WASHINGTON — The American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division has named 1996 East Rowan High School graduate Clark C. Walton of Charlotte the National Outstanding Young Lawyer.
The award recognizes a young lawyer who demonstrates professional excellence, service to the profession and the bar, service to the community and a reputation for legal ethics and professional responsibility.
The son of Ralph and Colleen Walton of Salisbury, Clark Walton was president of the National Honor Society at East Rowan and an all-county wrestler.
He serves as counsel for the Charlotte law firm of Alexander Ricks, practicing complex business litigation, white collar defense, health care fraud and compliance, information security and privacy and complex financial transactions.
Walton is also an adjunct professor at the Charlotte School of Law, where he teaches courses on cybercrime and evidence. He previously served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Western and Middle Districts of North Carolina for the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office.
While with the attorney general’s office, Walton played an active role in returning nearly $11 million in fraudulent payouts back to federal and state health care programs.
During his career, Walton has worked for free representing Iraqi nationals who assisted the U.S. government in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and organizing the Wills for Heroes program in North Carolina, which provides wills and estate planning documents free of charge to first responders.
For his work with the Wills for Heroes program, Walton received the 2008 Mayer Brown U.S. Pro Bono Transactional Matter of the Year.
He has received other distinctions in North Carolina for his contributions to the legal profession, including the 2009-10 North Carolina Bar Association Pro Bono Younger Lawyer of the Year and the 2009 Mecklenburg County Bar Young Lawyers Division Young Lawyer of the Year.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in computer science, Walton received his juris doctor and dean’s list honors from Georgetown University Law Center.
Prior to the practice of law, Walton served for more than four years as a cybersecurity analyst for the federal government, and completed a White House internship with the vice president’s homeland security assistant in 2003 and the FBI Honors Internship Program in 1999.

Philpott a Certified Financial Planner
SALISBURY — Jolene Philpott of the financial services firm Edward Jones has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards to use the certification mark CFP.
Philpott successfully completed CFP Board’s initial certification requirements, which include completion of financial planning coursework and passing a comprehensive examination.
Individuals who hold CFP certification must agree to meet ongoing continuing education requirements and uphold the CFP Board’s code of ethics and financial planning practice standards.

Community Day at mall

SALISBURY — Salisbury Mall will host Community Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 9 for nonprofit organizations to display and sell items as a fundraiser.
Available spaces will be first-come, first-served. Organizations can contact the mall office at 704-637-7467 to apply. The deadline for applications is March 6.

Nana’s Nook moves to larger space
SALISBURY — Nana’s Nook has moved from the Wallace Commons shopping center on Klumac Road to 1628 Stokes Ferry Road.
The shop has quadrupled its space to 4,800 square feet and is adding inventory daily. A website at www.shopnanasnook.com will be up and running by Feb. 28.
The shop specializes in handmade baby quilts, keepsakes, apparel, charms, decorative flags, pocketbooks and pre-packed gift sets. Customers can call ahead and order a gift tote for pick-up or to be shipped anywhere in the U.S. and any military base with an APO address.

Food Lion’s Easter Seals campaign
SALISBURY — Food Lion has launched its annual Easter Seals Shop & Care fundraising campaign, aimed at raising millions of dollars to assist children and adults with disabilities in Food Lion’s more than 1,100 stores. 
The campaign will run through March 12. 
Customers may participate by purchasing specially marked products from more than 100 manufacturers who support Easter Seals.
In addition, customers may make a donation of $1 or more at checkout. For each at-register donation, customers will receive a coupon booklet with more than $9.50 in coupons.
When cases of Food Lion’s store brand, My Essentials, water is purchased, the company will make an additional donation, up to $250,000.
Food Lion and its customers have helped raise more than $33 million for Easter Seals since 1991. 

ACN gathering expected to pump $6.3 million into economy  
 

CONCORD — When Concord-based ACN Inc., a direct seller of telecom and home services, hosts some 18,000 independent sales reps this weekend, the local economy will feel a total $6.3 million boost, according to the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.
 A report in Business Today of Cornelius detailed the impact of the gathering that ends today in Charlotte.
“It seems our sales reps prefer Phoenix, Miami or Las Vegas in the winter, but we care about our community and we wanted to have the meeting here because of the economic impact,” said Robert Stevanovski, co-founder of ACN.
 A Cornelius resident, Stevanovski said ACN reps from a dozen countries will attend
Stevanovski recruited Jay Leno and Donald Trump to address the sales reps. Trump will speak to all 18,000 attendees at the Time Warner Cable Arena, while the Tonight Show comic will perform at a “Leadership Dinner” for 500 top sales people.

FFA emblems for sale for $1 at Southern States until March 24

Southern States is supporting the National FFA Organization by selling FFA emblems for $1 through March 24.
Southern States is sponsor of the “I’m Supporting FFA” fundraiser.
After you buy an emblem, you can sign your name on it or even the name of a child you care about. The emblems will then be displayed in the store.

ServPro on Entrepreneur Franchise 500 list
ServPro has been named No. 1 in the cleanup and restoration industry for the 10th consecutive year. The company also placed in the Top 10 overall of the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 rankings for the third year in a row.
Franchises provide fire and water cleanup, restoration and repair services, storm response, mold remediation and other property maintenance and restoration services.
Joseph Strefezza serves the north Rowan/Salisbury area and can be reached at 704-636-1700 or  servpro9845@gmail.com. Whitney Norton serves north Cabarrus County and China Grove and can be reached at 704-939-1944 or  servpro9709@windstream.net


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