Toyota gives $500,000 educational, safety grant to Grand Canyon Association

<i>Photo by Jackie Brown/WGCN</i><br>
Park Ranger Angela Boyers speaks as members of Grand Canyon Youth stand behind her.

<i>Photo by Jackie Brown/WGCN</i><br> Park Ranger Angela Boyers speaks as members of Grand Canyon Youth stand behind her.

A range of Grand Canyon educational and safety programs will get a boost thanks to a $500,000 donation from Toyota under the company's Leadership and Environmental Awareness for our Future (LEAF) program.

Beneficiaries of the grant took part in a ceremony last Thursday at Shoshone Point, where Toyota's vice president of Philanthropy and Community Affairs Michael Rouse presented a check and five hybrid vehicles to Grand Canyon Association Executive Director Susan Schroder and Park Superintendent Steve Martin.

The grant was part of an endowment of $5 million and 23 vehicles to use toward environmental education. Donations also went to Everglades National Park, Great Smokey Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and the National Park Foundation.

Rouse said the program is part of a commitment that Toyota made in 1992, and that the resulting Global Earth Charter governs company decisions and goals as well as their giving. They have achieved zero landfill status, cut water and electricity consumption by more than 20 percent and pollution in half and had the first certified green building in the United States.

"What we do leaves a footprint," he said. "Our goal is to minimize our footprint on the environment."

Grand Canyon Protective Ranger Michael Nash wrote the grant application after seeing Toyota's philanthropy at work at Smokey Mountain National Park, where they received hybrid vehicles under a different program for their volunteer program.

Martin said they sought to get the most mileage from the donation.

"The staff got together to determine where best the money could be used and not only spent, but leveraged with a partner," he said.

This is the first significant donation to GCA since it took over fundraising responsibilities from the Grand Canyon National Park Foundation. It also comes as the Park Service gears up its Centennial Challenge - an initiative that seeks corporate partnerships for projects that will usher in the Park Service's 100th anniversary in 2016.

"We're going to be working very hard to make this gift a springboard for other gifts that we will be looking for," Schroeder said. "So this really not only helps the programs now but it's also going to be a catalyst for other people to step up to the plate."

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