Mack Trucks donated $25,000 in proceeds from sales of the Mack #ThankATrucker Life Is Good T-shirt to the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund (SCF), a nonprofit offering financial assistance to ill or injured professional drivers and health and wellness programs. “Mack is pleased to be able to offer this donation to the St. Christopher Truckers Relief Fund, while also recognizing the commitment of professional drivers on the front lines,” said John Walsh, Mack vice president of marketing. “Professional drivers are often overlooked, but they are the backbone of the trucking industry, providing essential goods so that the general public has what they need.”
The T-shirt, available at the Mack Shop, www.mackshop.com, features a Mack® MD Series truck driven by the Life is Good icon Jake and the hashtag #ThankATrucker, a social media conversation recognizing the service that professional drivers provide on a daily basis. The SCF helps over-the-road and regional drivers and their families with short-term financial assistance when an illness or injury has affected their ability to work. Assistance may be given in the form of direct payment to the provider for rent, mortgage, utilities, vehicles and insurance. The non-profit also offers health and wellness programs for drivers, such as smoking cessation, health challenges, and free flu, shingles and pneumonia vaccines.
“Professional drivers deserve our praise, recognition and appreciation and these shirts and #ThankATrucker conversation are a great reminder of the dedication and sacrifice these men and women make every day to deliver for American families,´ said Shannon Currier, director of philanthropy and development for the SCF. “Thank you Mack Trucks and Life is Good for this lasting reminder of how essential this industry is today and every day.”
Dave Nemo, host of the Dave Nemo Show on Sirius XM Radio channel 146, his business partner Michael Burns and Dr. John McElligott, owner of Occupational Health Systems in Knoxville, Tennessee with more than 35 years of medical experience, started SCF in 2008. The three partners wanted to address that 70 percent of 3.5 million professional U.S. truck drivers have one or more serious health problems. They also wanted to address that the drivers’ access to medical care is impacted by their irregular work hours and long stints away from home. More than one-third of truck drivers also do not have health insurance, greatly impacting the likelihood they will seek medical attention, according to SCF.