The Automotive Parts & Service Association (APSA) of Illinois donated $31,200 to Lake Land College to be used for technology students’ learning needs.
APSA Vice President Jeffrey Dust from Dust & Son Auto Supplies in Effingham and APSA Secretary/Treasurer Dean Kinkelaar from Effingham Regrinding Inc. presented the donation to Lake Land College Vice President for Academic Services Jon Althaus at a ceremony on April 22.
The donation to Lake Land College was made possible by the APSA’s remaining Ralph Silverman scholarship and endowment fund as the association will be shutting down after June 30. Silverman was a founding member of the APSA.
“We wanted the money that was left to go to educational programs in local colleges and high schools,” Dust said. “We knew we wanted the funding to go to the automotive industry.”
The APSA was originally created in 1959 as the Automotive Wholesalers of Illinois, which was one of the most popular state associations for all the independent automotive job stores.
Dust and Kinkelaar were both among the founding members of the association and have been involved in the group for more than 50 years. Both are also Lake Land College alumni, so when the group was deciding how to distribute the remaining funds, Lake Land was one of the first choices.
“We really just want to try to keep people in the business and keep these things going,” Kinkelaar said. “We know Lake Land can do that.”
For more information on Lake Land College or how to donate, visit lakelandcollege.edu/foundation/giving.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up