TORONTO, Ont. — The OTA Education Foundation is asking the trucking industry to help fund its 2012 scholarship program that aids students with ties to the trucking industry. The Foundation is targeting a $50,000 donation goal to assist students starting university or college in September with tuition and other academic fees.

“I’m pleased that the industry has started to recognize the benefits that the Foundation offers to trucking industry workers,” said Foundation chairman and J. D. Smith and Sons president Scott Smith. “We have certainly seen an uptake in the number of companies that sponsor scholarship applications.”

During the three years ending in 2009, on average, only 19 companies sponsored scholarship applications each year. By comparison, the following two years saw an average of nearly 40 sponsoring companies.

In 2011, the Foundation handed out nearly $52,000 in the form of 38 scholarships to Ontario university and college students. Donations are used to fund scholarships offered exclusively to children of parents who work in the Ontario trucking industry. Donors receive a Scholarship Promotion Kit to assist them in promoting the Foundation’s scholarship opportunities to their employees, as well as a charitable tax receipt from the Foundation.

For more information, visit www.ontruck.org/educationfoundation or e-mail education.foundation@ontruck.org.