Each year the Duluth Kiwanis Club hosts an autumn Pancake Breakfast fundraiser with the proceeds going to the Duluth COPS program.  The COPS program, 'Community Oriented Police Service' goal is to enhance the quality of community life in the Duluth by establishing partnerships between residents, businesses and police. A lot of the focus of their programs is on kids in the grade and middle school system.

This year the proceeds of the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast fundraiser helped the COPS program fund their ADVANCE program which is offered at the elementary school level. ADVANCE is a seven-session program designed to give 5^th grade students in Gwinnett County the skills and knowledge to deal with pressures they might face as they transition into the middle school environment.   Topics like peer-pressure, stress, violence, gangs and drugs are covered during each of the 45-minute sessions taught by a Duluth Police Officer.  The program also provides mentoring to the students by local law enforcement officers.  At the end of these sessions, a “graduation” is held for the students who have successfully completed this program.  Currently, Duluth’s ADVANCE program is only offered for 5^th graders at Chattahoochee Elementary School.   This year there were over 300 students who went through the program.  'Our fund raising efforts are definately felt in the community', said Jim Barnes, Club President.