The Keller Williams Realty Hurricane Florence relief initiative, KW Cares, will begin distributing supplies, equipment, emergency stipends, and volunteer support to Cape Fear Keller Williams associates when the KW Cares command center opens on Friday, September 21, at 8 a.m.

The KW Cares command center is located at 306 Old Dairy Road in Wilmington North Carolina. KW Cares coordinators are working with storm-affected families to ensure that support addresses needs. Volunteers off-loaded four semi-truck trailers of massive pallets of hurricane supplies on Thursday, filling long aisles in the warehouse donated for the effort by George Taylor, Chairman of TRU Colors Brewing, and Untappd, Inc. Volunteers will remain in the Cape Fear area to assist with clean up, repair, and storm recovery.

More than 300 Keller Williams agents, associates, and staff, and their immediate families, are eligible to receive supplies and volunteer assistance through KW Cares. The streamlined process for requesting assistance will help thousands of hurricane victims who are affiliated with the KW Market Center, offices in Wilmington, Hampstead, and Ocean Isle, and the KBT Realty Group located in the Airport Authority Business Park.

Founded in 2003 by Keller Williams Realty CEO Mo Anderson, Keller Williams Realty Cares (KW Cares), provides disaster relief to Keller Williams Realty agents. Since its inception, KW Cares, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, has raised more than $1 million to help the Keller Williams Realty community in times of need. KW Cares has provided assistance for past natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Charley.

“I’m proud of the support and caring that Keller Williams provides to the KW family, which includes KBT Realty agents and their families,” says Kirk Pugh, KBT Realty Group Broker Realtor. “Knowing that the company is behind its agents is a huge support emotionally, as well as financially. We will make it back from the blow that Florence dealt the area, and KW Cares helps speed that process along.”

Before Hurricane Florence hit the Cape Fear region, KW Cares volunteers polled nearly 200 Keller Williams associates from Hampstead to Ocean Isle to determine evacuation plans and anticipate storm assistance need. In the 48 hours before Hurricane Florence reached the Cape Fear North Carolina coast, more than $70,000 in pre-storm donations had been advanced to local Keller Williams agents to offset the cost of evacuation: money to cover food, lodging and travel to keep people out of harm’s way. The final donation amount is predicted to be in the hundreds of thousands.

“No KW agent should be forced to remain in the path of this storm based on financial need,” says Ladd Gasparovic, Operating Principal, KW Wilmington.