Dr. Nate Bosch, director of Kosciusko Lakes and Streams at Grace College, pictured in the center, is presented a check by Dave Illingworth, left, president of Toyota of Warsaw, and John Rice, general manager of Toyota of Warsaw. (Photo provided)

Grace College’s Kosciusko Lakes and Streams center received $25,000 from Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. to promote water resource education. KLAS will use the money to improve and expand its efforts to increase environmental literacy in Kosciusko County and the northern Indiana region.

“It’s encouraging to get such a prestigious grant award from a large, well-known company like Toyota,” said Dr. Nate Bosch, KLAS director and professor at Grace College.

KLAS serves nearly 2,000 K-12 students every academic year. Public, private and home school students across the county engage in hands-on lake and stream learning experiences through KLAS programs like Lake in the Classroom, Field Days and the Wonderful Water Student Art Contest.

“We want to educate students about the science and value of water, particularly the surface water that we have so much of in this county,” said Anna Burke, KLAS program manager. “These are our future leaders, stakeholders and caretakers, the better we educate and equip them now, the better off they, and our lakes and streams, will be.”

This grant is part of an award that will also fund lake education work at the Northern Indiana Lakes Festival in June, which is also organized by Grace College’s KLAS center.

“All of us at Toyota of Warsaw are grateful that Toyota’s corporate offices are supporting KLAS’ education initiatives. The health of our local water resources is critical to our community,” said John Rice, general manager of Toyota of Warsaw.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of nearly 1,500 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers which sold more than 1.64 million vehicles in 2011.

Kosciusko Lakes and Streams is a community-based research center at Grace College focused on applied research, educational outreach and advocacy that builds community capacity to promote, enjoy and properly steward Kosciusko County’s lakes and streams. To learn more about KLAS, visit water.grace.edu.