Frances Weller
Anchor
Wilmington, NC
Frances Weller is a proud Wilmington native, award-winning journalist, and community advocate. She recently celebrated 40 years at WECT and is a leader of the most trusted news team in Southeastern North Carolina.
She began her journalism career at WECT not long after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, joining the news team she grew up watching.
Despite winning countless professional awards as well as the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest civilian award, Fran's greatest joy is her community involvement. Through her two passion projects, Fran’s Fans and Weller’s Wheels, she has kept the elderly cool each summer by gathering fan donations and she has made countless Christmases brighter for local children through her bike collection drive.
She's also the public relations chair for the Willie Stargell Celebrity Invitational, an annual event that raises money for local people living with kidney disease. Her twin sister, Margaret, was married to former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger and Hall of Fame member Willie Stargell who died from kidney failure in 2001.
Fran says she can't imagine life without WECT and has no plans of retiring.
They are the most basic yet some of the most essential supplies in any elementary school classroom - whiteboards and markers.
Judge reverses order, adds District Attorney Ben David back to Wilmington Crime Lab lawsuit
WECT features local DonorsChoose projects every Tuesday night on WECT News at 6.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to buy headphones for students
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to start food pantry for hungry students
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher wants bean bags and books for a classroom reading center
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher would like learning games for young students
Sally Vorner had every intention of playing in the Play for Pink Golf Tournament in Magnolia Greens last Friday. But a yearly exam in July that she thought was just par for the course turned out to be much more.
The event raises money to pay for mammograms for women who are uninsured or underinsured and for comfort bags for anyone undergoing cancer treatment.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations for new physical education equipment
Mark Matthews isn’t a bus driver by profession or a chauffeur for a limousine company, but he does drive a bus. It’s actually a mobile barber shop.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher wants to buy hygiene items, underwear and socks for students with donations
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to buy headphones for students
She’s hoping to add a library and a bench for incentive to get students to want to learn how to read.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher wants physical education equipment for students
WITHOUT WARNING: Parents share heartache of twin son’s suicide
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher wants snacks for her students who aren’t able to bring food from home
Wilmington’s Epicurean Evening is the area’s largest benefit for Methodist Home for Children.
The first-grade teacher at Old Dock Elementary is hoping a nicely furnished reading corner will be just what they need.
MELISSA’S STORY: Child raped by father for years opens up about incest and her “double life”
Alex Highsmith’s dad talks about son’s new multimillion dollar contract with Pittsburgh Steelers
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Non-profit provides brand new clothes for foster children
Revered for decades as a jazz scholar, author, historian, and civil rights leader, when the Wilmington native spoke, people listened.
WECT’s Fran’s Fans will return to Lowe’s Home Improvement stores for two days this month to collect fans for those in need.
At 100 years old, she also knows how dangerous the summer heat can be on people much younger.
This is an opportunity to help area seniors stay cool during the sweltering hot summer months.
He went into cardiac arrest last week and never recovered. He was 66.
“I don’t know how I did it. ‘Bout the only thing that kept me going was my mom.”
The Williams Township Elementary School teacher is hoping to expand her classroom library by buying more books.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Librarian needs help with school garden
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Local non-profit helps to improve lives of people with neurological disorders
Tylek Bellamy and Nikolus Bellamy were among four people who were shot at a house on Elizabeth Street in Whiteville Sunday.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: High school science teacher needs help with lab supplies
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to expand classroom library
Every November for nearly two decades, the Savannah native would travel from Georgia to the Port City for the annual Willie Stargell Celebrity Invitational.
“That was probably the most exciting time of my life”: Chadbourn natives remember the NC Strawberry Festival from back in the day
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs help educating her students about ancient Greece!
Brother of woman with rare blood cancer hopes to increase donor registry at two events this week
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needing supplies for outdoor classroom fully funded
COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Soaring as Eagles empowers children and their families
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher needs donations to buy historical fiction books for students
Ronnie Schnell, the owner, says it was a difficult decision but he was made an offer he could not refuse.
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher seeks donations for book, bubble and tea project
Cape Fear Literacy Council to host annual luncheon Tuesday, April 18 at Northside Church
The celebration of life will be held Wednesday, April 5 at 1 p.m.
"I would like to be able to give all of our students a copy of the book “Oh the Places You Will Go” to take home with them,” Hemminger said on her DonorsChoose page.
It’s not a traditional classroom subject, but a teacher in Whiteville has a lesson plan her students can benefit from for life.
Three years after lockdown, a look back on the effects of a statewide stay-at-home order
COMMUNITY CLASSROOM: Teacher wants lounger and wiggler feet for flexible learning for students
She asked for donations to purchase the items through DonorsChoose, an online charity that helps teachers get funding for school projects.
