TORONTO, Ont. — An anonymous supporter has offered to match donations up to $40,000 made to the OTA Education Foundation’s scholarship program by June 30.

Under the matching program, known as the 2010 Double-Up Donation Challenge, donations from “new donors” will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Existing supporters – those that have donated in the previous three years – are being encouraged to donate a minimum amount. Donations from existing supporters that are more than $1,000 will also be matched.

“We really want to see industry step-up this year and help us reach our target of $40,000,” says Scott Smith, Foundation chairman and president of J. D. Smith and Sons. “What’s different about this challenge is that we are really trying to encourage more ‘new donors’ which are companies that have never donated before and those who may have missed helping us in the previous three years, to make a donation this year”.

Smith says that a similar matching program helped increase the amount of scholarships disbursed in 2009 by 132% over the amount disbursed in 2008.

“We hope to be able to give out even more in scholarship dollars for the academic year starting this September,” he said.

Donations received under the matching program are used to fund scholarships offered exclusively to children of parents who work in the Ontario trucking and trucking-related industry. For more information, visit www.ontruck.org/educationfoundation or contact the Foundation’s executive director, Betsy Sharples, at education.foundation@ontruck.org.