Pittsboro, NC – Six older adults who have provided lasting and ongoing contributions to Chatham County will be honored as part of the 4th annual “Six Over 60” Awards, scheduled for Thursday, February 26, 2026, at the Pittsboro Center for Active Living beginning at 2:30 p.m. A refreshment period will take place at 2 p.m.
The event, open to the public, will recognize six individuals – Carol Chandler, Cindi Ebert, Curtisteen McCrimmon, Terry Transue, Patrick Walsh, and Melanie York – who were nominated by the public and voted upon by a selection committee. Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis by Chatham County Aging Services throughout the year.
Carol Chandler
Chandler launched a record of volunteer service that spans nearly four decades in the 1980s with the North Chatham Volunteer Fire Department – a commitment that continues in the present day. Through a style described as “quiet and consistent,” Chandler joined the Chatham County Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in 2016. She is currently in her 9th year with the program, overseeing a variety of roles from tax preparation, updating computers before the start of tax season and serving on the publicity committee. Before each VITA session, Chandler retrieves equipment, sets up and arranges tables, organizes workspaces and assists with cleanup at the end of each session.
Since 2022, Chandler has volunteered with the CORA food pantry in Pittsboro as well as Siler City following organizational expansion. Chandler’s primary focus is sorting through produce recovered through local grocery stores, carefully inspecting food to determine what is safe for distribution – ensuring the dignity and safety of those served by CORA. In addition to her Chatham County efforts, Chandler is active with the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program in Sanford.
Cindi Ebert
A graduate of the University of Virginia, Ebert’s contributions to Chatham County and beyond encompass three specific areas – Chatham Outreach Alliance (CORA), Eyes, Ears, Nose and Paws (EENP) and UVA Club of the Triangle. Ebert started volunteering with CORA in 2017 and currently serves in the food pantry for 15 hours a week, in addition to her service on several committees and as an at-large member of CORA’s Board of Directors. Through the “Porch Program,” Ebert has spearheaded food collection initiatives in multiple neighborhoods of residence. Her work with EENP, a Hillsborough-based organization, began in 2021. Through EENP, puppies spend eight weeks in litter care at whelping homes in Chatham and Orange Counties, being exposed to early neurological stimulation while learning basic skills. The puppies then move to Young Puppy Caregivers until they are six months old, attending puppy preschool three days a week. Before their ultimate placement as service dogs, the puppies enter the At Both Ends of the Leash (ABEL) program. The dogs are taken into local prisons where they are given specialized training by inmates who have been selected for the program. This 18-to-24-month process transitions the dogs out of puppyhood as they learn increasingly complex commands. Intermittently, Ebert takes the developing dogs out of the prison environment to acclimate them to a variety of social situations. Her dog, Fiona, completed the program and is certified by the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. Together, they visit locations where individuals benefit from a calming visit from a loving therapy animal, including local high schools, the Boys and Girls Club of Pittsboro and memory care facilities.
Through the UVA Club of the Triangle, Ebert brings UVA alumni and their families together from a variety of ages and interests who donate their time in the Triangle area doing work that benefits the common good.
Curtisteen McCrimmon
McCrimmon launched her advocacy for youth through mentorship in Chatham County Together for a decade. During this time, she and her husband saw the needs of Chatham’s children and expressed a desire to do more. They became foster parents, and for the last 15 years, the McCrimmon’s have fostered 11 children. In addition to housing, feeding and clothing the children, McCrimmon took on a central role in parent-teacher conferences, school events and ensuring their involvement in academic and after-school programs such as the Boys and Girls Club. To this day, several of her former foster children continue to stay in contact to provide updates.
McCrimmon is also active at Alston Chapel United Holiness Church, where she is an Associate Minister and chair of the Finance Committee. In addition, McCrimmon volunteers with the Chatham County Democratic Party, making phone calls to voters to provide relevant candidate, date and polling place information.
