Trucker Buddy News

Trucker Buddy news

Driver forges business-school partnership

Through his volunteer efforts as a Trucker Buddy, Thomas “Hotdog” Barstow Sr. provides elementary students educational experiences they will remember for a lifetime. His efforts to go far above and beyond the basic guidelines of the Trucker Buddy program landed him as the ACS MultiMedia Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month for February 2007.

“It is seldom that partnerships between the business world and schools are as successful as has been that of ‘Hotdog’ and Del Prado Elementary School,” said teacher Lenae Breger-Herman. “Tom Barstow is in-deed the very model of what a Trucker Buddy should be.”

While this was Barstow’s first year in the Trucker Buddy program, he took on two classes because they couldn’t find a Trucker Buddy of their own. Barstow is matched with Breger-Herman’s kindergarten class for the current school year.

In addition to sending educational materials and up to five postcards each week to his classes, Barstow also created a national weather Web site station. The station—www.moyockweather.com—provides extensive weather information and serves as a valuable learning tool for students. The Web Weather for Kids page helps the students “learn what makes weather wet and wild” through games, stories, activities and safety tips.

“His site became part of the daily Panther in-house news channel viewed by the entire student body,” Breger-Herman said. “We hope this project will serve as a prototype for schools throughout Palm Beach County.”

Barstow, an owner-operator leased to Transport America, Eagan, MN, has been driving for more than 15 years since leaving a 22-year career in the military. “I think that Trucker Buddy is a great program,” said Bar-stow, who lives in Moyock, NC and teams with his son Thomas Barstow Jr., also a Trucker Buddy. “Transport America has been very supportive of my participation.”

Each Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month receives a personalized jacket, along with a check for $300 to spend on the class and $200 in Trucker Buddy merchandise, compliments of program sponsor ACS MultiMedia Advertising. The only criteria to be a Trucker Buddy is to be a professional truck driver with a CDL who is willing to send a postcard each week to a class in grades two through eight. Drivers and teachers can find out more about the program by visiting www.truckerbuddy.org or calling 1-800-MY-BUDDY.

Thomas “Hotdog” Barstow (l) and his son meet with their class at Del Prado Elementary School