ELKHART, Ind. (AP) _ A northern Indiana foundation has awarded a $7,500 grant to a project to help preserve an endangered species of turtles.

The Elkhart County Community Foundation awarded the grant to the Friends of Cobus Creek to help preserve Blanding's turtles along the waterway. 

Elkhart aquatic biologist Daragh Deegan tells The Elkhart Truth (http://bit.ly/1lEZrue) Blanding's turtles only lay about four or five eggs at a time, and the survival chances are slim. That's why the Friends of Cobus Creek have enlisted the help of Dr. Bruce Kingsbury, a herpetologist at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Elkhart Community Schools plans to get involved by helping to raise the turtles and release them back into the wild.

The group still has to seek approval from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.