Happy Independence Day!
We hope you and yours have a safe and happy holiday this coming Fourth of July, and please remember to honor our young men and women serving in the military.
The ACS MultiMedia Trucker Buddy
Driver of the Month
Beth Eder
Third graders at Delhi Elementary School in Delhi, Iowa, have a partner in education and a great role model thanks to the volunteer efforts of professional truck driver Beth Eder, who has been named the June 2007 ACS MultiMedia Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month.
"Beth has been nothing short of terrific. I consider her a true partner in education," said Teacher Susanne Reiter, who has been matched with Eder for more than six years. "Through correspondence with our Trucker Buddy Beth, the students get meaningful practice in writing friendly letters, feeling someone truly cares about them and an understanding of the trucking industry. They are learning about being appreciative for someone's thoughtfulness as we write thank-you letters. Because Beth is a woman driver, she is a great role model for the little girls. Through her job description, the girls are made aware of possible careers that might not be traditional to them."
Eder goes far above and beyond the basic requirements of the program, which includes sending a postcard once a week to the classroom.
"Beth is incredibly prolific with correspondence. My students receive postcards from all over the country on a regular basis. We have a big wall map dedicated to tracking Beth's travels. Whenever we receive a postcard from a state, the students vie for the chance to read the postcard and locate the state and attach the postcard to the matching state. In this way, they are learning facts about the state and get practice in geography."
To supplement the geography lessons, Eder sends items from around the United States that represent the different parts of the country - tumbleweed from Texas, cotton from Alabama, cactus seeds from Arizona, chopsticks from China Town in San Francisco and more.
"The geography really comes in handy in social studies," wrote student Jazz in nominating Eder for Driver of the Month.
Pictures from around the country also make learning more fun. Eder takes pictures of herself and her dog, Teddi, a standard poodle who travels with her in her Peterbilt, next to notable or unique monuments and other landmarks.
"Another fun thing Beth does is to take photos of herself and her truck next to 'big' things. This might include the world's biggest coffeepot, or biggest statue of something," Reiter said. "Beth sends letters to the kids 'authored' by Teddi. Teddi might be standing near a sajauro cactus, an Indian teepee, standing in a western ghost town, etc. Those photos are a favorite of the kids."
Eder also reads to the students by recording herself reading a children's book. She sends the tapes along with the book so the children can hear her personally reading to them. The students feel even closer to her when they hear her voice, Reiter said.
Eder supplements other aspects of the students' curriculum in creative ways.
"She seems to have a sixth sense about what we are studying," Reiter said. "During our science unit over plants, a box containing a packet of sunflower seeds for each child arrived. When we were studying the westward movement by the pioneers, she sent a postcard featuring a Conestoga wagon."
Eder also teaches the students life lessons, Reiter added.
"She regularly encourages them to study hard and spend time reading. During hunting season here in Iowa, she somehow obtained blaze orange hunter safety vests for each student," Reiter related.
Eder is an owner operator leased to Marten Transport, Mondovi, Wis., and has been with the company since 1996. Eder, who became a volunteer with Trucker Buddy in 2001, makes her home in Park Falls, WI.
Eder was nominated for Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month because, among other attributes, "She is very very smart and magnificent," said student Shaylyn. Student Megan says Eder is "the best Trucker Buddy ever." More than half of the 22 students, in their nomination letters, said Eder should be the Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month because she "encourages us to learn."
"Thank you for the opportunity to acknowledge a professional truck driver who personifies the Trucker Buddy ideal," Reiter said. "I would hope that all matches are as successful as ours."
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 adaptor ( www.IdleAire.com), a Koolatron cooler and a complete set of Airtabs for their tractor or trailer ( www.airtab.com). Owner operators receive a set of steer tires from Continental Tire. 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.
Eder is among some 3,500 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. Drivers and teachers can find out more about the program by visiting www.truckerbuddy.org or calling 1-800-MY-BUDDY.
Trucker Buddy is dependent on corporate sponsors such as ACS MultiMedia Advertising and TruckDriver.com to fund the program
The TruckDriver.com Truck Driver Turnover Survey has been closed for some time now, but the results are still available by clicking on the TruckDriver.com Truck Driver Turnover Survey Results link.
We are still anxiously awaiting your photos from the TruckDriver.com Digital Camera Survey. We weren't kidding...send us your photos, we'll put them in a future edition of the e-Report.
If you remember last issue, we said we'd bet a nickel that 99.9% of you carry a cell phone.
Well, according to the results of the TruckDriver.com Cell Phone Bill Survey, it's only 95.6%. There's a nickel down the drain.
And, BTW, (we're trying to catch on to all the latest cyber short-hand) some of you may have noticed that the initial version of the survey was very confusing. The response choices didn't make much sense, IOHO, (see, we're getting the hang of it) so we contacted the person responsible for the actual composition of the e-Report and had the correct response choices added. Unfortunately, the incorrect version was online for most of the day.
So, we do apologize, and we'll try not to let it happen again, iykwwm. (we're really getting with it now!)
Anyway, here's what you told us about your monthly cell phone bill:
48% of you pay more than $100 a month
29% of you pay between $50 and $100
13% pay between $25 and $50
6% pay less than $25
And, as we said earlier, around four percent of you, don't use a cell phone.
Speaking of monthly bills, it seems like we used to hear a lot of talk about how expensive
it is to eat on the road. We haven't heard that much talk about it lately. Maybe, with everything else that is going in the world today, meal expense doesn't seem like a very big issue. But, we can't help thinking that it's still a big chunk of a change.
Take The TruckDriver.com Cost of Eating on the Road Survey and let us know if we are right. We'll let you know next issue.
Until then, keep on truckin' and please drive safely.
If you're surfing the internet and you read these words and you don't have any tasks or responsibilities you need to take care of, you right as well click this link and check out our wonderful recruitment propaganda and application! "So much to gain and so little to lose, other than a little time………..”
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