Trucker Buddy takes a summer road trip to Washington DC
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is celebrating the history of transportation. To complement the exhibit titled, ³America on the Move,² the museum is holding a summer festival Saturday, July 31st, called ³The Open Road.² The festival is a one day (noon to 4:00 pm) event to celebrate the adventure of the summer road trip.
The celebration will include Trucker Buddy President, Don Nehring, and Executive Director, Ellen Voie, who will address an estimated 10,000 visitors to the one day festival. The Trucker Buddy organization, which matches professional drivers with elementary classrooms, was asked to represent the trucking industry and the drivers in the program.
A Freightliner Classic XL, provided by Freightliner of Harrisburg, PA will be the featured tractor. This unit will be displayed along with a 1940 Packard, a 1956 Porsche and other vehicles shown outside the museum entrance. ³Freightliner is proud to be a part of this display and we are enthusiastic about the positive image both trucks and the industry will portray through this event,² commented Bruce Smalley, Freightliner¹s Marketing Manager.
Wendy Abel-Weiss, coordinator for the festival, contacted Trucker Buddy about participating in this event (http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/events) after hearing about the program from teacher workshops. ³Many teachers have mentioned your most excellent program to us,² said Abel-Weiss. Since this is a summer event at the Smithsonian, many teachers, parents and students will be able to learn more about the trucking industry, and will hear about the caring drivers who adopt elementary classrooms each school year through the Trucker Buddy program.
³To be asked to represent the trucking industry by the Smithsonian is quite an honor,² said Ellen Voie, Executive Director. ³I anticipate that this event will allow us to add many more classes, which will then create a greater need for additional drivers to become Trucker Buddies.²
Trucker Buddy (http://www.truckerbuddy.org) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educate and mentor the nation's schoolchildren via a pen-pal relationship between professional truck drivers and children in grades 2-8. Trucker Buddy is dependent on corporate sponsors such as Platinum Level, Transccore, OTR/ProTrucker Magazines, Randall Media Group, and Gold Level: ATA, rpm/Driving Force Magazines, Delphi, Kenworth, Freightliner, Midnight Trucking, Mike Ryan MotorSports, MultiMedia, Penray, Penray and Wal-mart as well as Silver Level sponsors, ArvinMeritor, Bridgestone/Firestone, CCJ, OTR Canada and TruckFlix.com.
To become a corporate sponsor, call Ellen at 1-800-MY BUDDY.
