Wendell — Regina Applewhite and her 18-month-old daughter Jada shake and wriggle a parachute in the middle of the room with about 20 other kids and moms that are part of the East Wake Education Foundation program to ready kids for kindergarten. “It’s a good place to come to,” said Applewhite. She said Jada’s learning her colors, and will learn her alphabet. She’s also having fun.

“It’s helping her to get to be with other kids,” she said.

The East Wake Education Foundation, an institution of sorts in eastern Wake County for 15 years, got its latest boon last week with a $5,000 check from Caterpillar Inc. of Zebulon.

Its entire budget comes from contributions, including 45 businesses, counting Caterpillar, said Linda Johnson, executive director. Caterpillar, a maker of heavy equipment for the forestry industry, bought out Blount last year, and Johnson soon came calling, looking for money for her pet project.

“We’re just so proud that we can do something,” said Diane Bunn of the Zebulon branch of Caterpillar that serves as a warehouse and worldwide distribution center for the company. “I think it’s wonderful to be able to help the children.”

And helping children is exactly what the foundation does.

Johnson, a social worker of 30 years, said she’s having the time of her life in a preschool program with 88 percent low income kids, 63 percent Hispanic children and children who come from wealthier homes.

“After 30 years in social work, this is the most exciting work I’ve ever done,” she said. “So I’m planning to work until I’m 105.”

The preschool not only serves the children who come to the facilities on Fourth Street in Wendell. It has a mobile unit and a parent-educator trained by Project Enlightment, the Wake County school system’s school readiness program for preschoolers. She makes home visits to supplement what happens on Fourth Street with information on nutrition, academics, discipline and other helpful subjects.

Johnson said the East Wake Education Foundation didn’t start out as a preschool-parent education program, but one that raised funds to supplement local schools. Educators told them readying students for kindergarten was a greater need, and the program was born.

It now serves 600 children in eastern Wake County and 400 families. Services are offered in English and Spanish. And it’s going to be the model for a Nash-Edgecombe school district program. Johnson said the personal rewards come daily. Last week she watched a two-year-old boy work on a craft that was not only fun, but one that will improve his dexterity.

“He had to put shell pasta through a pipe cleaner to make a shell bracelet,” she said. “He missed the first couple of times, and then he got it and just grinned.” Board president Harold Broadwell emphasized that attendance to the preschool program is not restricted by parent income.

“Anybody is welcome to come,” he said. “They work on socialization, reading, and multiple goals. There’s a lot that goes on here.”