Update on 'The Truck'
by Bob Rule, KPIN 101.1 FM Radio
September 8, 2005
It’s a Western Wyoming story which is being talked about with two words: “The Truck”. It arrived in Pinedale Wednesday evening, with both good news and with bad news.
The good news is that on its trip through Kemmerer, The Star Valley and Jackson, it was completely filled with food, clothing, bedding, books, games, and other supplies for the Katrina hurricane victims. The bad news is that upon arriving in Pinedale, there was no more space left in the semi-truck’s trailer.
By Wednesday evening, Pinedale residents had assembled enough supplies at the Pinedale Food Basket and the VFW to almost completely fill the truck, and residents of nearby Big Piney, Marbleton and LaBarge also hauled large loads of boxes of supplies for hurricane victims to Pinedale.
The project was started by Bill Johnson of Kemmerer, when he saw a need to help the many people who wanted to donate physical items to the hurricane victims, but had no way to get the supplies to those needing them. Johnson coordinated efforts with the Wyoming Sheriff’s Association, and also with the Governor of Wyoming, and asked for radio stations in western Wyoming to announce his plans. It also helped that he was the Vice President of a trucking company!
Bob Rule, owner of KPIN Radio in Pinedale, provided extensive radio coverage of the proposal. The people of Sublette County responded by donating “the largest collection of cardboard boxes that I’ve even seen”, according to Rule, and they were all filled with items needed by the hurricane victims.
Johnson’s plan was to continue on to Lander, Riverton and Casper, but Wednesday night, Johnson reported to KPIN Radio that it would take an additional truck to pick up the materials assembled in Pinedale, and a third truck just for Riverton.
Finding tractors and drivers is not that hard to do in western Wyoming, with all the oil and gas field operations going on, but coming up with trailers to transport the goods is a bit of a problem. Nevertheless, Johnson expects he'll have a second tractor, trailer and driver lined up this morning, and arriving in Pinedale around noon.
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