Day One: Travel, Training, and Multi-Tasking

Today was our first day in Eastern NC, and boy was it a long one! (the exclamation point indicates enthusiasm and not crippling exhaustion)

The morning started around 5:30 am when we congregated at the Alta Springs clubhouse in Chapel Hill. I don't know if anyone else was stricken by this, but some truly fabulous minivans were rented for our travel. I mean, these were shiny, sparkly new Toyota minivans. The old reliable UNC Law van was used too - also fabulous, don't get me wrong. I ended up in a sparkly Toyota minivan with Corinne, Saurabh, and Seema, and was the second vehicle behind the UNC Law van, driven with vim and vigor by Mark Dorosin. Congrats to all of the other vans and cars in our caravan for keeping up.

When we arrived at the Greenville Office of Legal Aid of NC, we were greeted by ... well, we weren't greeted for a little while, because the office hadn't really opened at that point. Luckily Mark was there with pockets full of Greenville-related trivia for our entertainment (for instance, did you know that the statue of the confederate soldier situated in front of the Pitt Co. courthouse faces north - to face the oncoming union soldiers? Now you do). Once the office opened, we met Evan Lewis, Senior Managing Attorney of LANC, and Lesley Albritton, staff attorney. They gave us a brief overview of the LANC, its 3B program (a source of federal funding which allows LANC to provide services to low income or elderly people), and its Low Income Tax Clinic (offering advice to low-income taxpayers in Eastern NC involved in disputes with the IRS). We were notified that some of us would be working with LANC on LITC cases if our sites failed to attract many estate planning document-seekers. After our training (it was now around 10:00), we departed for our respective sites. Oh wait! Almost forgot - the Greenville office provided us with coffee and doughnuts ... regular glazed, and also a very exciting assortment. I tried some sort of blueberry cakey doughnut. Very good.

Our group assignments are as follows:

New Bern - Diana, Zac, Dan, Melissa, Evan, Jackson, Lucy, Merab, Gus

Greenville - Saurabh, Madison, Rob, Lauren G, Colin, Corrine, Emily, Seema, Lauren J & Claire

As you can see, I was on the New Bern team. When we arrived at our site, the Jones County Department of Social Services (and the biggest building in Jones County), we were led to a nice room in the back with some tables and chairs. We had very few clients to begin with (hey, its the first day after all), but by the end of the day, most volunteers in Team New Bern were able to help a client with his or her estate planning documents. Others assisted Legal Aid attorneys in LITC cases. In all, most of us managed to stay busy.

Around 5pm, we headed back to the hotel (the fabulous Comfort Suites, New Bern, by the way). Team New Bern hung around for a while, waiting for Team Greenville to return so that we could get to our room and shower and relax. Debriefing was at 6:45. It turns out that Team Greenville had a similar experience to that of Team New Bern - unfortunately, due to lack of transportation, most of their clients were not able to make it to their site, but they were able to give some roadside estate planning advice to one lucky client!

Melissa led debriefing tonight. We discussed the impressions that our clients and assignments had made on us. Volunteers seemed to have an overwhelmingly positive impression of their clients. Not only did volunteers feel that they had something in common with clients, but they were at times surprised by clients' sophisticated grasp of estate planning principles. While some topics, such as those addressed in the Living Will document, were somewhat sensitive, volunteers were, overall, able to communicate with clients comfortably.

We split up for dinner. The majority of the group went to the Raw Bar, while a few others (including yours truly) veered off to go to Morgan's Tavern and Grill. I'll make it short: Big chicken salad. Lots of fruit. Jelly dressing. I didn't finish it. Not that it was bad, it was just a lot of lettuce. But that's another story.

Tomorrow: I and the rest of Team New Bern ride a ferry. I'll let you know how it goes!