Long & Foster Real Estate is proud to announce Mike Allison, an associate broker with the company’s Easton, Maryland, office, has received the Golden Hammer Award from Habitat for Humanity Choptank.

The Golden Hammer Award honors a special volunteer who has served Habitat Choptank during the past year, shows leadership within organization, attends events, has a generous spirit and who is dedicated to Habitat Choptank’s mission.

“Mike is a long-standing and very faithful member of our crew,” said Emily Lynn, Habitat Choptank spokesperson. “Whenever he is asked to help, his natural response is always, ‘Sure!’”

Lynn said experienced volunteers, like Allison, are critically important to the organization because they help facilitate a safe and productive day for the group volunteers who come in from area churches, civic groups and companies.

Allison began volunteering for Habitat Choptank in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, where he helped build walls for homes destroyed in the storm.

“We worked all day in the Lowe’s parking lot, building walls and loading them into tractor trailers,” Allison said. “It felt good to know we were really helping.”

Allison said after that first experience he was hooked. He said he believes his honest approach and his passion for helping people are what drive his success in the real estate industry and also what keeps him volunteering at Habitat Choptank.

“I believe in the Habitat mission because it’s a hand-up, not a hand-out, and those it helps work hard for their homes,” Allison said.

Allison has been in real estate for 14 years and has been an agent with Long & Foster Real Estate’s Easton location at 17 N Harrison Street since May 2013. Long & Foster Real Estate is the No. 1 privately owned residential real estate company in the United States and the leading provider of homeownership services in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. For more information, visit LongandFoster.com.