Kidsenses Grant
KidSenses gets grant for Web education
RUTHERFORDTON — The AT&T Foundation — the corporate philanthropy organization of AT&T Inc. — awarded $25,500 to support the KidSenses Children’s InterACTIVE Museum through the AT&T Excelerator competitive technology grant program. Since 2002, the AT&T Excelerator program has provided more than 2,500 technology grants — totaling more than $47.8 million — to organizations across the country. This year, the AT&T Foundation expanded the Excelerator grant program for the first time to include AT&T Southeast’s nine-state service area.
In North Carolina, 17 regional and local nonprofit organizations will receive a total of $340,000 through the competitive program. Nationally, nearly $9 million will be received by organizations serving diverse ethnic groups, low-income families, people with disabilities, youth or senior adults.
“The AT&T Excelerator grant will allow KidSenses Children's InterACTIVE Museum to work with young children and elementary schools in innovative ways to strengthen science education,” said Steve F. Saucier, executive director of the museum. “AT&T continues to deliver new innovations that encourage the use of technology,” Saucier said. “This is just the kind of public-private relationship, with a focus on children, which will cultivate in the next generation innovation through the use of technology. “The museum will use the grant to support a collaborative effort with FoothillsConnect Business and Technology Center to bring Webbased science education to rural elementary students. Funds will pay for the technology hardware, Web site development and hosting”. “Not only can technology be a vital component to the success of nonprofit organizations, it can erase distance and other barriers to provide the best education to our children,” said Sen. Walter Dalton. “This program will be a tremendous benefit to the children of our region, just as appropriate technology benefits community organizations. I applaud AT&T’s civic leadership in stepping forward with this funding.”
The AT&T Excelerator program provides technology access to organizations working to strengthen under-served communities. Helping nonprofits integrate technology into their operations and community outreach, AT&T Excelerator grants also place technology tools in the hands of the underserved populations that the nonprofits work with in order to provide resources such as education programs, Internet access, computer training and job-skills development. “For the past six years, the AT&T Excelerator program has demonstrated the importance of how technology can benefit communities and organizations,” said LaVoy Spooner, AT&T regional director of External Affairs. “KidSenses and other organizations in North Carolina will continue to use technology funded by this program to empower the community and change the lives of the people whom they serve on a day-today basis”.
Also on hand were Jane Smith Patterson, executive director of e-NC, a publicly funded initiative to increase broadband access and encourage all residents of North Carolina to use technology, and especially the Internet, to improve the quality of their lives and their economic prospects.
Contributed photo
Leaders in education and technology joined friends of KidSenses InterACTIVE Children’s Museum gathered Monday to receive a $25,500 AT&T Excelerator Grant for the museum. Front row, from left: Steve Saucier, KidSenses; and Tim Will, Foothills Connect. Second row: Kim Alexander, Sen. Walter Dalton and Rutherfordton Mayor Sally Lesher. Third row: Rutherford County School Superintendent John Kinlaw; Benny Hendrix, executive director of e-NC; Jane Smith Patterson; Spindale Mayor Mickey Bland; Fred Bayley; Lavoy Spooner with AT&T; Greg French; County Commissioner Paul McIntosh; and Forest City Mayor Jimmy Gibson.
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