LOCKPORT -- In developing the Lincoln Landing, Bob and Jill Carr have ensured that the light will shine on an important part of Lockport's past. In providing scholarships for area students to attend college, the Carrs ensure that the light will shine into the future. Graduates of Lockport Township High School, the Carrs now live in Princeton, N.J. The couple leads the Give Something Back Foundation. The Lockport-based foundation has developed the Lincoln Landing, a new interpretive park northeast of Ninth Street and the Illinois & Michigan Canal in Lockport's historic downtown. The foundation also helps financially disadvantaged children, who are committed to academic excellence, complete a college degree. Lockport Township High School graduates benefit from scholarships provided by the foundation.

Four-year scholarships -- to the college of a student's choice -- cover tuition, room and board after any federal or state grants are applied. With the Carrs' help, 13 students have graduated from schools such as the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois, Illinois State, Eastern Illinois, Lewis, Loyola, Bradley, Ohio State and Iowa, according to the foundation.

And several more students will graduate this spring, including one from Harvard University, said Steve Cardamone, executive director of the Give Something Back Foundation. Dozens of more students -- from Lockport High and the school districts that send eighth-grade graduates there -- are in the program. They are in grade school, high school or college, learning to achieve social and academic success through involvement in Give Something Back. Lincoln Landing Last week, hundreds of people gathered at the Lincoln Landing for a dedication ceremony. The park educates visitors about Abraham Lincoln, the nation's 16th president, and his connections to Lockport and the historic I&M Canal.

The park features a bronze Lincoln sculpture, which Bob Carr unveiled at the ceremony on Feb. 12, the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday. Carr told the audience of Lincoln's connection to the canal and Lockport. Lincoln was an Illinois state representative who had a role in the authorization of the canal. As a congressman, he trumpeted the 1848 opening of the waterway. After his assassination in 1865, his funeral train passed through Lockport on the tracks that run just east of the modern-day Lincoln Landing. "There were a number of things that connected Lincoln to Lockport -- the fact that his death train went through here on the way back to Springfield, the fact that when Lincoln was a congressman, in his one single term, he was the congressman who stood up in the House of Representatives and announced the opening of the I&M Canal," Carr said. Lincoln's announcement said something important about the canal's value -- that it provided a shipping connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, and thus the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

"A boatload of sugar had come from New Orleans and gone through the Great Lakes to Buffalo," Carr said of Lincoln's announcement. Scholarships for students Bob Carr graduated from Lockport High in 1963. He received a $250 scholarship award from the Lockport Woman's Club. He went on to receive bachelor's and master's degrees in math and computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Cardamone said.

"In the back of his mind, he always thought that, 'When I have an opportunity to give back, I am going to do that,' and give back he has," Cardamone said. Today, Bob Carr is chairman and chief executive officer of Heartland Payment Systems Inc. The company delivers credit-debit-prepaid card processing, payroll, check management and payments solutions to more than 250,000 business locations nationwide, according to a company news release. Jill Carr attended Illinois College and graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in psychology, Cardamone said. Among her many endeavors, she is president of the Give Something Back Foundation.

The foundation helps students from Lockport Township High School and the many schools and districts that send eighth-graders there. Districts include: Fairmont, Taft, Milne-Kelvin Grove, Will County School District, Chaney-Monge, Richland and Homer. St. Joseph and St. Dennis schools in Lockport also are involved. Cardamone has seen the success of these students. "These are quality people," he said. "And these are people from our community. These aren't people from far-off places. These are people right here, our neighbors. These are people with special talents, and Bob and Jill, through this foundation, are allowing these kids to soar."

For more information, call 815-834-8400, or visit www.givesomethingbackfoundation.org.