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Comfort Elementary principal Elizabeth Thompson shares her first year in Jones County, new sixth-grade plans, and growing community support.
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This episode wraps up our six-part “Bridging Foods and Meds” series, and we’re closing it out with a topic everyone can use: immunity. Host Mary Ann LeRay sits down with Marcy Hoffman, the Filling Station’s onsite nutrition education program lead, to break down what your immune system actually is and how the small choices you make every day either strengthen it or wear it down. Marcy describes the immune system as your body’s “security team”: organs, tissues, cells, and even your skin, all working together with an innate defense that responds immediately and an adaptive defense that learns from every […]
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Host Mary Ann LeRay welcomes back Kristen Mihaljevic, Director of Development at the North Carolina Community Foundation (NCCF), for a follow-up conversation that picks up right where the last episode left off. This time, the focus turns to estate planning and legacy giving – and why these “difficult conversations” are so much easier to have before a crisis than in the middle of one. The timing matters. Baby boomers hold more wealth than any generation before them, and as Mary Ann notes, they value choices, options, and creative ways to fuel what matters most to their communities. Kristen explains how […]
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In this episode, host Mary Ann LeRay sits down with Kristen Mihaljevic, Director of Development at the North Carolina Community Foundation (NCCF), to explore something every supporter of The Filling Station should know about: simple, smart ways to give that don’t require writing a check, swiping a credit card, or hiring an attorney. Kristen brings more than a decade of community foundation experience to the conversation, and she doesn’t shy away from a challenge many donors know all too well – the year-end flood of appeals and email solicitations that can leave even the most generous hearts feeling fatigued. Her […]
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Charlie Jones traces Jones County’s colonial roots, German settler history, and Wiley Jones’s role in the Bill of Rights on The Filling Station podcast.
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Principal Donna Higgins went from Trenton Elementary student to its leader. Hear her story of mentorship, the Leader in Me program, and why Jones County’s kids are everything.
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Marcy Hoffman of The Filling Station shares simple ways to build emotional balance, manage screen time, and protect rest in this most recent podcast. Part 2 on balance.
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Mary Ann LeRay and Marcy explore balance as a whole-body practice, covering stress, movement, blood sugar, hormones, and sleep in the Bridging Foods and Meds series.
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Sheron Bender, Filling Station vice chair and retired school counselor, shares how Hurricane Florence, 33 years with hungry kids, and one bold question shaped her mission to feed Jones County.
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Mandy Gillis didn’t just find her way to Maysville Elementary. By her own account, she was led there. After 26 years in education, including a difficult final year in Onslow County during Hurricane Florence that took a real toll on her health, Mandy stepped back and trusted that the right path would open. It did, in the most unexpected way, during a conversation at Vacation Bible School. She updated her application materials on the spot, and the rest, as they say, is history. Seven years later, she is the current Jones County Principal of the Year and describes every day […]
