Lost and Found: Retired veterinarian Nancy East ’97 found her purpose by finding others.
The alarm sounded on Nancy East’s cellphone calling for the volunteer Haywood County Search and Rescue team. The alert provided the basic information about the situation. Two college students from UNC Charlotte were lost in the Shining Rock Wilderness area.
It was early January in 2017, and a snowstorm was blowing into North Carolina. What started as a mild winter day threatened to become something deadly, with temperatures dropping to single digits. Search and rescue (SAR) teams, including East, were dispatched on foot and by helicopter when the weather permitted them to fly.