David & Sheila Ahrens
Ashe County

David and Sheila's service with Ashe Outreach Ministries and the Riverview Community Center has had a profound impact on the community of Creston. During the Hurricane Helene recovery period, the couple were part of a five-person community emergency response team that met twice daily for months to coordinate relief efforts, which included quickly activating the local food pantry and mobile food truck and a distribution center. Through Ashe Outreach Ministries, they annually oversee the distribution of 120,000 pounds of food for the mobile meals program, 3,700 backpacks of weekend food for Blue Ridge Elementary School students, and 3,000 grocery carts of food dispersed to food pantry visitors.

Jennie Knowlton
Chatham County

Jennie co-founded Pittsboro's Quiltmaker Café in 2021, with a mission to provide community and healthy meals to all, regardless of ability to pay. Since its incorporation, Jennie has been the leading force behind The Quiltmaker Café, recently elevating it from pop-up mobile events to securing a lease on a brick-and-mortar building. Jennie has contributed 8,400 volunteer hours to the Café and secured $30,000 in grant funds. She also serves as a weekly community lunch volunteer at a local church.

Harvey Knowles
Duplin County

Harvey has dedicated countless hours to serving the Wallace community through consistent, hands-on volunteerism that touches people of all ages and backgrounds. He made a significant contribution to public safety by raising enough funds within the town to equip first responder vehicles with life-saving AEDs. Through his involvement with Woodmen of the World and the Masons, Harvey has helped coordinate donations and funding for numerous community projects, including a disaster response trailer, $3,000 for Hurricane Helene relief in Western NC, a playground fence for Wallace Elementary School, and $7,000 for Chromebooks for local schools.

Sharon Pitz
Durham County

Sharon was working as a dietitian at Duke in 1992 when she noticed an important need: cancer patients who were hospitalized often felt isolated and depressed, which made their treatment and recovery even more challenging. Recognizing that emotional support is as vital as medical care, she partnered with a recreational therapist and began volunteering after work, bringing her dogs, Mason and George, to visit oncology inpatients. What began as a small, heartfelt effort became the pilot for Duke’s formal pet therapy program— officially named Pets at Duke in 1994. For more than 30 years, and even after her retirement from Duke, Sharon has continued to bring multiple generations of her dogs to the hospital for 2-4 sessions each month, spending 2+ hours at a time visiting patients and their families. She has also recruited and mentored new therapy dog teams and guided handlers through training.

Sid Subramanian
Forsyth County

Sid has served as a Public Health AmeriCorps member for two years and volunteered with The Shalom Project Medical Clinic for three years prior. Sid provides interpreting services to clients and takes on any task to help improve services provided by the clinic. Sid has shown an investment in patient care that helps to meet critical needs within the community.

Beverly Kegley
Franklin County

Beverly focuses on providing access to food and shelter for those in need. She has invested significant time finding housing for homeless veterans, leading efforts to establish cooling stations for homeless individuals, and organizing volunteer support during severe winter weather. Beverly has also helped with the opening and operations of eight food pantries in the area and volunteers at a medical clinic for the uninsured.

Butner Community Association
Granville County

Butner Community Association is a volunteer-led organization that has had a transformative impact on the town of Butner. The volunteers plan community events such as the Summer Festival, Christmas in the Park, Beautify Butner, Community Campfire, and an Easter egg hunt, and they have secured grants for new park benches. Butner Community Association also runs a mobile food truck to give community members access to healthy food.

Samantha Gay
Greene County

Samantha is the founder of Fishers of Kids Anglers Academy, an organization that provides free fishing education, outdoor experiences, and life-skills mentoring to at-risk and underserved youth across Eastern North Carolina. The programming emphasizes not only angling skills but also environmental stewardship, personal responsibility, teamwork, and resilience.

James P. Ellen II
Halifax County

James has been the cornerstone of the Halifax County Harvest Days Festival for more than 30 years. He is the driving force behind the festival’s machinery exhibits, ensuring that antique tractors are not only present but are displayed in a way that truly educates the community. His work allows thousands of people, including local youth and residents who have never worked on a farm, to experience the sights and sounds of old-fashioned farming. Also, James personally oversees the operation of the antique sawmill and the antique peanut thresher, bringing these vital pieces of history to life. In 2025 alone, his hard work helped over 2,000 attendees learn about the rich history of Halifax County.

Milton Stewart
Henderson County

Since moving to Henderson County in 2008, Milton has tirelessly volunteered with First Congregational Church. He started Milton's Garden and devotes at least 20 hours per week to its maintenance and organizes a team of volunteers to help. Garden donations are sent to Interfaith Assistance Ministry, Dandelion Restaurant, and the Hendersonville Rescue Mission. The garden has provided over 22,500 pounds of fresh food to the community.

Michael Adams
Hyde County

Michael volunteers with Meals on Wheels BRACE Food Bank and the Food Bank of Albermarle to ensure that seniors have access to food, addressing food insecurity among families in the community. He is also the Founder and CEO of Davis Youth/Recreation and Community Center, which provides safe and structured youth engagement opportunities. Additionally, Michael volunteers with Beaufort Community College and the Hyde County NAACP.

