Saluting 9-11 Memorials
E-mail Campaign improves trucking's image.
We've been bombarded by what has to be the most copied trucker e-mail in my experience in this industry. I'm referring to the "Rolling 9-11 Memorial" chain e-mail that began making its electronic rounds before the Mid-America Truck Show earlier this year.
Here is the first version I received:
This common carrier brought us a frozen load of Gilroy Foods today. This truck was awesome. You can decide whether or not it is. Here is some info I took down after talking with the owner-operator.
Their names are John & Amy Holmgren. They live in Shafer, Minn. They thought this would be a nice tribute to the people that lost their lives.
It has the name of each person that lost their life on 9-11. This concept was thought up by John and Amy, and totally paid for by them. John says he will be awhile paying the loan off that he had to take out to do it but, thought this was the least he could do. Applied Graphics in Fargo, N.D. did most of the work and Paul Kosenski did the hand painting.
He said that he got to meet the country singer Darryl Worley, who sang the song "Have You Forgotten" and has gotten pulled over 3 times by the police just to get their picture taken by this truck. (I would have pulled him over too!!)
He plans on attending the Mid America Truck show in Louisville KY in March. I thought our employees may enjoy seeing the pics. It is called the Rolling 9-11 Memorial, it has all the names of the people that were killed on that day and the flights they were on plus some other graphics on the side of the tractor. Now for the AWESOME PICTURES.
Unfortunately, the original source of the e-mail had long since been deleted from it. And I wasn't able to attend the Mid-America Show to get the real scoop on the truck due to an unfortunate incident involving me and a large horse.
You see, we can't use unattributed information sent to us via anonymous e-mails. We also can't use photos in the magazine unless we know who took them and they give us permission. Another problem: e-mail quality photos are not of high enough resolution to print any larger than a postage stamp. So we couldn't print them even if we weren't facing a lawsuit for publishing someone's photography without their permission.
I asked our editor-at-large and show truck expert Bette Garber to contact the Holmgrens for an interview and to take photos of the rig. It took some doing, but she was finally able to track them down. Bette will meet with them and take some photos that we can publish as soon as she and the Holmgrens can coordinate their schedules.
I still probably get two or three copies of this e-mail a day. So, for all of you who have copied me with it and its various transmutations since March, thanks. And I'm not ignoring you.
We have extensively covered many of the other memorials to 9-11 in our sister publication RoadStar (July 2002, "Truckers Salute America" photo feature).
One of the most spectacular memorials to 9-11 — "The Trucks of Ground Zero" — was covered in the August, 2002, issues of RoadStar and HDT. The rig belongs to Donnie and Diana Harper. The fifth wheel cover on the truck is a touching tribute to the fallen firefighters.
Yes, we agree it's a fine thing that all these wonderful folks have decorated their rigs as a salute to those who lost their lives in 9-11. And we'll definitely give you the whole story behind the Holmgren's tribute in an upcoming issue.
And while these memorial trucks have certainly struck a chord among truckers, they're also "rolling image improvers" for the entire industry.
The e-mail chain is a fine way to spread the word about all the good truckers do. Millions of people — not only truckers — have probably seen the Holmgren e-mail. So keep forwarding it on, especially to legislators and regulators. The general media folks might take an interest, too. They might want to check it out and do their own story.
Maybe Bette should start her own chain e-mail of all the 9-11 rigs. I'll ask her.
E-mail Deb at dwhistler@truckinginfo.com
