Memphis, Tenn. - If you are on the mailing list to receive a holiday greeting card from one of Crye-Leike, Realtors' sales associates or employees in the Greater Memphis area, chances are it won't be your ordinary holiday greeting card.

Crye-Leike, Realtors, the largest real estate company in Tennessee and the Mid-South, is holding its 21st annual holiday fund-raiser for Youth Villages, called Campaign for Children, a program in which Crye-Leike sales associates and corporate staff purchase in bulk holiday greeting cards, designed by Youth Villages children, to send to their clients and friends.

All proceeds raised are designated to the Chris Crye Fund and are used to purchase holiday gifts for the children of Youth Villages and to support their mentoring program throughout the year. Since establishing this holiday card drive 21 years ago, Crye-Leike has raised in excess of $263,000 for Youth Villages.

"Most of the children and adolescents in Youth Villages' care have had to move from place to place and have very little to call their own," says Marler Stone, director of community relations for Youth Villages in Memphis. "For the children to receive gifts during the holiday season is such a positive way for them to start out the new year. We at Youth Villages are very grateful for this continual outpouring of support and generosity from Crye-Leike."

"The inside inscription on the greeting card reads: ?At this holiday season, a donation has been made in your honor to benefit Youth Villages, a private non-profit organization committed to helping children and families live successfully,' " says Sally Brown, Crye-Leike's West Tennessee campaign coordinator who has faithfully organized this effort for the past 10 years. "We anticipate to raise company wide around $25,000 this year as we have done in years past."

Youth Villages (www.youthvillages.org) offers help and hope to more than 2,500 troubled children and their families each year through a continuum of care that ensures treatment in the most effective, least restrictive environment. Services include: home-based counseling, therapeutic foster care and adoption services, residential treatment, community-based programs and transitional living services.

Today, more than 900 counselors, teachers and skilled support staff provide Youth Villages' services from offices in 15 cities throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and Texas.

"With Youth Villages now having a presence in Middle Tennessee, Crye-Leike of Nashville, Inc. will be continuing the company's holiday campaign for Youth Villages in Nashville," says CEO and co-founder Harold E. Crye,. The expanded effort will raise additional monies for over 1,000 Youth Villages' residents in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

The Youth Villages' Chris Crye Fund was established in 1998 in memory of real estate broker Chris Crye, son of Harold Crye, who experienced an untimely death as a result of a horseback riding accident in 1998. Chris was an active volunteer and supporter of Youth Villages.

Over 1,100 sales associates and 200 support staff at Crye-Leike's 17 branch and franchise offices in the Greater Memphis area will be participating in this fund-raising effort. Crye-Leike's Memphis Region includes branch offices in: Shelby, Fayette and Tipton counties in Tennessee; Lee and DeSoto counties in Mississippi and Craighead and Crittendon counties in Arkansas.

Crye-Leike (www.crye-leike.com), a full service real estate company for 25 years, is the nation's 13th largest real estate company and the largest serving Tennessee and the Mid-South. It has a network of over 2,300 sales associates and 63 branch and franchise offices located in 32 counties throughout a six-state southern region in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky and Florida. Crye-Leike attained sales of $2.95 billion and 20,768 closed transaction sides corporate wide in 2001.

For information on purchasing holiday greeting cards in bulk to benefit Youth Villages, contact Sally Brown at 901/756-8900 or sallybrown@crye-leike.com.