Owner/CEO Merage, of First Team® Real Estate, Giving Back

COSTA MESA, Calif., Jan. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Five medical research programs at local & national hospitals receive a total of $100,000 in donations from First Team Real Estate's "First in Our Hearts" charitable foundation and the company's owner and CEO, Cameron Merage. According to Merage, as First Team is expanding into new markets, he is determined that it will increase its support of the communities it serves proportionate to its own continuing growth and success.

"We resolved to direct the $100,000 charitable donation toward numerous medical causes, such as stem cell and cancer research, because we've concluded it is the way the money can do the most good and have the longest reach," he said.

First Team, which independent studies rank statistically as number one among Orange County's brokerage firms, outranking the second-spot brokerage by 2.5 times more in total sales, in 2010, is currently expanding its offices into more metro-market areas such as Beverly Hills, Marina del Rey, Pasadena, Westlake, and San Diego. It is also merging existing offices into larger, state-of-the-art new locations to strengthen market share and provide better service to its clients.

"It is only natural that as we expand our own business in response to a market whose current down cycle is creating many new voids to fill, we concurrently expand our charitable efforts to match that growth," said Merage, whose family is well known for its tradition of charitable giving. Over the years, his mother, Katherine, has helped raise millions of dollars, which have been contributed to many charitable causes, as have his siblings. Merage's brother, Paul is supporting many charitable organizations and is prominently known for his $35 million donations to the University of California, Irvine, School of Business; in appreciation, UCI renamed it the Paul Merage School of Business.

First Team Real Estate, both under the direction of Cameron Merage and at the invited suggestions of the 1,800 agents in the company who support dozens of charities with the company's agent-supported First in Our Hearts foundation, has raised and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to academic, humanitarian, and cultural causes as varied as Hoag Hospital and Habitat for Humanity and many others.

The practice of supporting the many worthy charitable endeavors in the communities we serve is an intrinsic value of the Merage family adopted by his company, First Team, and has been since it opened its doors in 1976, in the coastal communities of Orange County, CA. "We owe much of our success to the support of our clients in all the communities that First Team has grown into. Through our charitable gifts, we are able to express our gratitude for their support and at the same time, help improve quality of life for everyone in the communities we all share," Merage said.

Cameron Merage gives his thanks to everyone at First Team Real Estate, who really understands the meaning of community and how to support it through philanthropic donations.

To learn more about First Team Real Estate, please visit www.FirstTeam.com or call 888.236.1943.

SOURCE First Team Real Estate