6th - 9th Grade Science Students to Benefit From Toyota USA Foundation & Keep America Beautiful Partnership

STAMFORD, Conn., Jan. 24, 2005 -- Keep America Beautiful, Inc., America's leading community improvement organization, has been awarded $100,000 from the Toyota USA Foundation to launch the Clean Sweep U.S.A. Environmental Education Program. This program will support Keep America Beautiful's new Clean Sweep U.S.A. science education website.

The award is one of four that the Toyota USA Foundation board of directors announced recently at its semiannual meeting in Washington, DC. The grant will provide a means for promoting use of the newly established web site among teachers, the development of math and science classroom materials and a teacher training initiative that will reach 50,000 6th - 9th grade teachers and 1.2 million students.

"We're very excited about partnering with such an outstanding organization as Keep America Beautiful," said Atsushi "Art" Niimi, president, Toyota USA Foundation, in announcing the award. "This innovative website and education program are being developed to help both students and their families understand about the enormous waste problems facing not only the United States but the entire world. On the web and in the classroom, students will become better informed about such things as garbage, source reduction, composting, recycling, waste to energy and landfills," he added.

"We are thrilled that the Toyota USA Foundation is supporting Keep America Beautiful's educational programs," said G. Raymond Empson, president of Keep America Beautiful. "This generous donation reflects Toyota's commitment to environmental education, and it will help us continue to provide internet resources to students, teachers and families about how to reduce and manage waste in America's communities. The Clean Sweep U.S.A. program is all about building knowledge and critical thinking skills regarding environmental responsibility. The Toyota USA Foundation's grant will help us make a positive impact on communities today and for generations to come."

A portion of the Toyota funds will go to design, create and produce an environmental education poster that will be mailed to over 50,000 teachers to coincide with Earth Day 2005. The poster, which will contain classroom science activities, will also introduce teachers to the new web site.

Since 1953, Keep America Beautiful has been engaging individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their local community environment. Today, it has more than 550 certified town, city and county affiliates in 41 states, 22 statewide programs and 400 local organizations. Its signature event is The Great American Cleanup, a 12-week program that takes place each spring. In this five-year-old program, over 2.3 million volunteers in 14,000 communities in all 50 states take part in community improvement activities.

Joining Keep America Beautiful, Inc., in receiving Toyota USA Foundation awards were the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy, Los Angles, CA; the University of Michigan College of Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI; and Earth's Birthday Project, Santa, Fe, NM.

The Toyota USA Foundation is a $40 million charitable endowment created to support innovative education programs serving kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States, with special emphasis in the areas of mathematics and science. For additional information about the Toyota USA Foundation, visit http://www.toyota.com/foundation .