ALAMOSA – Realtor® Chet Choman with Colorado Realty and Land Co., in Alamosa has been announced as one of five winners chosen by the National Association of Realtors® for the Good Neighbor Award.

Choman was selected for co-founding the nonprofit La Puente Home Inc., which was one of the first rural homeless shelters in the country. Today, La Puente Home is a 45-bed shelter that also operates many outreach services, including after-school programs and 15 food pantries, serving about 16,000 people annually. That’s one out of every three people in a six-county area larger than the state of Massachusetts.

“This year’s Good Neighbor Award winners have touched our hearts,” says National Association of Realtors® President Elizabeth Mendenhall, CEO of RE/MAX Boone Realty in Columbia, Missouri. “They have stepped forward to transform lives and make a positive impact on our world one community at a time. I am proud to honor Chet for easing the struggles of homelessness and hunger for so many people in Colorado.”

Choman, co-founder of La Puente Home Inc. and a member of the organization’s board of directors for nearly 40 years, understands homelessness firsthand. He was born inside a displaced persons camp in Germany following the end of World War II. His parents had spent five years in a concentration camp and another five in the displaced persons camp before immigrating to the U.S. in 1951.

“When you have that background, you have a sensitivity toward homeless people,” Choman says.

To read Choman’s full story and watch his video, go to realtorm.ag/Choman. Choman, along with four other Good Neighbor Award winners across the country, will receive a $10,000 grant for their charity and will be featured in the November-December issue of REALTOR® Magazine. The recipients will also be presented with crystal trophies on Saturday, November 3, during the 2018 REALTORS® Conference & Expo in Boston.

NAR’s Good Neighbor Awards is supported by primary sponsor realtor.com® and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Nominees were judged on their personal contribution of time as well as financial and material contributions to benefit their cause. To be eligible, nominees must be NAR members in good standing.

“The Realtors® recognized as Good Neighbors are outstanding examples of the commitment to community that’s so important in the real estate industry,” said realtor.com® CEO Ryan O’Hara. “Home is everything to us at realtor.com®, and that’s a value we share with each and every one of NAR’s members. Realtor.com® is proud to sponsor the Good Neighbor Awards program, and we look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with the industry as we work together to make meaningful connections between consumers and Realtors®.”

The Good Neighbor Awards have been granted annually since 2000.  More than $1.1 million in grants have been awarded to the winners’ charities. Nominees were judged on their personal contribution of time as well as financial and material contributions to benefit their cause. More information about the Good Neighbor Awards winners is available at www.realtor.org/gna.