Biola University senior art major Natalie Toyer is this year’s Blick Art Materials 2015 Blick Car Sweepstakes student winner. Toyer won not only a car for herself, but $5,000 for Biola’s art department through the contest.

“I may not have won the lottery, but I did win this brand new car,” said Toyer in a post on social media after picking out her 2016 Scion iM, courtesy of Blick Art Materials in Fullerton, Calif.  

On Feb. 11, Blick Art Materials hosted an awards ceremony in conjunction with Blick’s Madness, a promotional sales event where a $5,000 gift card was presented to Biola’s art department. Zehavi Husser, chair of Biola’s art department, received the gift on behalf of Biola.

“We were thrilled for Natalie that she won the grand prize of a new car,” said Husser. “We were excited and thankful to receive the $5,000 in-store credit.”

The Blick Art Materials 2015 Blick Car Sweepstakes is part of Blick’s Fall Back-to-School sweepstakes, which Toyer entered last fall when shopping for art supplies. She was one of approximately 60,000 who entered the sweepstakes.

“At first I was in disbelief,” said Toyer. “I did not find out until early January that the art department would be getting money from my good fortune, but I was really happy that they could benefit, as well.”

Many of Biola’s art faculty members were in attendance to support Toyer and accept Blick’s generous donation. Vice President of Blick Art Materials Retail Operations, Bart Veghts, was also in attendance to greet Toyer personally and present the award to Husser.

“Blick is a family owned business that has been around since 1911 and to be able to do these types of things for both our customers and also our schools, that’s why we do it. It’s artists supporting artists,” said Veghts.

Toyer, an Oregon native, adds thousands of miles on her car each year during summer and winter breaks driving to and from Biola in California. For her, winning a new car will mean not having to worry about maintenance or car payments for sometime.

“Out of all who enter, we have one student winner and one general winner,” said Rebecca Beltran, retail events coordinator of Blick Art Materials. “What we wanted to do is to be able to provide a gift card for their supplies in order to show our support for their school as well. It really becomes a great tool in order to get the school and student involved in one place.”

The art department has yet to decide what supplies the donation will provide, however, Husser says they are excited to put the money to good use for students.

Written by Marissa Ray, Public Relations Intern. For more information contact Jenna Loumagne at (562)777-4061 or jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu