The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and its Good Neighbor Society announced five winners of the 2019 Volunteering Works award Thursday, including REALTOR® Candice Payne of 5th Group Realty and Management in Chicago.

Payne is a managing broker at 5th Group Realty and Management. She will receive a $1,000 seed grant and a year of one-on-one mentoring from a past recipient of NAR’s Good Neighbor Awards, Mony Nop of Compass in the San Francisco Bay area.

Last winter Payne rented hotel rooms that housed 122 homeless individuals during Chicago’s Polar Vortex. Her act of kindness drew national publicity to the situation and helped her nonprofit, Action for a Cause, secure donations that will help it convert shipping containers into homes on donated land.

Her mentor received a 2017 Good Neighbor Award and became part of the Good Neighbor Society.  Nop founded the Mony Nop Foundation and is co-founder of the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance. Nop will provide guidance on how to build an effective board of directors.

Other winners of the 2019 Volunteering Works awards include: Hanna Ensor of RE/MAX Premier Properties in Louisville, KY; Michael Hunstad of Counselor Realty in Anoka, MN; Stephanie Mitchum of Coldwell Banker Wallace & Wallace in Knoxville, TN; and Alicia Stukes of iGoldenone Realty and Concierge LLC in Upper Marlboro, MD. Find out more about all the winners and their mentors.