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Walker Flint has been named the Johnston County 2009/2010 SHIIP (Senior Health Insurance Information Program) Volunteer of the Year. And Mr. Sal Navarro has been named the Johnston County 2009/2010 SHIIP New Volunteer of the Year. Mr. Flint and Mr. Navarro volunteer their time assisting Medicare beneficiaries.

North Carolina has more than 1.3 million Medicare beneficiaries. Through SHIIP Medicare beneficiaries are served by 779 volunteers such as Walker Flint and Sal Navarro.

Housed within the North Carolina Department of Insurance, SHIIP was established in 1986 to help educate Medicare beneficiaries about Medicare, Medicare supplements, long-term care insurance, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D prescription drug plans and other health insurance options for people with Medicare.

In Johnston County SHIIP is housed in the Cooperative Extension Office located at 2736 NC 210 Hwy in Smithfield and coordinated by Debbie Stroud an Extension Agent with Family & Consumer Sciences responsibilities. Volunteers for SHIIP must successfully complete a computerized training course to become certified to better help people with Medicare. SHIIP volunteers are required to attend quarterly follow-up training, and they must provide 40 hours of counseling services annually to maintain their certification. Without these remarkable volunteers SHIIP could not reach out to all the people with Medicare in our state.

SHIIP volunteers are required to submit reports on each client they assist, and according to our records, state wide they have helped nearly 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries in one-on-one counseling sessions during the past year. This is an outstanding accomplishment. SHIIP is very grateful for all our volunteers, and we can never thank them enough for all that they do to assist people with Medicare. Each April National Volunteer Week is a great time to publicly thank all the SHIIP volunteers in North Carolina for the remarkable service they provide.

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In photo from left to right: Cathy Greenwood - JC Council on Aging & SHIIP Volunteer, Walker Flint - JC SHIIP Volunteer of the Year, Debbie Stroud - JC Cooperative Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Agent and JC SHIIP Coordinator, Mickey Martin - JC Council on Aging & SHIIP Volunteer, Sal Navarro - JC SHIIP New Volunteer of the Year, Jayne Cubilla - JC Cooperative Extension Family & Consumer Sciences Agent & SHIIP Volunteer.