Joel Pratt wins Good Neighbor Award trifecta

Realtors are integral to successful communities, supporting causes large and small and volunteering their time to help improve the lives of those who call those communities home. This year, the National Association of Realtors recognized five of these very deserving individuals, including Joel Pratt of JL Pratt Realtors in Canton, as winners of Realtor Magazine’s 2013 Good Neighbor Award.

Joel Pratt on the cover of the Nov/Dec issue of Realtor Magazine

Pratt stood out from all of the Good Neighbor Award winners from the past 14 years as he was recognized an unprecedented three times in the same year by the National Association of Realtors, Massachusetts Association of Realtors, and the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. He is the first person in real estate history to achieve this honor.

The realtors acknowledged by the Good Neighbor program over the years donate their time, money and passion to create a positive impact on others and address critical needs in their community. Pratt has recruited his fellow realtors to do the same for MatchingDonors.com through MatchingDonors’ RealEstate4Kidneys.com program.

Through this program, Pratt invites any realtor to join him to get properties donated to MatchingDonors.com, a Canton-based nonprofit organization that matches patients who need a kidney transplant with altruistic living organ donors. While saving lives of people needing organ transplants, the realtors also earn a 15 percent commission on any property donated to MatchingDonors.

Along with the award, Pratt received a very generous $10,000 grant from Liberty Mutual Insurance. Pratt is asking all realtors across the country to help him find people in their communities who need organ transplants, and he will use the grant funds to provide them with free memberships to MatchingDonors.com.

Pratt has dedicated his lifesaving efforts to the memory of his wife of 25 years, Lynda, who passed away in 1998 after a three-year battle with breast cancer.

Pratt was heartbroken, but he was determined not to sit idly by while others suffered the way Lynda had. He decided to join an effort to help ill people who could be saved. That’s why, for the past nine years, he has dedicated himself to raising money for MatchingDonors.com. “There are always more patients waiting for deceased donors than there are available organs,” he said, “but living donors can literally save lives by adding to the supply now.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the wait time for a kidney transplant can easily be seven to 10 years — and sometimes even longer, depending on factors such as blood type, age, and geographic location. However, because MatchingDonors.com matches patients with living donors, the wait time can be much shorter. Through the site, many patients have found a donor within only six months.

Pratt’s work helps people find organ donors faster, resulting in a better quality of life and even saving the lives of people who wouldn’t have found an organ in time. One of the people Pratt helped save is Stephen Meservey. Meservey went into kidney failure because of diabetes and was on dialysis when a friend of his received Pratt’s card in 2012. “I couldn’t climb a flight of stairs without getting wiped out,” said Meservey.

Before finding MatchingDonors.com, Meservey had been told it would be three to four years before he would receive a kidney transplant. MatchingDonors found him a living donor within a year. Since then, life for Meservey has largely returned to normal. He has energy for his four children, he has returned to work, and is able to do much-needed renovations on his home.

Pratt doesn’t just pass out cards. As a volunteer, he instructs patients like Meservey on how to search for donors in MatchingDonors’ database. Once a prospective donor is found, the organization helps with the patient’s hospital to get the donor tested to see whether they are a good match.

Since 2004, Pratt has used his sales skills to raise more than $1 million in real estate, cars and products for the organization. He finds donations and buyers using old-fashioned marketing: He hits the pavement, and of course, he passes out MatchingDonors.com cards everywhere he goes.

“Everyone knows someone who knows someone who needs an organ,” Pratt said. “You can find compassion anywhere.”

The organization has saved over 300 lives since its inception, and MatchingDonors.com CEO Paul Dooley attributes hundreds of those success stories to Pratt’s efforts. “He doesn’t let you give up,” Dooley said. “He’s the kind of person who, if you run out of energy, it’s like, ‘Here, take my energy.’”

Pratt finds comfort knowing he’s doing the kind of work his late wife would have wanted him to do. “You wake up in the morning, and you know who you’re working for,” he said. “Helping people rebuilds my heart and soul.”

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Dec 26 2013. Filed under Business. Both comments and pings are currently closed.