POULSBO — Educators Colleen Fairchild, Marsha Rova, Leah Titze, Patricia Sheehan and Rene Fossum teach all over the North End in various public schools and at different levels of K-12 education.

But this past fall, they each enjoyed a common thread: they all needed a boost in the classroom.

And they all got one.

The teachers were recipients of the first-ever North Kitsap Education Foundation’s fall “mini-grants,” that allowed them to increase their educational offerings due to financial contributions from the organization.

The teachers applied to the NKEF for their own unique reasons, said its board of trustees president Jennifer Menne.

“These were not your run-of-the-mill programs,” Menne said. “They were innovative, creative and things that caught our eye.”

The $1,200 in grants were the first ever given out by the fledgling organization, which made its first collection and donation in 2001.

Menne said the primary objective of the NKEF is to “have a viable source of charitable dollars for North Kitsap’s public schools.” The catalyst for doing so, said board members, is to create an endowment large enough to fund grants and scholarships for teachers and students for years to come.

“What we hope to build toward is establishing a strong endowment,” Menne said.

“A lot of teachers spend money out of their own pockets for classroom supplies,” said NKEF board member and Hansville resident Ken Shawcroft, who has been volunteering in the schools since he retired from Keyport in 1996. “It’s those things us non-educators can help with.”

Shawcroft has also created a Web site for the foundation, which can be found at www.nkef.org.

The NKEF board of trustees consists of Menne, Shawcroft, Ann Wood, Frank Spargo, Jane Ritley Ardis Morrow and Terry Darrow. The non-profit encourages all residents in North Kitsap to donate and added that any of the school district’s employees can make a payroll deduction toward the foundation.

“What might be seen as a modest amount of money can make a huge impact,” Ritley commented.

The board admitted its endowment should not by any means be viewed as a substitute for the community’s levy for public schools, but it can help students and teachers by awarding scholarships and funding various projects.

The NKEF’s first grant came in 2001 through the Discuren Foundation, and the funds were distributed to a Suquamish reading and tutoring program. That program, now called Reading Offers Rewards and Achievement (ROAR) and entering its third successful year, allows tutors to earn cash that can only be used toward college. The Norcliffe Foundation is now donating the funds to operate ROAR.

Next, North Kitsap girls’ basketball coach Dan Weedin connected with NKEF Board member Darrow in 2003 to establish a scholarship fund to honor Alice Wood, who died of a terminal illness. The fund provides $500 each year to a player on the team toward an athletic scholarship.

NKEF’s motto declares: “Are you ready to make a difference?”

Aside from helping out the community, Menne added that making that positive difference with the first-ever fall mini-grants was a heck of a good time as well.

“The grants were hugely fun for us,” she said.