Hometown Heroes

Nominate a Hometown Hero!

Hometown Hero: Danita Mason-Hogans

by Jordan Beyle | August 24, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Danita Mason-Hogans. Mason-Hogans recently took a team of local students across the American south as part of her own nonprofit Bridging the Gap centering on starting conversations based in...

Hometown Heroes: Madeline Blobe and Allison Worthy

by Jordan Beyle | August 17, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Heroes, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, are Madeline Blobe and Allison Worthy. Blobe and Worthy are with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation. Every year since 2008, the Public School Foundation has hosted a teacher supply...

Hometown Hero: Kathy Allee

by Jordan Beyle | August 10, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Kathy Allee. Allee is a volunteer and parent mentor for Family Reading Partners. She is first in line for every need both big and small, from making treats for weekend getaways to organizing a...

Hometown Hero: Emily Sutton

by Jordan Beyle | August 3, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Emily Sutton. Sutton is the executive director and river keeper of the Haw River Assembly, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore and protect the Haw River, Jordan Lake, and the entire...

Hometown Hero: Mike Naglich

by Jordan Beyle | July 27, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Mike Naglich. Naglich is a retired nurse with a long career of heroic efforts around the world and his latest is a trip to Ukraine to deliver supplies for residents in the war zone. He's making...

Hometown Heroes: Todd LoFrese, TJ Laughrey, Andy Olson, and Jim Ray

by Jordan Beyle | July 20, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Heroes, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, are Todd LoFrese, TJ Laughrey, Andy Olson and Jim Ray. They've spent the last few weeks biking across the country to raise awareness and money for the Be Loud Sophie Foundation in Chapel Hill....

Hometown Hero: Jennie Knowlton

by Jordan Beyle | July 13, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Jennie Knowlton. Knowlton is the founder of the Quilt Maker Cafe in Pittsboro. They first launched in 2021 as a mobile restaurant, but they just opened their first permanent location in May. The...

Hometown Hero: Andrew Taylor-Troutman

by Jordan Beyle | July 6, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Andrew Taylor-Troutman. Taylor-Troutman is the author of "Little Big Moments" on Chapelboro.com and the pastor at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church. They've teamed up with a national...

Hometown Hero: Charles DeBose

by Jordan Beyle | June 29, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Charles DeBose. DeBose's work supports not just one nonprofit but many. He serves as the director of operations for the Extraordinary Thrift Store where he does many different things. He also works...

Hometown Hero: Amy Slaughter

by Jordan Beyle | June 22, 2026 | Hometown Heroes, Town Square | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by the O. Max Gardner Foundation, is Amy Slaughter. Slaughter is a realtor who works with the nonprofit Community Home Trust. Slaughter completes the home buying transaction, making sure the buyers are able to work with their...

Hometown Hero: Lili Engelhardt

by Staff | May 18, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Lili Engelhardt, who was instrumental in staging this year's Touch a Truck event in Chapel Hill — a very popular event put on by UNC Children's Hospital and Troop 39 of the Boy Scouts of America. The...

Hometown Hero: Eutie Wilson, Ike McKinney, Peter LaPlaca and Other UNC Medical Center Shuttle Drivers

by Staff | May 12, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Heroes are UNC medical center shuttle drivers — which includes folks like Eutie Wilson, Ike McKinney and Peter LaPlaca. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the drivers that take patients and their families from parking decks and the Ronald...

Hometown Hero: Eugenia Floyd from Mary Scroggs Elementary

by Staff | May 5, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Eugenia Floyd — a fourth-grade teacher at Mary Scroggs Elementary in Chapel Hill who was recently named the 2021 Burroughs Wellcome Fund North Carolina Teacher of the Year. Floyd, a graduate of the Chapel...

Hometown Hero: Ali and Brian Evans

by Staff | Apr 28, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Heroes, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, are 97.9 The Hill's own Ali Evans and her husband, Brian — who stepped up to help when they came upon a car accident. Ali and Brian were the first people on the scene at a car accident on I-54 west of...

Hometown Hero: Amy Edwards from Chapel Hill Transit

by Staff | Apr 21, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is longtime Chapel Hill Transit operator Amy Edwards. Edwards recently retired after a long career with Chapel Hill Transit — spanning back to July 1986. "She's been serving our community for 34 years," said...

Hometown Hero: Dr. Adam Wolk

by Staff | Apr 14, 2021 | Hometown Heroes | 0 Comments

This week's Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Dr. Adam Wolk — a physician who has been working tirelessly to get people vaccinated for COVID-19. As the three different people who separately nominated him all agree, that is just the beginning of the...

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