Where is it always 84 degrees and sunny? In the butterfly house at the Life & Science Museum in Durham.

The Kids ‘N Community Foundation supports their Ignite Learning initiative to provide memberships to local families for a $5 donation. A yearly membership to the Museum averages $140; membership costs (and a single general admission) are out of reach for a lot of area families struggling to just get by. This year, they were able to serve 208 families with Foundation support; next year, they hope to serve 500.

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I spent Saturday, Jan. 7 at CORRAL Riding Academy. This fall, Kids ‘N Community Foundation provided scholarship funds for two at-risk girls to enroll in their riding academy for an entire year.

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This Fall, the Kids 'N Community Foundation provided one of the tools necessary for Durham Nativity School's middle school accreditation: a library.

Actually, it's an e-library. The Nativity School has found a good deal on a certain brand of e-readers that will allow them to use its grant funds to purchase one device for every student; their English teacher is beyond ecstatic. The e-readers will provide exposure to more interactive forms of learning and expand curriculum to include a variety of texts.

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On Wednesday, Dec. 7, I spent the morning with the teachers and students of Communities In Schools of Durham’s Performance Learning Center, an organization to which the Kids 'N Community Foundation provided funding.

The Performance Learning Center (PLC) is an alternative school for at-risk youth from Durham Public Schools. Each year, over 400 Durham students drop out of high school, and one out of three teens do not graduate on time. The PLC is a collaborative project between Communities in Schools of Durham and Durham Public Schools created to actively combat these alarming statistics. Located in the Holton Center, their state-of-the-art facility caters to 120 students who are at risk of dropping out or have already dropped out.

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The Carolina Hurricanes' Kids 'N Community Foundation awarded its largest-ever grant this Fall to the Ronald McDonald House of Winston-Salem for their "Stock the Pantry" project.

This project will help to feed the over 800 families who stay at the House annually while their children receive medical care in area hospitals.

The "Stock the Pantry" project provides for grab-and-go meals, nutritious snacks and overall comfort for families who undergoing tremendous stress and anxiety.

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On Tuesday, Nov. 22, I had the opportunity to visit StepUp Ministry, an organization that prepares "unemployable" adults for the workforce. Participants go through an interview crash-course and enter the 12-month Life Skills program. The Kids 'N Community Foundation supports StepUp's childrens program.

The Life Skills program meets every Tuesday night, and adults discuss topics ranging from fiscal responsibility to relationship building. What I love the most about StepUp is that while the adults are discussing the night's specific topic, their children are also discussing the same topic on an age-appropriate level.

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