The Shah’s motto is “taking care of you is my business”
As the novel coronavirus brought many businesses to a halt in the past few weeks, Long & Foster Real Estate agents Nikunj “Nikki” Shah and his wife Tulsi Shah of the Cherry Hill/Haddonfield office got busy.
As the Shah’s watched the news reports of the virus getting worse and the supply of personal protective equipment getting scarce, they knew they had to act. For the Shah’s, it was also a personal matter. They knew many people, including Nikki Shah’s sister, a physician’s assistant at a local health care facility, who were working with little to no personal protective equipment.
“One mask can save lives,” said Nikki Shah. “We have friends, clients and family who are in the medical field or on the front lines – either in the food service business or first responders – who are dedicated to their jobs, but were frightened while at work because they were not protected, and knew their lives and their family’s lives were at risk also.”
That’s why the Shah’s started the “Fight Against COVID-19 Mask Donation” campaign. With the help of their clients, friends and family, they began raising funds to purchase masks, with their initial goal to raise enough money to purchase 10,000 masks.
The Shah’s circle of friends and family began to spread the word through social media and soon hundreds joined the movement and volunteered to help in various ways. For example, their clients who are professionals in the information technology field, created a special Facebook page with a link for cash donations as well as a link for organizations in need to request masks.
With the help of a friend who has a wholesale business, the Shah’s were able to purchase masks at the lowest possible cost. As the requests for masks flew in, Tulsi Shah and Nikki Shah’s mother repacked and labeled them in bags with the name of the recipient organization. Then, each evening, medical workers, first responders, restaurant owners, managers and others drove to the Shah’s home at their designated appointment time to pick up their allotment of masks.
“In 14 days, we raised nearly $92,000 from 161 Donors and delivered over 100,000 masks to over 203 organizations of first responders,” said Nikki Shah. “We even had mask requests from other states, including Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, which we happily filled and were able to ship at cost, thanks to a friend who owns a mail house store in Cherry Hill and shipped through UPS.”
The Shah’s mask donation campaign has ended, and they are back at work helping buyers and sellers with their homebuying and selling needs while adhering to social distancing guidelines.
The Shah’s are a part of the Nikki Shah Real Estate Group of NJ & PA. They can be reached at Nikunj.Shah@Longandfoster.com or Tulsi.Shah@Longandfoster.com.
Long & Foster Real Estate is the nation’s No. 1 real estate company as part of HomeServices of America. For more information, visit LongandFoster.com.