Realtors at the annual Massachusetts Association of Realtors Convention and Trade Expo watch as a witness on television describes the attack on the World Trade Center last Tuesday.

To say that the 2001 Massachusetts Association of Realtors Convention and Trade Expo will always be remembered by the 600 participants would be a tremendous understatement.

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, the second day of the three-day conference that took place at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, Realtors and the rest of the country were shaken to the core when commercial flights were hijacked and crashed into America’s government and financial capitals.

The attacks, however, did not shatter the resolve of many of the Realtors who had gathered to complete continuing education courses and hear the words of experts in their field. The conference itself was not canceled, even though the annual Realtor of the Year awards banquet, the MAR Board of Directors legislative meeting, the general session and two courses were postponed.

The postponement of the directors meeting also means a delay of the formal elections for MAR’s board.

MAR President David M. Walsh and other leaders of the trade group formally met around noon last Tuesday, a few hours after the attacks, to decide whether to continue the conference.

Classes continued minutes after news of the attacks broke, but dozens of Realtors huddled around televisions in front of a resort restaurant, in the hotel’s business center and in front of the exhibitor hall, instead of attending courses.

Many said they could not possibly concentrate with all the devastating news that was quickly circulating throughout the casino and resort. At one point, after hearing televised pleas for blood donations, there was talk among the event’s coordinators and other participants about possibly organizing a blood drive.

According to MAR Communications Director John Dulczewski, more than 100 Realtors volunteered to donate blood and buses were arranged to travel to a Connecticut medical facility Wednesday, but the drive was canceled.

“In Connecticut, Red Cross was so overwhelmed with people wanting to donate blood that they did not proceed with that today from our group,” Dulczewski said last Wednesday. MAR members were advised to go to Massachusetts Red Cross facilities when they returned.

Dulczewski said MAR is donating all of the $9,700 raised during the convention’s silent auction for disaster assistance and relief. Money raised at the auction was intended for MAR’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, set up nine years ago. The foundation voted last week to make a $20,000 donation – which includes the $9,700 from the auction – to the housing relief fund set up by the National Association of Realtors. The fund will help pay the mortgage and rental costs of families devastated by the tragic events.

MAR also was planning to contact local associations and members last week to help facilitate any contributions that they want to make.

While a good portion of convention participants remained, at least two of the almost 50 convention exhibitors – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Multiple Listing Service-Property Identification Network – packed up their exhibits and left early. The Wells Fargo exhibitor said the corporate office ordered him to leave.

A little after noon, just as lunch was being served last Tuesday, Walsh stood in front of the exhibitor hall before hundreds of Realtors who had not yet departed and asked them whether the conference should be canceled.

“We know there are varying opinions about what to do,” Walsh told the convention participants.

“I, for one, don’t want to allow them to intimidate me,” Walsh said, referring to the terrorists responsible for the attacks.

“We want to get your sense of whether we should continue,” he said.

Many people raised their hands when asked if the conference should continue and many more shouted yes. There were several who said no and who also raised their hands to discontinue the conference.

After it was agreed that the conference would continue, Walsh asked for a moment of silence, and as he bowed his head, was overcome with emotion. Even as Walsh acknowledged there were mixed opinions about whether to continue the conference, the leader appeared determined to go on saying, “We must stand up to this.”

John Fridlington, MAR’s executive vice president, said the Foxwoods resort would bill Realtors who opted to depart Tuesday only for the nights already spent at the hotel. The resort was also waiving future catering fees for MAR.

Fridlington said MAR’s executive and financial committees had not decided yet how they would refund participants who decided to cut their trip short.

When asked about some of the issues MAR leaders had to consider, Fridlington quickly answered, “Our primary concern was for the security and safety of the Realtors here.”

Fridlington said MAR leaders had to consider traffic on the highways, as many commuters crowded major routes when government offices and schools shut down by early afternoon.

Dulczewski could not provide information about how much the annual convention costs or how much money the group would have lost if the event was canceled.

This year’s conference drew 200 more participants than the 2000 conference that took place in Massachusetts, according to Dulczewski. Every few years, the conference can take place outside of the state’s boundaries but must be held within a three-hour drive of the Massachusetts, according to the group’s bylaws.

Elections on Hold
Monday’s opening day was a big success, according to Dulczewski, who added that the exhibitor hall stayed open well beyond the scheduled 9 p.m. closing time. Dulczewski said the Realtor of the Year awards banquet will be rescheduled within two to four weeks and would likely take place in Boston.

Dulczewski said the postponed directors meeting might also take place at the same time as the banquet. Elections of next year’s officers occur during the directors’ meeting.

MAR President-elect David Drinkwater of Coastal Countryside Properties in Cohasset will take over in 2002. There are two Realtors vying for the president-elect position for next year – Carolyn Chodat, a MAR focus area vice president from Classic Properties Realtors in Medway, and Peter Casey, MAR’s current secretary/treasurer and a Realtor with Prudential Wilmot Whitney Real Estate in Weston.

Also canceled was “At Home with Diversity: One America,” a two-day, six-hour continuing education program that teaches Realtors how to work with minority and immigrant homebuyers.

Dulczewski said the teacher of the At Home with Diversity course, Barbara Fairfield, was not able to attend because of the crisis. Dulczewski also said that Catherine Whatley, first vice president for the National Association of Realtors who was supposed to attend Wednesday’s general session, could not make it because flights were grounded in Washington, D.C., and throughout the country. The session was canceled.

More than 300 Realtors out of approximately 620 convention registrants had tickets to attend Tuesday night’s “Poodle Skirts & Bee Gees Theme Party,” said Dulczewski. He said the party would go on but the ballroom would not be decorated for the event.

Several Realtors expressed mixed opinions about whether the conference should continue.

“In a situation like this I like to be with my family,” said Henry J. DiGiacomo, chief executive officer of the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors.

DiGiacomo said at least five members of the Cape Cod board were planning to leave the conference early. After contacting relatives by cell phone to make sure they were fine, DiGiacomo decided to stay at the conference

Like DiGiacomo, many Realtors tried desperately to reach family members with their cell phones. However, many phones did not work.

Joyce Rozzi and Marion Gerardi of Prudential Broadway in Methuen stood, along with dozens of other Bay State Realtors, watching television reports of the attacks and debating whether they should go home.

“This is crazy,” said Rozzi, a tear streaming down her face.

After a while, Rozzi and Gerardi decided to depart.

“I don’t care about the $100 I paid for the class,” said Gerardi.

Vivi Mannuzza, a Realtor associate with Roberts & Associates Realty in Lenox, said she thought the conference should have been canceled out of respect for the thousands who were injured and killed during the attacks.

Mannuzza, who was searching for her colleagues to decide whether to stay or leave, said discontinuing the convention would be the right decision “morally, ethically and practically.”

Many Realtors said the country has not experienced a moment of such vulnerability since the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Even some of the people who were nominated for the 2001 Realtor of the Year award were hesitant about whether to remain at the conference.

Mary Ann Quinn, a Realtor of the Year candidate from the Eastern Middlesex Association of Realtors, said she was considering turning back as she drove to the Foxwoods Resort and Casino with a colleague Tuesday.

“I want to be with my kids,” said Quinn, of Re/Max Top Achievers in Reading.

Althea Bramhall, a Realtor of the Year candidate from the Northern Worcester County Board of Realtors, talked with a colleague about how the somber mood was reminiscent of how Americans reacted upon learning that President John F. Kennedy was killed.

“This is more than touching everyone,” Bramhall said.