Illinois American Water presents check to Lincoln College's Creekside

[May 19, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

Since 2009, Illinois American Water has contributed over $197,000 to 56 environmental grant projects in Illinois American Water’s service areas.

This year, 10 projects across the state will share over $22,000 in environmental grants.

Illinois American Water presented Lincoln College with an environmental grant for $3,645. The amount granted was the full amount requested by the college through the company’s environmental grant program.

Funds will be used to construct a handicap accessible boardwalk and interpretive signage. The new boardwalk will allow all visitors and researchers access to a spectacular view of the stream bank features of Sugar Creek.

With a “forward to the past” theme, each foot along the Boardwalk will take visitors one year further back in time from the present, offering a temporal-spatial scale to history. Plaques affixed to the boardwalk planks along with several interpretive exhibits will commemorate important local, national, and global historical dates and events.

The Boardwalk is needed to provide handicapped accessibility to the existing Sugar Creek Wibben Overlook platform. Construction will begin in September 2018 during the school’s annual “Welcome Week” volunteer event.

From left: Michelle Baldwin, Dean of Faculty and Instruction at Lincoln College; Teresa Saner, Division Chair Mathematics, Science and Physical Education; Gabe Bowden, operations superintendent for Illinois American Water’s Lincoln District; Julie Ossler, Lead Faculty, Conservation Biology; and Dennis Campbell, Director of the Creekside Center for Environmental Education.

Dr. Campbell is retired from the faculty of Lincoln College and established Creekside while he was a professor at Lincoln College. He now serves as the director of Creekside.

[Karen Cotton
External Affairs Manager
Illinois American Water]