* by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Judy Law is not the type of person to stand up and say “Look what I did.” But plenty of others notice and she was rewarded this year with a sweep of two of the most prestigious awards in real estate.
Law, an agent with of Prudential Network Realty’s office in Sawgrass Village, won the Humanitarian Awards given by both the state and local real estate organizations.
“I am humbled and blown away,” said Law.
Her manager, Amanda Dandy, secretly nominated her for the Northeast Florida Association of REALTORS® award for her charitable efforts in the community. After she won the local award, NEFAR submitted the application to the Florida Association of REALTORS® and she won there, too.
“Over the years, I have noticed that every year Judy does a great deal of charity work,” said Dandy. “She never seems to give one thing up; she just takes something extra on. She is always willing to help everyone. She has done so ever since we have known her and we thought she was the best possible nominee for this award. We were not surprised when she won, but we were very excited for her. Her praises are not sung out loud as much as they should be.”
“I knew nothing about it,” said Law. “Amanda tricked me into attending the NEFAR awards ceremony by saying Selby Kaiser was being honored and they were concerned that there wouldn’t be a respectable turnout. My husband said I should just go as a friend so she would be duly honored. They started reading the things the person had done to win the Humanitarian Award and they started sounding familiar.”
The award recognizes a member who has personally been involved in and dedicated much time and resources to the interests and welfare of our community.
Why get involved?
“I feel like I have been very blessed,” said Law. “I care about the people I work with and my fellow man and it is just part of me and what I feel I should do.”
Law is a member of the Meninak Club, a Jacksonville civic club, and became involved in its Charities Committee.
“We give one $30,000 grant a year to a charity,” said Law. “There are usually about 25 applicants and each of us get assigned two or three applicants to go interview, investigate and see if their request is worthy. The first year I did it, one of my applicants, the P.A.C.E. Center for Girls, won.”
The next year she worked with The Bridge, an inner-city organization in Springfield which helps more than 3,000 at-risk children, but they did not win the grant.
“The success of that organization is incredible,” said Law. “They didn’t win, but they won my heart so I got more involved with that and am now on the board.”
Law organized a fundraiser for The Bridge and raised money for scholarships for the children.
Last year, she was assigned Angelwood, a foundation to assist physically and mentally challenged youth in Jacksonville.
“It is for special needs children who live in a home setting, but with professionals monitoring them 24 hours a day,” she said.
They needed major remodeling on their home and needed help finding another place.
“They didn’t win the grant, either, so I helped them search for a home and I just gave them the commission back towards the project,” said Law.
Another project she was involved in was the Youth Sanctuary. When she visited them, she saw that the home was very clean, but seemed a little sterile and more like an institution.
Law bought each child a bulletin board to place over their bed to display schoolwork or other things they cared about so it would feel more like home to them. She also supplied them with fresh pillows.
“That was a little thing, but it was something that could be done,” she said.
Law decided to get into real estate in 1989 after learning about the business by helping her husband, George Law, a local builder with Winnstead Homes.
“That training has been very beneficial for me,” she said. “I used to help him a lot and that’s why I got my builders license so I could help estimate for him and things like that.”
She was the real estate agent for Delores and Wayne Weaver, majority owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars, for their relocation when Jacksonville was awarded the NFL Jaguar franchise here.
That relationship with Delores lead her to become involved in HabiJax and in the creation of the Delores Weaver HabiJax Golf Tournament, another event she is involved in each year.
“One thing that I am proud of, if I am proud of anything, is the fact that having the good fortune of having them as my clients turned into my being able to ask her to lend her name to this event and she did much more than that,” said Law. “My husband continued on as managing director of the tournament each year and each year it just gets bigger and bigger. Each year we build more and more homes from the proceeds.”
Juggling a professional career, a family and philanthropic work can be taxing, but Law seems to work it all in.
“It’s not like you are trying to do each thing every day,” she said. “You will have intense weeks with clients and then when we are having the golf tournament, we will have an intense week with HabiJax. There may be meetings every week for months, but the intensity is controlled.
“I have meetings at the Bridge several times a month. You just have to juggle what’s what with what day. You just have to put time blocks in on your annual calendar, not your weekly calendar. My husband has been really helpful. If I’m exhausted, he cooks. If I’m not exhausted, I cook.”
Law doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon, either.
For The Bridge, a business donated an Alltel Stadium suite for a Jaguar game. It holds 25 and comes with tickets and parking passes that they will raffle off. they hope to raise $15,000 for scholarships.
“Each board member is supposed to sell $500 worth of raffle tickets,” said Law. “I’m buying mine and giving them to my clients.”