habitat for Humanity build for SMDRA, increasing
government affairs awareness, and increasing the member’s awareness of
the benefits they receive from the Association.
A member of SMDRA since 1995, and a REALTOR® since 1993,
she was first elected to the SMDRA Board of Directors in 2005. She held
the title of Chair-Elect of SMDRA in 2007-2008. In 2006, she was the
liaison to the Real Estate Commission for SMDRA.
She has
also served on numerous committees for SMDRA including the REALTOR®
Rally Committee from 1996-2004, the MLS Rules and Regulations Committee
from 2003-2007, the REALTOR® Issues Review and Recommendations Committee
from 2004-2006, and the CAR Issues Mobilization Committee since 2006 to
the present.
REALTOR® Association Leadership
Installed
The following 2008
Officers and Directors for SMDRA will join Chairman Sandy Trujillo in
leadership roles for SMDRA this year:
Stew Meagher, Metro Brokers-Commonwealth Realty, will serve as
Chair-Elect; Kaeti Bancroft, Metro Brokers-Bancroft Properties, will
carry out the responsibilities of Secretary; and Jim Wanzeck,
RE/MAX
Masters,
will serve as Past Chair.
Assuming the responsibilities of Directors for SMDRA are the following
REALTORS®: Carolyn Bradish, Prestige Real Estate Group;
David Douglas, Keller Williams Realty, DTC; Roger Evans, Prestige Real
Estate Group; Lynn Goetz, Keller Williams Realty, DTC; Rita Mills,
RE/MAX Professionals; Mary Jane Ogle, RE/MAX Alliance, DTC; Jo
Pellegrino-Ellis, Advanced Property Sales; and Brad Whitehouse, RE/MAX
Professionals.
Also installed were the
following SMDRA REALTORS® who will serve as Directors for the Colorado
Association of REALTORS® (CAR): Okie Arnot, Keller Williams Realty, DTC;
Deb Conner, Colorado Homes & Property Real Estate; Kati Harken, Keller
Williams Real Estate; Mary Ann Hinrichsen, RE/MAX Masters; and Steve
Stazel, Keller Williams Realty, DTC. Kay Watson, Metro Brokers-Kay
Watson Properties, was installed as Director to the National Association
of REALTORS® (NAR). Gary Morton, Metro Brokers-1st Real Estate Group and
Steve Olson, Prestige
Real Estate Group, will serve as Metrolist Directors for SMDRA.
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 SMDRA
2008 REALTOR® of the Year Award
Several awards were presented during the event and the award
with the highest honor, the 2008 REALTOR® of the
Year, was presented to Andy Ahroon, with Metro
Brokers – Andy Ahroon and Company. This annual award is
bestowed on a member of SMDRA who has provided exemplary
service to both the Association and the community.
Ahroon, a REALTOR® with SMDRA
since 1985, has been a broker/owner since 1986. He is a
past SMDRA Director and was elected to serve as the 1999
President of SMDRA. He has earned his CRS (Certified
Residential Specialist) and GRI (Graduate REALTOR®
Institute) designations.
He has served on the Professional Standards Committee,
the Candidate Interview Task Force, the Community Service Committee, the
Education Committee, the New Member Orientation Committee, the Marketing
Session Committee and he currently serves as a panel judge on an ad-hoc
basis for the Colorado Association of REALTORS® for ethics disputes.
Reaching out to others outside the REALTOR® community, he
served on three mission trips to Pascagoula, Mississippi to assist in
rebuilding a church and the surrounding homes that were devastated by
Hurricane Katrina. He sponsored a family that relocated from New
Orleans to Colorado. Leaving the mainland, he traveled to Bolivia to a
remote village in the rain forest to help build a school for the local
children.
A native Coloradoan,
Ahroon graduated from Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado
Springs. He attended Southern Colorado College in Pueblo (CSU-Pueblo)
earning a BS in Geology. With his wife Kathy, Ahroon helped raise three
children, his son Brett, his daughter Stefanie and his stepson Josh.
