Tom was born on June 6, 1939 in Durham, NC.  He graduated from Durham High School in 1957.  He graduated from UNC with a BS degree in General Business with emphasis on Marketing, Finance and Personnel.

He spent most of his career in Financial Accounting.  He worked with his wife, Lois Stephenson, in childcare; the business was named Building Blocks Child Care.

Both he and his wife are members of Horne Memorial United Methodist Church in Clayton, NC where he began his community service with the mission outreach programs both locally and internationally.

From 2011 through 2016, Tom started coordinating the Rise Against Hunger meal packaging events with other local churches and the Clayton Rotary Club resulting in $131,092 raised and 515,756 meals packaged in those five years.

In 2013, he received the Rotary Community Service Award from the Clayton Rotary Club and he received the Frances Hobart Community Service Award presented by the NC Community Foundation that same year.

He has been a member of Serve The Need in Johnston County for 6 years and currently serves as President. As head of the Fundraising committee, he collaborates with committee members to ensure a variety of activities that the members of Serve The Need will be excited about attending, thus raising funds for the organization.  He also is involved with grant writing development along with pick-up and delivery of food from grocery stores and delivers them to local food banks and pantries in the Clayton community.

Melissa Serrano is a dedicated community leader and entrepreneur with a history of building impactful organizations in Johnston County. One of four co-founders of Activate Selma, Melissa is currently Secretary for that 501(c)3 organization.  She now brings her expertise in marketing, safety consulting, and business development to her role as President of Serve The Need. When she isn’t coordinating events at The Dupree House or running 3 Cardinals Construction Safety and Consulting, she is focused on scaling the impact of Serve The Need to fellow Johnston County neighbors.

Melissa was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Clayton in 2006, then Wilson’s Mills in 2019.

She loves to help with a good cause and is quoted as saying, “If I don’t have 100 things to do, it’s not worth getting out of bed.”