Pamela Navey
Iredell County

Pamela has a significant impact on her community by volunteering with Foundation of Hope Ministries, Salvation Army, and Fifth Street Ministries and serving on numerous boards, committees and collaboratives. Her leadership has brought millions of dollars in grants to the community.

Joy Praet Clark
Jackson County

Joy retired in Cashiers and has been deeply involved in the community. She volunteers weekly at the Blue Ridge School, Summit Charter School, and Blue Ridge Early College. Additionally, Joy helped to develop and lead the Boys and Girls Club of the Plateau and Junior Leadership on the Plateau.

Jagwinder Sandhu
Johnston County

Over the past year, Jagwinder devoted 500 volunteer hours to support patients and staff at a local health clinic. His dedication has touched hundreds of people, from children receiving their first vaccinations to elderly patients who rely on the clinic for care. Additionally, every Sunday, Jagwinder spends four hours mentoring 5-10 people, teaching them the values and traditions of Sikhism while guiding them as they learn traditional instruments. He also delivers food to families in need and serves his community by stepping in wherever he is needed.

Hannah Crouch
McDowell County

Hannah started volunteering with Mission Ministries Alliance after discovering they had cared for her late son. She serves meals, collects donations, and checks in guests. Hannah also is an active member of the McDowell County Overdose Awareness Planning Team.

Steven Rogelberg, PhD
Mecklenburg County

Steven has combined deep professional expertise with sustained volunteer leadership to build lasting systems, strengthen nonprofit capacity, and support those working on the front lines of community care in Charlotte and beyond. His work consistently centers on underserved populations, frontline service providers, and organizations operating under chronic resource constraints, with an emphasis on dignity, well-being, and long-term impact. Examples of his volunteer leadership include co-founding the Shelter Employee Engagement and Development System (SEEDS), the first organizational development tool designed specifically for animal welfare organizations, and founding the CARE Conference Initiative, an annual convening of 200 care providers from 30 Charlotte area organizations for targeted training, resilience-building, and cross-agency collaboration.

Anthony Hopkins
Nash County

Anthony has trained more than 1,500 people on how to use Narcan to treat overdoses through his volunteer service with CARE (Coalition for Addiction, Recovery, and Education). Additionally, he transports CARE community members to the hospital, doctor, and treatment facilities, as well as buying them food and finding them shelter when needed.

Anne Stokley
New Hanover County

As a volunteer with Cape Fear Literacy Council since 2017, Anne has served as a 1-on-1 tutor, a small class teacher, and a board member. Also, Anne launched – and still helps maintain – a for-profit enterprise to benefit the Literacy Council, an e-bookstore, which generated more than $30,000 in revenue for the Literacy Council in 2025.

Isaiah Ike Johnson
Onslow County

Isaiah’s volunteer leadership with MENAC (Mentoring Every Neighborhood and Community) includes supporting mentoring, tutoring, and career exploration programming for local youth. By engaging young people in constructive activities, Isaiah's work helps reduce risky behaviors and promotes healthy decision-making.

Laura Malinchock
Orange County

Laura began volunteering with PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro 15 years ago, when the hunger relief organization was in its infancy. She has since dedicated more than 8,000 hours of her time to PORCH, distributing meals to community members as well as supporting operations, fundraising, sponsorship, and partnership development.

Council on Aging Home Delivered Meals Volunteers
Pitt County

More than 200 Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver hot meals to 400 Pitt County homebound seniors, many of whom live at or below the poverty line, every Monday-Friday. These meal deliveries are vital for the seniors' nutrition and well-being, and they provide opportunities for companionship and wellness checks for seniors living alone.

Ken & Matthew MacPhee
Rutherford County

Ken and Matthew managed and directed rotating volunteer crews from several states to support Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in Rutherford, McDowell, and Polk counties over several months in 2024 and 2025. Together, the father and son also coordinated housing, meals, transportation, and supplies for the volunteer crews who repaired homes, removed and trimmed hazardous trees, dug out flooded houses, demolished structures destroyed by the hurricane, built roads and tiny homes, and fully constructed new houses from the ground up.

Angie Yilling
Wake County

Angie has provided 23 years of volunteer service to Able to Serve, a faith-based nonprofit that equips adults with disabilities to live full, meaningful lives. Over the years, Angie has led activity classes that focus on crafts, life skills, games, and social development and provided support to individuals and families. In 2021, Angie launched a new initiative that enabled Able to Serve participants to contribute items they made to the organization's annual silent auction, which she continues to manage today.

Phi Alpha Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Wayne County

The Phi Alpha Alpha Chapter has shown an exceptional commitment to volunteer service and dedication to Goldsboro's North Drive Elementary School community. For the past two years, members of the chapter’s Fatherhood and Mentoring Committee have volunteered every Thursday morning for 90 minutes, mentoring a total of 238 second-grade male students. They also administer “Biscuits with a Buddy,” a program in which students and mentors host a breakfast honoring an important male figure in each child’s life. Beyond mentoring, the chapter consistently volunteers an additional 10 hours each month at major school events such as second grade field trips, Open House, First Day of School celebrations, Field Day, Fall Festival, and other school-wide activities. Their visible presence reinforces to students that they are valued, supported, and worthy of investment.