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 SMDRA 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award
Kay
Watson,
from Metro Brokers – Kay Watson Properties, was presented the Lifetime
Achievement Award in memory of Mary Ellen Marx. This award is presented
to an individual for their significant and ongoing contribution to the
Association and the community. This award recognizes longevity of
service to the Association along with notable REALTOR® spirit.
Watson has given a tremendous effort in time and energy for the
betterment of our Association and the real estate industry. She has
served in the following REALTOR® leadership capacities at the local,
state and national levels: SMDRA Director, SMDRA’s 1992 President, CAR
Director, CAR’s 2003 President, and a NAR Directorship for 13 years.
Extraordinary accomplishments by Watson include SMDRA
REALTOR® of the Year in 1991, the CAR REALTOR® of the Year in 1999, the
prestigious NAR presidential appointment as the 2007 Liaison to Housing
and Diversity, and recognition by NAR as a REALTOR® Political Action
Committee Hall of Fame Member. Watson has served on numerous committees
for SMDRA but has held long-standing positions on the Candidate
Interview Task Force, the Professional Standards Committee and the PSF
Ambassadorship Program.
She is Past President of the Littleton Public School
Foundation, Past President of Advocates for Children and has served on
the Western Welcome Week Board. Watson, who started selling real estate
in the south metro area in 1979, was born in Winslow, Arizona. She has
been married to her husband Skip for 47 years. They have one daughter,
Darla.
Past
Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Hank Edler in 2000, Larry
Carr in 2001, Dave Cupp in 2002, Cheri Barber Walker in 2003, Carol
Vieira in 2006 and Jerry McGuire in 2007.
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 SMDRA 2008 Rising Star Award
REALTOR®
David Douglas, from
Keller Williams Realty,
DTC,
was presented the 2008 Rising Star Award in memory of Don B. Weist at
the celebration. This award is presented to a member who has provided
outstanding service to the Association and to the community during the
first five years of their real estate career. Past recipients of this
award have shown leadership ability, integrity and persistence and have
all been a beneficial addition to the real estate industry.
Douglas, who joined SMDRA in 2003 as a REALTOR®,
approaches life with a work hard, play hard and get fully involved
philosophy. He believes that brokering real estate is about realizing
dreams, opportunities, and goals for others.
In 2008 he was elected
to the SMDRA Board of Directors. Using his technical expertise,
he authored and
instructed a successful five week series on technology presented to the
REALTOR® members of the Association. He has been a valuable member of
the SMDRA Technology Committee.
He co-chaired the first “Next Generation Summit” for
REALTORS® 40 and under, he has been active on the Government Affairs
Committee and the Candidate Interview Task Force for SMDRA. Douglas is
originally from Alabama where he graduated from Troy University with a
degree in Marketing. He is an active member of Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Douglas has a passion
for helping people be the best that they can be by working along side
them. He has participated in two mission trips to Mexico to build homes
for those in need, as well as, two mission trips to Thailand helping
build churches and work with Food for the Hungry International.
He
is an avid golfer and has played since childhood. He also plays
competitive volleyball and softball. He is an incredible dancer and
usually the last one to leave the dance floor. Never one to sit still,
he also has a passion to travel whether it’s a quick trip to Las Vegas
or half way around the world to Asia.
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 SMDRA
2008 Affiliate of the Year Award
Carol Grape,
grape imaging, inc., was this year’s recipient of the Affiliate of the
Year Award from SMDRA. This award recognizes an Affiliate of SMDRA who
has given outstanding support to the Association and has shown a
willingness to serve on the Association’s numerous committees for
special events and functions.
As
an active member of SMDRA since 2005, Grape is presently serving as the
Affiliate Council President. She has held elected positions on the
Affiliate Council since 2006. She has participated in countless SMDRA
events including the SMDRA Bowling Tournaments, Cinco de Mayo Parties,
Affiliate Holiday Breakfasts, the Inaugural Task Force meetings, and was
an ambassador at several REALTOR® Rally Events. With a stand out sense
of humor and laugh, you will have noticed her presence at all the above
events plus she helps facilitate the Friday Morning Marketing Sessions.
