Toledo Propulsion Systems announces $100,000 in grants to area charities

Ron Badyna of Lambertville was up and running early to make sure his car got a good spot at a General Motors employee car show Sunday at GM’s Oscar Bunch Park in West Toledo.

But showing his car wasn’t the only reason he was there. It was also to support a GM - Toledo Propulsion Systems’ charitable investment in the local community, particularly to nonprofits involved in children’s education, said Mr. Badyna, one of at least 300 people showing vintage cars at an event used by the benefactor to announce giving away $100,000 in grants to seven Toledo-area nonprofits.

“Just look at the way the world is today,” said the Purple Heart-decorated Vietnam War veteran who was showing a 1966 Corvette Coup. “Kids, as you see in the news, aren’t getting the proper education. A lot of these kids come from poor families, poor homes. They need a little bit of outside help.”

The beneficiaries and the funds they are receiving are as follows:

• University of Toledo Foundation, $30,000
• NAACP of Toledo, $13,000
• Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, $12,000
• Toledo Science Center – Imagination Station, $11,000
• Learning Club of Toledo, $11,000
• Big Brothers / Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio, $10,000
• The Nature Conservancy $13,000

“I am hyped up because we couldn’t exist without such grants. … [And] this is a huge grant. We desperately needed it,” said Deborah Apgar, Learning Club of Toledo executive director.

The money will help the organization serve about 175 Toledo children, helping them improve math and reading, social, and behavioral skills, as well as provide hot meals and purchase classroom supplies, she said, noting that the children the nonprofit helps range from kindergarten to 12th grade, with most of them the grade-school age.

Titled GM Family First EV Ride and Drive, the event Sunday was lauded by the organizers as the post-pandemic return of the annual GM’s annual car show at the park, with the last one held in 2019. The free event was open to GM employees, retirees, and local leaders.

The program included GM electric vehicles that were available for attendees to drive and ride.

“We want to make sure that we are leaning in, delivering impact[ful grants] so that we can develop our youth, prepare them for their careers and really lean into the community and make sure that the community is viable,” said Tammy Golden, plant executive director.

“… There is an opportunity for us to continue to upskill,” Ms. Golden said. “And so that money will also help upskill [future] workers ... as we shift from our internal-combustion engines to the all-EV future.”

The grants were awarded through the GM Community Impacts Grants program. The program “fosters science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skill sets, fueling vehicle access and safe road behavior,” event organizers said.

Since 2019, GM has donated over $425,000 to community organizations in the Toledo region, and a total of over $1.2 million to Ohio nonprofits, according to event organizers.

Said Tony Totty, UAW Local 14 president who attended the event, “General Motors cares about the communities that they operate in, and this is a giveback to those communities, to say thank you, but also to show that General Motors and the UAW are partners with the community.”