Going above and beyond wins two Long Realty sales professionals major company honors to acknowledge their community service and professional achievement. The awards were announcedat the company’s annual meeting, held Jan. 26 as a Zoom call.

The Samuel H. Woods Community Service Award for 2022 went to Jennifer Anderson, an associate broker with Long’s Houghton/Southeast/Vail office. Winning the Barrington L. Long Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 was Sue Brooks, a sales agent with the company’s Foothills office.

The Samuel H. Woods Community Service Award: Jennifer Anderson

The award recognizes a sales associate or employee who best exemplifies a commitment to community involvement and “service above self” while inspiring others to do the same. It is named for Samuel H. Woods, a Long Realty member noted for his dedication to helping others.

Anderson’s efforts have touched practically the entire community of Vail. Her résumé includes sitting on the boards of a number of local organizations, from the Greater Vail Community Resources program (assisting people facing food insecurity) to the Desert Crown Theater Company. Her service extends to new-school planning and site-council membership, as well as leading the women’s ministry for her church. She’s also on the board of the Cienega High School choir boosters.

A native Tucsonan, Anderson earned her real estate sales license in 2004 and stepped up to a broker’s license in 2018. The head of the Jen Anderson Team, she’s a 2022 member of Long Realty’s 1926 Circle of Excellence, Platinum level, as well as a vice-president member of the company’s Executive Council.

The award includes a donation to the Samuel H. Woods Memorial Scholarship Fund in the name of the recipient. Administered by the University of Arizona Foundation, the fund supports a scholarship for a student studying regional land development at the university’s School of Geography and Development.

The Barrington L. Long Lifetime Achievement Award: Sue Brooks

Named after Barrington L. Long, president and owner of Long Realty from 1952 to 1980 and son of company founder Roy H. Long, the award is presented to a Long Realty associate whose life and character have made a significant and lasting impact on the field of real estate, earned the respect and admiration of professional peers and repeatedly inspired others to excel.

Renowned for the help she gives other agents—rookies and seasoned professionals alike—Brooks founded and actively monitors Tucson REALTOR® Resource, a Facebook group exclusively for licensed Tucson REALTORS®. According to the group’s intro page, its purpose is to “discuss buyer needs, share vendor information and ‘for the good of the profession’ information.”

 It’s “a place for active real estate agents to network and promote best practices creating a strong Realtor community,” Brooks said. Group membership has grown to 2,700 agents.

Brooks earned her real estate salesperson’s license in 2008 after a career in sports marketing and management (think PGA, LPGA, Formula 1 . . .) and fundraising for nonprofits.  Sue is a 2022 member of Long Realty’s 1926 Circle of Excellence, Gold level, and a vice-president member of the company’s Executive Council.

“What a joy it is to see Jen and Sue win these honors,” said Laura Mance, president of Long Realty. “It’s hard to say who should get which award. They both give back to their community and profession wholeheartedly, they’re both dynamic leaders, and they both deserve the best because they are the best.”

Renowned for her donation of two police dogs to the Oro Valley Police Dept., Long Realty’s Lisa Bayless shifts her philanthropy from the biological to the electromechanical with her latest gift: a $25,000-plus grant to Pima County schools to fund a pilot elementary-school robotics program.  

Bayless’ donation brings the STEMAZing/SARSEF Elementary Edison Robotics Pilot to fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in three area school districts. The pilot program will supply more than 500 Edison educational robots, classroom sets of robotics books and supporting supplies, plus two full days of professional-development training for the participating teachers.

The orange, two-wheeled, sandwich-sized, child-friendly programmable robots are designed to introduce the principles of robotics, computer programming and engineering. And it doesn’t stop there: Lessons will cross subject-area boundaries into language arts, social studies, math and everything in between.

Participating teachers will receive a robot for each student—around 30 per class—plus one more for the teacher.

Four of the six schools are in the Amphitheater Public Schools district: Copper Creek, Donaldson and Harelson Elementary, plus Innovation Academy. Dove Mountain CSTEM K-8 is in Marana Unified; Oyama Elementary is in Tucson Unified. Twenty teachers will take part in the pilot project.

Established in 2013, the STEMAZing Project is an initiative of the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office developed to improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in Southern Arizona. SARSEF is perhaps best known as the organization hosting the local science fair.

“Robots are a fun way to learn, but there’s a serious purpose behind this program,” Bayless said. “It helps students and teachers from Pima County’s suburban and inner-city schools share ideas and solve problems together, both in person and by Zoom. It brings together diverse groups of people so they can collaborate and learn from one another. It builds community.”

A native Tucsonan, Oro Valley resident and head of the Lisa Bayless Team from Long Realty’s Oro Valley office, Bayless has been a sales professional since 2007. Focusing on residential properties across greater northwest Tucson, she ranks in the top one percent of all Tucson-area agents and was 2020’s top seller, by dollar volume, of all Long Realty agents. She is active with numerous nonprofits and is a past president of the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson.

The funding is part of Bayless’ “Community First” program, which returns to community causes at least $500 from each commission she earns. The program is on track to donate some $80,000 in 2021, Bayless said.

Understanding that “community” means much more than just houses, Long Companies is once again gearing up to host food-collection boxes inside its company-owned real estate offices across greater Tucson, including those in Green Valley, Sahuarita and Sierra Vista. Donations will help stock the larder of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

A complete list of Long Realty offices is online at LongRealty.com. Those offices not identified as “independently owned & operated” are participating in the drive. Donation boxes will be available 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

In addition to hosting drop-off sites throughout the region, Long Companies is sponsoring all 6,000 of the “Feed the Need” boxes, to be placed at numerous public sites within the food bank’s service area. When a given box is full it will be replaced with a fresh empty one, until the supply of boxes is exhausted.

The food drive is set to run the month of August. Especially in demand are nonperishable foods labeled as low sugar, low or no sodium, or whole grain. Pre-opened items, those packaged in glass containers, and baby food—other than cereals—cannot be accepted. Most-needed items include peanut butter; canned soup, fruit, tomato products, vegetables and meats (such as tuna and chicken); oatmeal, cereal and granola bars; condiments; cereal; packaged nuts and seeds; and rice and pasta. Monetary donations are welcome too.

“We’re so happy to be part of this important effort. Nobody in our community should go hungry, and we all need to do our part to support those who are confronting food insecurity. Please donate what you can, generously and often.”

Reneé Gonzales, Long Companies CEO