Going A Mile For America
Carlisle Carrier Corp., Mechanicsburg, Pa., had three times the number of driver volunteers as it needed to transport a dozen truckloads of food and other supplies donated by its customers into the areas affected by the attacks. Like most companies, they discovered that everyone wanted to help in some way. So Carlisle came up with a program to allow everyone to get into the act, called "Going a Mile for America."
On Oct. 11, the one-month anniversary of the attacks, the company donated 5 cents a mile for every mile traveled by their trucks that day. Drivers could donate 5 centsa mile for each mile they drove; 56 of them — about half the number who drove that day — participated. It's a turnout Debbie Klineyoung, director of special projects who organized the effort, called "remarkable."
Shippers were also given a chance to donate 5 cents per mile their freight moved that day. Caterpillar, which supplies the fleet's engines, donated a flat amount. Pledge cards allowed office personnel, family and friends to donate, as well.
"We had a lot of people, the people who don't drive trucks, who went out door to door in their neighborhoods," said President Dave Metzler. "One gal raised $260, five bucks at a time." The proceeds, nearly $7,500 in all, were donated to the Red Cross.
Klineyoung explained that the program was actually in the works before the terrorist attacks. "We had as a company decided we had reached a point, were big enough, where it was time to give something back to the community," she said. Originally, the target was going to be to raise money for breast cancer, since one of the company's owners is a breast cancer survivor and two drivers have been lost in the last year due to breast cancer. Klineyoung was scheduled to present an outline of the program at the staff meeting on Sept. 12. After the attacks, switching the focus to America's relief efforts "just seemed like a natural evolution of the program," she said.
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