Before moving to Colorado, Grape taught and ran the galleries at the Art
Academy of Cincinnati and Thomas More College in northern Kentucky. She
was the Chair of the Master of Arts in Art Education Program at the Art
Academy of Cincinnati.
This extremely talented
artist is initially from Auburn, Maine, where she graduated from Edward
Little High School in Auburn. She attended the Maine College of Art
where she received a BFA in Sculpture and continued her education at
Kent State University in New York where she earned a MFA in Sculpture.
She has been married for 18 years to her husband Mike D’Innocente and
they are the proud owners of their loving dog/kid, Ike.
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 2008
Community Service Award to an Individual
The
distinguished Community Service Award presented to an individual
recognizes an individual in the south metro Denver area who promotes
“Community Spirit”. This award is usually given each year to a
non-REALTOR® whose impact to the community is significant and generous
through their gifts of time and effort. We are all better off because
of their effort.
The
committee this year decided to make an exception to the guidelines of
this award for a unique individual. They have chosen a SMDRA member
whose body of community work is so exemplary that his efforts could not
be passed by without full recognition. You all have known Bruce Wolf
and his contributions to SMDRA, CAR and NAR but he was equally involved
in his home town, Littleton, Colorado.
His memory
touches deeply the residents of Littleton due to his ongoing commitment
to the Littleton Fire District, the Littleton Business/Industry Affairs
Committee, the Second Century Fund, the Millennium committee which
provided the Littleton Clock Tower and the Western Welcome Week Parade
in which he did every job imaginable and much, much more. A deep hole
is felt in the hearts of our members at the loss of Bruce but perhaps
even more profound is the hole felt in the hearts of so many Littleton
residents who knew him and his devotion to his “home town” Littleton,
Colorado. In memory of Bruce Wolf, his beloved wife Mary received the
Community Service Award presented to an Individual in his name.
The
committee also voted and the Board of Directors approved the permanent
name change of the award to be the “The Bruce F. Wolf Community Service
Award.” We know that this will set a high standard for future
recipients.
Past
individual Community Service Award recipients have included community
servant Gene Koelbel, Dr. Frank Sargent, former District Attorney Bob
Gallagher Jr., Executive Director Dave Lorenz from the South Suburban
Park and Recreation District, Vern Hendrickson from Norwest Bank, former
Littleton Mayor Vaughn Gardinier, Mary Bradford, President of Bradford
Auto Body in Littleton, Bob Sweeney, publisher of the Villager
Newspaper, Barbara Holthaus, founder of the Arapahoe County 4-H
Foundation, former President of the South Metro Chamber of Commerce
Brian Vogt, and community advocate, Lisa Schomp.
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2008
Community Service Award to an Organization
This
year’s distinguished Community Service Award to an organization was
presented to Historic Littleton, Inc. This award recognizes an
organization in the south metro Denver area that is actively involved in
the community, charitable work or civic activities. Historic
Littleton, Inc. is devoted to the preservation of the historic places
that are found within Littleton.
Historic Littleton, Inc. allows people today, to marvel
at the grandeur of the old buildings and the sense of history they feel
when they drive (or walk) through Littleton. Bruce Wolf, SMDRA’s
Individual Community Service Award recipient, grew up in one of the most
historic homes in Littleton, Willowcroft Manor, which was designed in
1884 for Joseph Bowles. Wolf moved to Willowcroft in 1946 with his
parents Cee and Paul Wolf. This was the beginning of Wolf’s lifelong
devotion to the history of his hometown, Littleton.
President Mary Wolf of Historic Littleton, Inc., accepted
the SMDRA Community Service Award for 2008 and a check for $500 on
behalf of the organization.
Past Community Service Award recipients have included
Doctors Care, the City of Littleton, Craig Hospital, the Arapahoe Rescue
Patrol, the Cancer League of Colorado, the Sungate Child Advocacy
Center, Advocates for Children, South Suburban Park & Recreation
District, Littleton Town Hall Arts Center, Interfaith Community
Services, Littleton’s Western Welcome Week and the Littleton School
Foundation.
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