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Ask nearly anyone about Bruce Johnson, and the word they will use to describe him is “magnetic.” The Canada-based agent with RE/MAX By The Bay in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, has amassed a litany of fans inside and out of the real estate realm from all over the world, in part because of his charitable work raising money for the Children’s Miracle Network. Johnson has an affinity for motorcycles, a hobby he credits with introducing him to his wife, Mary. Long rides spanning several countries also helped him heal from the immense pain of losing his first-born daughter, Alyssa Rae, who died in 1998 at just 20 days old due to complications from a rare birth defect.
From 2013 to 2018, Johnson took three motorcycle rides—totaling 37,000 miles—with his daughter Holly to raise money for SickKids Hospital in Toronto and the Children’s Miracle Network. He also rallied his larger RE/MAX family by inviting agents to donate a part of each sale to the network. He called every agent who did so a “miracle agent.” The efforts within those five years raised $600,000 for Children’s Miracle Network and earned Johnson the 2019 Good Neighbor Award.
Before each journey, he rallied the support of his fellow REALTORS®, known as Champion Agents, which turned into a multinational network. On each leg of his three rides, the Champion Agents helped him find safe places to stay, suggested restaurants, and cheered him on. “There’s something about Bruce that unites people,” said Christopher Alexander, RE/MAX Canada president. “It’s hard to put your finger on. Bruce just has this gravity that people are drawn to, and I think that’s played a significant role in the way he is able to champion charitable giving.”
This past spring, Johnson was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and given months to live. “I was fine to leave,” Johnson said. “I’ve lived such a great life, and, of course, I hated the thought of leaving my wife and daughters, but I’ve done everything I wanted to do.”
Before his diagnosis, Johnson thought he had one more long-distance motorcycle ride in him, one that he’d hoped would help his fundraising surpass that $1 million mark. But it seemed fate had other plans—that is, until his fellow real estate colleagues caught wind of his wish.
“One of the most inspiring things about our network is that it didn’t take a lot to get support. When they heard it was for Bruce, they were in,” said Alexander, who helped spearhead a companywide campaign that amplified Johnson’s cause. “We wanted to get him to his $1 million goal by the end of the [RE/MAX Activate] conference” in mid-September.
Alexander noted that right after Labor Day, fundraising efforts had catapulted Johnson’s total to just $100,000 shy of the $1 million mark. But Johnson’s colleagues weren’t ready to call it quits.
One of those agents was Sara Kalke, a sales representative with RE/MAX Real Estate in Edmonton, Alberta. “Bruce came through Edmonton on one of his rides, and I got to meet him,” she said. “He was really inspiring. The next ride, he ended up staying with me because his motorcycle broke down and I got to know him better.”
They learned that they shared a common loss—that of a first daughter to medical complications. “I loved what he was doing from the very beginning.” When she learned of Johnson’s diagnosis and his wish, she didn’t hesitate to help.
Two weeks before the RE/MAX Activate conference, she planned to have 450 hats printed with “11:11” on them. The number, she knew, was special to Johnson. He posted it on social media every time he saw it—a special reminder of Alyssa each time.
“It was one of those 2 a.m. ideas, a little divine intervention or who knows what. So, we had a main hat printed to be sold for $111 and a special edition hat that cost $1,111.”
Kalke used the list of real estate professionals that Johnson had built throughout his motorcycle rides, added her contacts to it, and started a chat thread to let people in on the secret fundraiser. “Within that first week, we had $33,000 in preorders for the hats.”
At the Children’s Miracle Network mixer held during the conference, all real estate professionals who bought hats hid them in the promo bags from Staples so as not to tip Johnson off. Kalke said during the mixer, donations came in from the Canadian Real Estate Association, RE/MAX itself, and a few other larger establishments, and the total fundraising effort had come to $925,000. Kalke was determined. “We had a group of ladies in the lobby peddling hats. I added a QR code that linked right to the Alyssa Rae Johnson Foundation page. Bruce’s family found out about the hats, then his parents, and they each bought one. The donations kept coming in, all from the hats, and at some point, we realized we were going to do it.”
Halfway through the mixer, the Alyssa Rae Johnson Foundation fundraiser reached $1 million. Kalke says the moment it happened, the mixer paused while they put on some music and announced they'd reached the goal. Alexander, Kalke and a throng of RE/MAX agents put their hats on, as a confused Johnson and Mary were called up to the stage.
“It was the end of a very long day. Cancer wears you down,” Johnson recalls of the moment. “And the president called me on stage with him, and he asks me what I think of the hats. It was the most beautiful thing anyone has ever done.”
Alexander says the moment is solidified as one of the most special of his career. “To be there and celebrate this milestone, it’s one of the best RE/MAX moments in my career, and I’ve been around this brand since I was born. I go back to the gravity that Bruce has. Standing up there with him and seeing that sea of hats and feeling that pure adoration was very emotional.”
Johnson says there are many unknowns right now. Thanks to experimental treatments, his life has been extended despite the cancer. Is there a fourth ride down the line? He’s not completely ruling it out. If there isn’t, though, he knows Alyssa’s memory is preserved thanks in large part to his real estate family at RE/MAX, and because of the work he’s done as a Good Neighbor.