Terry Transue
Transue serves in several volunteer leadership roles, including the Director of Operations for the Community Lunch at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Pittsboro, the Vice President of Chatham Alliance and the Director of Operations for Chatham Chuckwagon.
Through the Community Lunch program, a free, hot lunch is provided each Thursday to any member of the community that would like to have a meal. Active for over 18 years, the Community Lunch was established as a sit-down meal where food and fellowship was the focus. Transue was instrumental in pivoting the program to a drive-through model during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the pandemic, the Community Lunch shifted to a hybrid model and increased its weekly meal output to 150-200 meals, compared to 50-100 weekly before March 2020. The volunteers range in age from elementary school to community members 90 years of age and older.
In 2021, Transue and other individuals collaborated with churches and conceptualized the Chatham Chuckwagon. Through the Chuckwagon, three area churches agreed to work together and cooked, vacuum packed and froze protein-based entrees for a free, weekly distribution. Following a trial period, the group nearly doubled its weekly distribution goal by reaching 300 servings per week. This milestone spurred the formation of the Chatham Alliance.
Through another Chatham Alliance program – Kids Love Community – Transue imagined a way for kids to serve their community by making love notes attached to cookies that were given during food distributions several times a year. Ten different schools and youth groups combine to make and bake thousands of notes and cookies for the community.
Patrick Walsh
Walsh is a past president of the Rotary Club of Pittsboro and serves as a board member of Chatham Marketplace Co-Op. He serves as Assistant Governor for Area 10 of Rotary District 7690, which encompasses clubs in Chatham County and Lee County.
Walsh worked closely with the Town of Pittsboro and the Chatham Alliance in the planning and construction of the gardens at the Pittsboro Pop-Up Park, building the greenhouse. As a Rotary member, Walsh is part of a rotating group of club members responsible for the completion of a Meals on Wheels route each week departing from the Pittsboro Center for Active Living. In addition to this role, Walsh is a substitute driver for other Pittsboro routes on an as-needed basis.
He has led Rotary Club of Pittsboro’s Adopt-A-Highway clean-up team for the past four years, overseeing the cleaning of a two-mile stretch of road on a quarterly basis. During the Town of Pittsboro’s monthly Art Walk, Walsh staffs the information tent and assists with setup and breaking down, offering loading and unloading assistance to artisans as needs arise. Through Feed Well Fridges, Walsh runs a once-weekly route to pick up donated food from designated local restaurants and grocers, then delivering food to stock the fridges on the same day.
Melanie York
York founded the Winter Weather Survival Drive (WWSD) Program four years ago, collecting over 12,000 items to date for Chatham County residents vulnerable to the cold weather, including the unsheltered and inadequately housed. These items include coats, outerwear and blankets. The WWSD holds large distribution events and provides directly to Salvation Army of Chatham, Chatham County Schools through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, Love Chatham and to individuals through referrals. As many as eight different collection sites have been active throughout Chatham County since inception.
In 2021, York requested that the Chatham County Board of Commissioners form a task force on homelessness. This resulted in the Chatham Working Group on Homeless and Housing Instability, rebranded as the Chatham Housing Collective. York led a group of volunteers in the execution of the annual U.S. Housing and Urban Development Point In Time (PIT) Count, a census of sheltered and unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness conducted every January. Thereafter, a community-wide initiative was undertaken by the Chatham Housing Collective, United Way and Central Pines Region Council to continue the annual PIT. York worked tirelessly with County, State and Federal Agencies to permanently house an unsheltered individual she met during the canvassing.
York has served on the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness Funding and Performance Subcommittee and, for several years, served actively on the North Carolina Balance of State Region 6 Continuum of Care PRACC – a five-county coalition which includes Chatham. She has also served as a volunteer for Chatham Chuckwagon and helped spearhead WWSD distributions through collaboration with the Chuckwagon. York lives in Northern Chatham County with her husband, Jeffrey, also a dedicated volunteer.
For more information regarding Chatham County Aging Services, visit the department’s website.