Elias Thomas of Shapleigh was named one of five Good Neighbors in the country by the National Association of Realtors for his work in India, building dams to extend the growing season, as shown here, and immunizing children against polio. COURTESY PHOTO
SHAPLEIGH — It is likely that most in the Shapleigh area know that Elias Thomas is a good neighbor, but now the wider community does too.
Thomas has been named a Good Neighbor by the National Association of Realtors and he’s one of five throughout the country so named.
As the owner of Exit Key Realty in Shapleigh, Thomas was selected as one of 10 finalists in October for his work immunizing children against polio and building catchment dams in India.
He learned he was among the five honored with the Good Neighbor Award during the National Realtors Conference & Expo in Boston earlier this month.
The award honors realtors who have made a positive impact on their communities through extraordinary volunteer service, said a statement from the organization.
The $10,000 award Thomas received for the India dam project will be parlayed into more than three times that amount, through Rotary. The $35,000 that results will go a long way to build a new dam, and Thomas said he’s well on his way to bridging the the $10,000 to $15,000 gap through pledges from other Rotary Clubs and individuals.
The $10,000 initial award will have an “enormous” impact, said Thomas, who expects to head back to India in February.
Thomas has led more than 350 Rotarian on volunteer trips to India to immunize children against polio and build a system of catchment dams to provide villagers with access to clean water.
His first immunization trip to India was in January 2001, when he was governor of Rotary District 7780.
Efforts to help people in India broadened in 2004, he said.
“In the past nine years, we have helped to construct nine water catchment dams in various arid regions of the Punjab and Rajasthan, all done by hand, and have helped to bring the possibility of gravity-fed irrigation to these regions and thereby to increase the number of crops from one to three annually,” he said.
Nominees for the Good Neighbor honor were judged on their personal contribution of time as well as financial and material contributions to benefit their cause.
In all, since its inception, Thomas has raised $350,000 for the dam project.
The four other Good Neighbor Award winners, as described by the National Association of Realtors are:
• Omayra Borges of Reality Realty in San Juan, Puerto Rico, who delivered water and medicine and repaired homes across the island, raising $1.1 million and helping 45,000 people following hurricane Maria;
• Chet Choman, of Colorado Realty and Land Co., Almosa, Colorado, who co-founded one of the first rural homeless shelters in the country. LaPuente Home is a 45-bed shelter that also operates after school programs and 15 food pantries, serving about 16,000 people annually.
• Jeremy Lichenstein of RE/MAX Realty Services in Bethesda, Maryland, founded Kids in Need Distributors, which grew from providing weekend food for 37 students at one public school to serving 2,100 children across 25 area schools;
• Joy C. Nelson of Haugan Nelson Realty, Watertown, South Dakota, who founded Joy Ranch , a barrier-free, ADA-accessible ranch is a place where people of any ability can go horseback riding and enjoy other outdoor activities without being limited by medical concerns.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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