Trucker Families in Need Charity needs your help and nominations!

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TRUCKER CHARITY CHRISTMAS GROUP
guest blog by Greg Manchester

First of all I would like to thank Harry Rudolfs for allowing me the space here in his blog to write about a cause that is near and dear to my heart. So please bear with me as I am a fellow trucker, not a writer and this will be my first blogging experience.

My name is Greg Manchester and I have been a company driver for Purolator Inc. for the last 28 years and I am a co-worker of Harry’s. I navigate the Toronto-Montreal corridor every night with a set of B-Trains.

I am also a founding member of the Trucker Charity Christmas Group. I would like to ask you all to take a minute and read about our great group. It is a group that I am proud to be a member of, we are all volunteers and active drivers, owner-operator’s etc. in the trucking industry who come together each year to run this group.

Christmas is here once again and the Trucker Charity Christmas group is looking for your help, in helping us, help trucking families in need this year.

This is the 6th year that our group has been helping trucking families in need enjoy a merrier Christmas. Over the last 5yrs we have raised over $46,500 US and helped 78 families have a better Christmas.

This all started out with the dream of one man who had a few extra dollars to spare at Christmas, and wanted to help a family in need at Christmas. He approached a group he had grown to know on the trucking social media network http://www.letstruck.com/
and asked for some help from his fellow drivers on how he could share $500 with someone who was less fortunate that year. Well low and behold a few of us banded together and started the Christmas group.

For the first couple of years we just did Christmas funding and then when Arrow trucking went out of business and left many drivers stranded all over North America, we stepped up and helped get many of them home. That was the start of www.TruckerCharity.org

From the dream of one man we have come a long way and is a testament to the strength of the trucking community when it comes time to help out our own.

We have now started our 2013 Christmas Group Fundraising Drive and we are looking for nominations for trucking families in need as well as donations that will go directly to the families selected for assistance this year. Nominations for trucking families in need will be accepted until December 16th 2013 at 12 noon est. and the families selected will be notified the following Friday. This is open to both residents of Canada and the U.S.

We also have a fundraising store http://www.truckercharity.org/store.php where we are selling some great products that are relevant to our industry and have been donated to us free of charge, or at a substantially reduced cost and we pass these savings on to you and every penny goes directly to the Christmas fund.

This year we are trying to get companies to donate die cast replicas of their fleet so that we can sell them in our store. In this area everyone can help, just contact your company and inform them of our Christmas drive and see if they will donate one of their die cast replica’s to our store.

The items in our store will be changing daily so check back often. Of special interest to our Canadian drivers, OBAC (Owner-Operator’s Business Assoc. of Canada) has donated 10 one year memberships, and many other companies such as AirTabs, CubbyBuddy, Freedom Air Filters, OOIDA and also media personalities such as Kevin Rutherford on SiriusXM’s Trucking Business and Beyond, and Eric Harley of the Red Eye Radio Network have also been great supporters of our cause and you will find products that have been donated from them in our store.

Every little penny we can gather means so much and no donation is too small and every red cent you donate will go into the fund. Even if you can only afford a dollar it helps. We accept PayPal, credit cards, ComCheck and you can donate online through our website www.truckercharity.org/christmas-group or by phone at 1-888-523-0087

More information, the nomination form as well as testimonial’s from families we have helped in the last 5 years can also be found on our website.

Wishing you all A Very Merry Christmas

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Harry Rudolfs has worked as a dishwasher, apprentice mechanic, editor, trucker, foreign correspondent and taxi driver. He's written hundreds of articles for North American and European journals and newspapers, including features for the Ottawa Citizen, Toronto Life and CBC radio.

With over 30 years experience in the trucking industry he's hauled cars, steel, lumber, chemicals, auto parts and general freight as well as B-trains. He holds an honours BA in creative writing and humanities, summa cum laude.


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  • This is a great and wonderful cause, it seems more and more groups like this are popping up all over our Country. WORKING POOR or just surviving while Banks and other financial institutions grow richer by the day the working families grow poorer.People cannot rely on governments any longer to feed families or clothe them. Places like Value Village and Salvation Army stores are booming. The trucking industry pays very poorly when you calculate the hours away from families and strictly mileage pay. Wal Marts and other retail stores will be getting their freight even on Christmas day because some trucker will leave his family to get the extra miles so they can eat even if it is from a food bank. Thanks God for your organization and the other charitable organizations out there.

  • Thanks for the reply Tony. You hit the nail on the head.

    I would like to thank Harry Rudolphs for allowing me to be his guest blogger for the month. The ability to spread the word among us is so important and his help is very much appreciated.

    Hi and Merry Christmas Well we did it. Another year in the books and just some loose ends to clean up. Thank you all for your help. We couldn’t do it without you. Below is our final tally for this year. We notified the families Thursday night in an 8.5 hr conference call. Merry Christmas to you and your families my friends.

    2013 TRUCKER CHARITY CHRISTMAS

    Here is a recap of this year’s fund drive:

    41 nominations for trucking families in need were received
    12 were disqualified (ineligible, no CDL, no contact info, etc.)
    29 voted on anonymously on a private website
    22 trucking families were selected to receive funds For Christmas
    over $13,000 was distributed to 22 trucking families from 18 states just in time for Christmas

    The Trucker Charity Christmas Group has distributed $60,000 to 100 trucking families in the US and Canada in 6 years

    http://www.truckercharity.org

  • We have 2 special needs boys and a special needs brother in-law that lives with us. I am a truck driver, my wife cates for every one at home i would like to get help for my family for Christmas i know it last mine and tomorrow is Christmas eve and i dont have anything for my wife the love of my life and the boys my brother in-law. If you could help i would be so thankful.

  • Hi Steve, just saw your message today…and forwarded it to Greg Manchester who is instrumental in this charity. My heart goes out to you. Harry

  • Hi Steve. So sorry to hear of the hard times you are encountering. Unfortunately we have already had this years fund drive and distributed the money we raised. We helped 12 families this year. We only do this at Christmas and have no other means of offering assistance. Please visit our website http://www.truckerschristmasgroup.org for more information on what we do. Maybe we can help next year. Also feel free to post on our Facebook page and maybe we can point you in the right direction for some help. Are you American or Canadian? Wishing you all the best.

    Greg Manchester
    Co-founder/public relations director
    Truckerschristmasgroup.org