Discretionary Grant - North Carolina (May 2026) — On a wooded trail in North Carolina, a fifth-grader crouches beside a stream, dip net in hand. He pulls it up, eyes wide. Writhing in the mesh are creatures he's never seen before: crayfish, salamanders, tiny invertebrates that tell the story of the water's health. "We don't have these where I go," he says, breathless with discovery. He'd always considered himself an outdoor kid. He plays in the backyard. He walks to the bus stop. But this… this is something entirely different. For students across North Carolina, experiences like this are exactly what Muddy Sneakers was built to provide. Founded in Brevard in 2007, Muddy Sneakers partners with public schools to bring science curriculum to life outside the classroom. Instead of reading about ecosystems in a textbook or watching experiments on a screen, students step into the lesson itself: hanging bear bags from trees, rolling logs to discover what lives underneath, hiking trails and eating lunch in the open air.

Discretionary Grant - Kannapalis, NC (May 2026) — There is a moment, somewhere between making a protein bar by hand and realizing you have no idea how to get it on a shelf at Whole Foods, when the dream of a food product meets the reality of making one. For most first-time entrepreneurs, that gap is enormous, and largely invisible until you're standing in it.

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