Have you considered being a Trucker Buddy?
Let’s face it…if you drive a truck for a living, your job most likely doesn’t involve anything to do with children. Maybe your kids are long grown or perhaps you may still have young children living in your home. If you are a parent or grandparent, you have a responsibility to set a good example for younger generations. Maybe you never had any children and wonder what it would be like to pass on your knowledge, skills or creativity.
Being a trucker buddy gives you the opportunity to communicate with a classroom teacher to decide how you can best assist her/him to teach the students about your career in the trucking industry. You get to be creative and come up with ideas on how to pass along your experience and knowledge of your job and our great country. Children enjoy learning about the highways, safety, cities, products and driving a truck. They enjoy hearing about your travels and places that you have visited. Students want to learn how products are manufactured, shipped and how they reach their final destination. If you ever have the opportunity to visit your class in person and take your truck, you’ll be their hero for life!
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I refer to the many depictions of a Semi-Truck from my class as Trucker Buddy concept trucks. |
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I have been a trucker buddy for several years now and I can tell you that this is a very rewarding experience. I have enjoyed my classes of students throughout the years. The effort in which I put into this program has definitely brought me many personal rewards. The children are eager to learn and I enjoy sharing my experiences and knowledge with them.
If you are considering being a part of the trucker buddy program, I would invite you to jump in and give it a try. It’s up to us as drivers to be responsible and to set a positive image for our industry. Being a good trucker buddy is just one way that we can give back to our industry and the younger generation.
The Trucker Buddy organization began back in 1992 as a non-profit which links truck drivers with classrooms around the country.
Essentially this is a pen-pal program with teachers and students communicating throughout the school year. The truck driver, students and teacher exchange email, written letters, postcards and blogs in order to correspond with each other.
Teachers participate in order to give their students an opportunity to learn skills in geography, math, history, social studies, reading and writing. The program has grown over the years and includes
approximately 2,100 drivers, 2,300 teachers and nearly 60,000 students who participate in all of the contiguous 48 states, as well as Canada and parts of Europe.
If you would like more information on the program or if you are interested in becoming a trucker buddy, please visit
Trucker Buddy International .