The General Motors Corvette plant here in Bowling Green... announced a donation to WKU's Kelly Autism program today.

This donation wasn't just in the form of money. In true G.M. fashion, the plant donated one of its 15-passenger vans.

It will be used to transport the program's participants to field trips and places of work.

WKU president Dr. Gary Ransdell was on hand to announce the gift. General Motors and WKU are excited about the new van.

"The lives that they change gave me the convincing argument with our leadership to say, yeah, that's what we should do. And that resulted in, as you can see, a beautiful new van sitting here for the Kelly Autism program," said GM Corvette Assembly Plant Manager Dave Tatman.

Socialization of participants is one of the Kelly Autism program's main goals. They say the van will allow college students with autism spectrum disorders to get out and go on trips and have a means of getting to work.

They say this means of transportation will make it easier for their clients to achieve their goals.