TORONTO — The OTA Education Foundation’s 50-50 Donation Challenge has been extended to the end of the school year, marking June 30th as the deadline for donors to double their donations at no extra cost.

The campaign, was announced at OTA’s convention last November in part to help commemorate the Foundation’s 50th anniversary.

Under the program, an anonymous donor will match any donations contributed to the Foundation until June 30, 2009 — up to $50,000.

“We believe that this opportunity is too good to turn off the switch at this time” says Foundation chairman Scott Smith who is also president of J. D. Smith and Sons. “We recognize that the downturn in the economy may have had an impact on our ability to reach our goal by March 31st, so we feel very fortunate that our campaign partner has agreed to extend the deadline to June 30th."

The OTA Education Foundation awards several scholarships each year to students who are children of parents who work in the trucking industry. Carrier and allied trade companies are encouraged to market these scholarship opportunities to their employees and full-time sub-contractors.

50-50 Challenge forms can be downloaded from www.ontruck.org/education/foundation.