Howard Salmon hit the ground running when he joined Trucker Buddy as a volunteer in 2005, engaging his class right from the start.

    “The class immediately responded to him with great enthusiasm and admiration,” said Sonja Padgett, teacher of the second-grade class with which Salmon is matched at Anderson Heights Elementary School in Anderson, Calif. “Every year gets better.”

    The above and beyond that earned Salmon the ACS MultiMedia Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month award for January, however, was his additional effort to support the organization through fundraising.
Early on, Salmon was as inspired by his students as they were by him, and he wrote a Trucker Buddy song for his class. Frequently accompanied by his guitar when he visited his class, Salmon, Padgett and the students all sing along together.

    “This program is so inspiring,” Salmon said. “I don’t have children of my own, and being a Trucker Buddy enables me to give something to lots of children.”

    Part of the song to be recorded includes children singing, which will be performed on the CD by the second graders at Anderson Heights Elementary. A sample of the lyrics:

    “Who would they look up to if I turn and walk away, and who would they rely on if I look the other way. It’s important that I teach them and to help them on their way, ’cause who would they look up to if I turn and walk away. Take the time to listen to what they have to say ’cause the days just go so fast and might just slip away. When they stop to ask me questions and I just send them away, they’ll find another answer and they might just drift away.”

    In early 2006, Salmon was moved to share the song with other Trucker Buddy classes and began pursuing options for having the lyrics recorded and set to CD. To date, he has gotten the music recorded and donated, the next step is to get the lyrics added to the music, and he is seeking sponsors to assist with the cost of having the CDs burned. The goal is to have the song available to the public in time for distribution at the Mid-America Trucking Show, the largest trade show in the trucking industry, which is scheduled for March 27-29. Salmon will donate all proceeds from the CDs to Trucker Buddy.

    Songwriting is not the only talent Salmon brings to his class, noted Padgett.

    “Since he is also an accomplished photographer, we have received beautiful pictures of places we have never been to, including historical monuments,” the teacher said, adding that he also sends pictures of native plants and animals from where they are across the country.

    “This year he took a group picture of our two second-grade classes and had it printed on t-shirts, which he gave to each student and teacher,” Padgett wrote in her June 2007 nomination letter. “We all signed his shirt so he could wear it at the truck show in Las Vegas.”

    While having all this fun, Howard still adheres to the basics of the program to supplement and encourage the students’ education.

    “Howard has traveled across the country sending us e-mail messages, pictures and postcards,” Padgett said. “We think he would be a terrific Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month.”

    Salmon is an owner operator who lives in Anderson, Calif.

    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 (www.tmi-multimedia.com), the advertising agency of choice for the trucking industry. They also receive an IdleAire window adaptor and a free Gold Membership (www.IdleAire.com), a Koolatron cooler and a complete set of Airtabs for their tractor or trailer (www.airtab.com). The class will receive a CrossCountry USA game from Ingenuity Works (www.ingenuityworks.com), which will help them learn more about how trucks move freight across the continent.

    Salmon is among some 3,000 other professional drivers who share their time with elementary classes throughout the world. 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.

    Trucker Buddy is dependent on corporate sponsors such as ACS MultiMedia Advertising to fund the program. Major contributors include Diamond Level: J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc., plus media partners DAT Services/Transcore, Gears, Guts & Glory, Randall-Reilly Publishing Co. and The Internet Truckstop. Gold Level sponsors are Wal-Mart, along with media partners American Trucking Associations, American Graphics Group’s Driving Force and rpm, America’s Truckin’ Network, CCJ Magazine, IdleAire Technologies, Mike Ryan Motorsports, Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), The Midnight Trucking Radio Network, Ramp Publishing’s Over The Road and Pro Trucker, OTR-Canada Magazine and TruckDriver.com. Silver Level sponsors are ArvinMeritor, Bridgestone/Firestone, Freightliner and Kenworth Truck Company, along with media partners Drivers 4 Hire, Riggs & Recruits and TruckFlix.com.

    Trucker Buddy International is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping educate and mentor schoolchildren via a pen-pal relationship between professional truck drivers and children in grades two through eight. Trucker Buddy matches classes of students with professional truck drivers, and every week drivers share news about their travels with their class. Once a month, students write letters to their drivers. Students’ skills in reading, writing, geography, mathematics, social studies and history are enhanced and learning is fun. Since 1992, Trucker Buddy has helped educate more than a million schoolchildren while introducing them to caring, compassionate men and women who help drive the economy. Trucker Buddy has participants in North America, Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Africa and India. For more information about Trucker Buddy International, visit www.truckerbuddy.org or call 1-800-MY-BUDDY.