Wills for Heroes: Celebrating Our Volunteers

The North Carolina Bar Foundation’s Wills for Heroes program expanded this year, with a goal to hold 2-3 clinics per month for first responders across the state. Utilizing our new Wills for Heroes document production app, volunteer attorneys were able to meet virtually with first responders while local notary volunteers assisted with executing final documents in person. It was not uncommon to log into the clinic Zoom meeting and see familiar faces as many of the volunteers joined multiple clinics, sharing their valuable time and knowledge to help first responders across North Carolina.

This bar year, we held twelve clinics and served first responders in the following counties: Buncombe, Cumberland, Durham, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Randolph, Wake and Wayne. Each clinic was supported by a team of lead volunteers who answered estate planning questions from our attorney volunteers and reviewed documents as they were received. We grew our team of lead volunteers from five to ten over the course of the spring. The North Carolina Bar Foundation would like to extend a special thank you to the following lead volunteers:

• Caroline Denning
• Samantha Gordon
• Emily Morris
• Stephen Morris
• Amanda Reed
• Becca Rushton
• Raeneice Taltoan-Reed
• Elizabeth Weisner
• Jon Windham
• Travis Woolen

The North Carolina Bar Foundation would also like to thank the following attorney and notary volunteers for their pro bono service with Wills for Heroes this bar year:

• Shawana W. Almendarez
• Olivia G. Bane
• Danielle T. Bennett
• Pamela Best
• Kimberly Bischoff
• Robert Daniel Boyce
• Kayla Daniell Britt
• De’Von Carter
• Alicia Cassis
• Daniel Choyce
• Kimberly Cochran
• David William Cox
• P. Devan Culbreth
• Gregory Davis
• Shelly Bibb DeAdder
• Tracy Diefenbach
• Lauren A. DiFilippantonio
• Scott Nash Dunn
• Jared A. Fink
• Yazmeen Gadalla
• Miranda Goot
• Austin Grabowski
• Joshua Ryan Hamilton Gray
• Rachel Espey Harrell
• William Kohake Harris
• Scott C. Hatfield
• Reagan Hinton
• Mark Holt
• Kathryn Hutchinson
• Andrea S. Johnson
• Matthew Alexander Jones
• Bryan King
• Dawn LaRue
• Lee Laskody
• John MacMillan
• Nancy A. Mayer
• Ralph Lee McCaughan
• Kimberly McKenzie
• Melissa McKinney
• Marsha Leigh Mitchell Hamilton
• Kathleen Leigh Miller
• Caitlin Anne Mitchell
• Stephanie Gwen Norris
• Jane Francis Nowell
• Maya Pendergrass
• Kristin Elizabeth Pennock
• Elysia Prendergast-Jones
• Kathleen Richard
• Norman Riddle
• Teresa K. Rodriguez
• Alex Rutgers
• RasheDa Sanders
• Kim Shaftner
• Arista Sibrey
• T. Justin Sigmon
• Balfour Smith
• Traci Smithwick
• Ryan Stump
• Suzan Su
• Patrick Sutton
• Christian Taylor
• Alyson Traw
• Alexa Voss
• Megan Waldkoetter
• Spencer Warren
• Steven Wax
• Jennifer Dawn Westerlund
• Anne Maness Whitney
• Benjamin “Pier” Napier Williamson III
• Yvette Wiltshire
• Suzanne Winkler
• Kristie Nicole Young

Through the service of these volunteers, the Wills for Heroes program was able to assist 262 first responders and their families and prepare 742 estate planning documents. The NCBF would also like to extend a special thank you to Foundation Program Partner Lawyers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of North Carolina for their generous support of the Wills for Heroes program.