Congratulations to REALTOR® Elsa Borgen for receiving the TPCAR Community Service Award on April 1st, 2015! Elsa’s involvement in the community ranges far and wide, and we’re fortunate to have her at Windermere Professional Partners.
Elsa volunteers extensively in our community, and these are a few of the important and valued roles she maintains:
- Guild of Mary Bridge Brigade
Elsa is currently the treasurer for the Jean Cunningham Guild of Mary Bridge Brigade, a guild that puts on an annual auction called “Kids for Bids” that helps raise money for the hospital. She’s been a member of the guild since 2009, treasurer since 2010, and even served as President in 2012! The guild has raised over one million dollars for the hospital since 1992—a huge achievement and benefit for our community.
- Youth Sport Coach
Being active in her childrens’ sports teams is important to Elsa as well, and it’s another valuable role she plays in our community. Through University Place Parks & Rec, Elsa coaches basketball and a few other sports, mainly for her kids’ teams. She just wrapped up a basketball season where she was coaching both a 5th grade boys team and assisting on a 4th grade boys team. In mid-April, Elsa will begin coaching a boys’ baseball team! Coaching is her favorite activity, because kids are hilarious and she likes teaching them new skills:
“It’s incredibly fulfilling to watch them learn the sport throughout the season. I especially enjoy their ‘aha’ moments when everything that I’ve been trying to teach them makes sense,” Elsa shared.
- Spanish After School Program Coordinator & Kids’ Primary School Volunteer
Recently, Elsa brought a Spanish after school program to her kids’ primary school. It’s the first year that it’s been offered there, and she’s the parent coordinator. She also volunteers weekly at the school to read with kids.
In addition to these incredibly involved roles, Elsa sits on the TPCAR Diversity Committee, and served as committee chair last year. She is now the Diversity sub committee chair for Washington Realtors. Elsa also volunteers monthly at the St. Charles Food Bank where she takes calls from needy individuals and families, as well as well as distributes food. She sites on the Komen Lunch for the Cure Luncheon Committee, an organization that raises funds for cancer research. Elsa and her husband are also involved in and support the Seattle University Nicaragua Initiative through the Engineers Without Borders Chapter—Elsa was born in Nicaragua and lived there for the first five years of her life.
All of these activities are important to her, and they allow her to help others in several different capacities while working to help build and sustain a great community—a community where her children are growing up.
“If we want a good community, we have to work at it,” Elsa says. “Good communities don’t just happen. They are built by individuals who care about them and show up to make a difference. I want to my kids and kids in our community to grow up in a great place and have good positive memories of their childhood.”
