Each month, Helping Hands features a mortgage professional or group that has volunteered to lend a hand to others in need

Ivanna C. Sukkar

As published in Scotsman Guide's Commercial Edition, March 2007.

Name Davi Tserpelis, business-development officer, and other employees, CapitalSource Finance's New York office

Project Volunteering with Urban Pathways

Site New York

How This past December, 13 employees from CapitalSource's New York office painted apartments and a common area at the Ivan Shapiro House in New York.

The facility -- which is run by Urban Pathways, a nonprofit human-services agency that works on homeless issues -- houses 55 formerly homeless adults with mental illnesses.

CapitalSource also matched volunteers' donations, which went toward purchasing painting supplies, Tserpelis says.

Why Tserpelis says that the company learned about Urban Pathways from ServiceCorps, its community-service partner.

As the project organizer, Tserpelis says she felt this particular project would be a good team-building exercise. She adds that because many of the New York office's employees service the real estate community, they could enjoy and relate to a project in which they improved real estate.

Impact Tserpelis says some CapitalSource volunteers interacted with Ivan Shapiro House residents.

"[The residents] were thankful for our contribution," she says, "and [they] appreciated the improvement to their living conditions."

Tserpelis says this is "the first of many contributions" CapitalSource's New York office plans to make to the community. Nationwide, the company is committed to community service, she says.

"As a [real estate investment trust] with a strong commitment to the real estate space, we will target those in need of real estate improvements, as well as those with housing needs within our communities," Tserpelis says.

The company's employees plan to volunteer with another nonprofit organization at a local public school this spring, either painting or landscaping, she says.

Try it www.servicecorps.org; www.urbanpathways.org

Ivanna C. Sukkar is an associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach her at (800) 297-6061 or ivanna@scotsmanguide.com.

To share your company's story, e-mail articles@scotsmanguide.com.