Stories of Giving

Students of Lucile Souders Elementary : “School kids raise dimes, awareness”

Students of Lucile Souders Elementary : “School kids raise dimes, awareness”

Every weekday morning from Nov. 3 through 13, during the daily-announcements video broadcast, Principal Tammy Holland talked about giving to the staff and 430 students at Lucile Souders Elementary School of Math and Science. Following her talk, fourth and fifth graders on the broadcast quizzed one another about the meaning of philanthropy. ...Read More

Lynn Kennelly: “Woman left life earnings to charity”

Lynn Kennelly: “Woman left life earnings to charity”

After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, Lynn Kennelly and a group of her friends helped form a team for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure 5K event in Charlotte. An avid runner who competed in the event every year, winning her age group at least once, Kennelly took to walking in the event after the disease returned in 2006, metastasizing as bone cancer. And last summer, when the cancer ravaged most of her body, Kennelly turned to Abigail H. Kerr, a friend, fellow breast-cancer survivor and Komen teammate, to help her create an estate plan. ...Read More

Reggie McAfee: “Retired exec teaches kids to persevere”

Reggie McAfee: “Retired exec teaches kids to persevere”

The slogan "Attitude is everything" is inscribed on Reggie McAfee's business card. McAfee should know: A child of public housing in Cincinnati, he became a star runner in high school in Ohio and college in North Carolina. Now, he heads a Charlotte-based nonprofit that uses running as a tool for teaching kids to keep on keeping on. ...Read More

Vilma Jose: “Fayetteville woman bridges cultures”

Vilma Jose: “Fayetteville woman bridges cultures”

After his first day of kindergarten in Fayetteville, Ian Jose arrived home in tears, having been teased because he looked different. His classmates told him to go back to China, not understanding that he is a native North Carolinian, born to a mother from the Philippines. ...Read More

Susan Springer: “Volunteer enriched by giving”

Susan Springer: “Volunteer enriched by giving”

On Christmas Day, 350 volunteers from the Jewish community in Chapel Hill and Durham will fill in for employees at roughly two-dozen local nonprofits, letting them take the day off for the holiday. ...Read More

Nicole Cashwell: “9-year-old girl thinks of helping other kids” (from The Fayetteville Observer)

With everything else on her to-do list, Michele Ellis wasn't sure how in the world she would get 67 Christmas stockings decorated and personalized in time for the seventh annual Falcon Children's Home party she was helping to plan. Nine-year-old Nicole Cashwell came to the rescue. ...Read More

Gloria Canonizado: “Canonizado exhibits poise in life’s dance” (from the Fayetteville Observer)

Gloria Canonizado: “Canonizado exhibits poise in life’s dance” (from the Fayetteville Observer)

[Gloria Canonizado is one of several North Carolina givers featured in NCGives' mini-documentary "Asian American / Pacific Islander Giving," a part of the project North Carolina Giving: Philanthropy Across Cultures & Communities. Learn more at www.ncgives.org/documentaries.] ...Read More

Elena Gonzalez: Siler City woman volunteers to give back

September 15 - October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month! North Carolina's Latino and Hispanic communities have a rich heritage of giving back to others. Here is one such story, about a Siler City woman so generous with her time that her county has nominated her to receive the Medallion Award (the N.C. Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service's highest honor). ...Read More

Zoƫ Kronovet: Charlotte teen catches philanthropy bug

Although she's only 17, Charlotte teen Zoë Kronovet already has awarded charitable grants, worked at a foundation and spent time matching volunteers with projects in need. ...Read More

: “Lumbee youth learn skills, history” (from The Fayetteville Observer)

“Lumbee youth learn skills, history” (from The Fayetteville Observer)

(by Venita Jenkins) RED SPRINGS - Lucille Bullard's nimble fingers sewed tiny stitches into a piece of fabric as she talked to a group of Lumbee teenagers about quilt making. Before she started, Bullard showed the girls how to thread a needle, something some of them had never done before. ...Read More

What Are These Stories?

From barbershops to quilts to fondue, North Carolina is overflowing with inspiring stories of giving — stories of people who are truly making a difference in their communities.

What's your story? We'd love to hear from you.