Welcome Melanie Girard as our new Development & Communications Director

I am pleased to announce that Melanie (Mel) Girard will be serving as the Council on Aging’s Development & Communications Director.  Mel has a long history of service to the Council and Chatham seniors and this opportunity will allow us to further benefit from her rich experience and many skills.

Mel has been an active member of the Chatham community since 1993, and has been associated with the Council on Aging since 2013 when she became a Meals-on-Wheels volunteer.  She subsequently helped coordinate the Council’s medical transportation service and served as interim Volunteer Coordinator.  Most recently, Mel has helped organize the Council’s use of a grant from the Home Depot Foundation to assist older veterans needing minor home repairs.

While Mel will continue as a local real estate broker, she has assured me that her work with the Council will certainly be her passion and primary focus.

In her time with the Council, Mel has consistently shown herself to be someone who is highly motivated, a quick study, honest, diplomatic, an effective communicator, a team player, well organized, and eager to help seniors and their families.  Her positive attitude and ‘can-do’ spirit are contagious.

Mel is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Her commitment to aging and human services was evident early on when she volunteered to assist the Charles House Adult Day Care program in Chapel Hill in 1998.  She also served as a volunteer for UNC hospice.

In Mel’s words, “I wholeheartedly believe in the Council’s mission. I am going to think “out of the box” and look for many different opportunities to help the Council achieve its objectives and remain a respected and effective force for serving and engaging our growing older population.”

Please join me in welcoming Mel to this new role with the Council on Aging.