The heart of professional truck drivers will be on full display this Mother’s Day as the Make-A-Wish Mother’s Day Truck Convoy makes its way through a 26-mile stretch of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
<p>Now in its 30<sup>th</sup> year, the convoy serves as a fundraiser for <a href="http://philadesv.wish.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, Delaware & Susquehanna Valley,</a> which seeks to fulfill wishes for hundreds of children battling life-threatening illnesses.</p><p>The convoy will begin and end on Sunday, May 12, at <a href="http://www.burlepark.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Burle Business Park</a> in Lancaster, which will also host the <a href="http://site.wish.org/site/TR?fr_id=2802&pg=informational&sid=1496" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mother’s Day Truck Convoy & Family Fun Day</a>. The event, which also raises money for Make-A-Wish, will feature music, a live auction, food and games.</p><p>Penske is proud to serve as the “Official Convoy Trucking Company” for the <a href="https://blog.gopenske.com/lease/penske-joins-with-mothers-day-convoy-to-help-grant-50-wishes/" rel="noopener noreferrer">third</a> year.</p><p>“The convoy provides this exceptional moment when our wish kids are the center of attention for all of the right reasons,” said Ben Lee, regional director of Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, Delaware & Susquehanna Valley.</p><p>The chapter has granted more than 6,000 wishes since its founding in 1986. Most of the wishes from children fall into four categories: I wish to go, I wish to be, I wish to have or I wish to meet.</p><p>The convoy began with a child’s wish to ride in a big rig, one granted by truck drivers nearly 30 years ago. Since that first wish, the annual fundraiser has raised more than $7 million. The convoy has held two different <a href="http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-truck-convoy" rel="noopener noreferrer">Guinness World Records</a> and is the world’s longest truck convoy.</p><p>As many as 600 truck drivers are expected to participate in the convoy this year, Lee said, making this the largest convoy to date. About 130 wish kids are expected to ride in the convoy, which attracts about 25,000 spectators each year.</p><p>In addition to the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary celebration, the event will have a new attraction this year: a “Wish Angel” bus.</p><p>“It is a special bus that we have never done before,” Lee said. “We have parents who have lost a child, and a majority of them have never had a chance to see the convoy. Now, they will get to experience the convoy and see the love people have for them along the route, and I am excited about that.”</p><p>Penske has been happy to support the work of Make-A-Wish on behalf of the children and families it serves.</p><p>“It is astonishing what Make-A-Wish does for children with life-threatening medical conditions,” said Andrew Stevenson, a manager of national retail truck centers at Penske. “Their dedication to supporting those families ties back to our core values of commitment and dedication to excellence.”</p><p>“Just the respect of the Penske brand as a national company to have your support, standing alongside us, adds a lot to the legitimacy and admiration to the event,” Lee said. “We are honored to have Penske have their name next to ours.”</p><p>For more information on the Mother’s Day Truck Convoy & Family Fun Day, visit <a href="http://site.wish.org/site/TR/InternalChapterEvent/Make-A-WishPhiladelphiaDelawareandSusquehannaValley?pg=entry&fr_id=2802">WishConvoy.org</a>.</p><p><em>By Bernie Mixon</em></p></div>
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Penske Associates Host Dress Drive to Celebrate Mothers
March 01, 2019
Editor’s note: This story is part of our “50 Stories of People Helping People” series. As we celebrate Penske’s 50th anniversary in 2019, we are spotlighting associates every Friday who are making a difference in their communities.
<p>A new dress has the power to not only reshape a woman’s silhouette but can alter the fabric of how she views herself, enhancing her confidence and sense of empowerment.</p><p>Yet, for mothers with limited means who often put the needs of their children before their own, the opportunity to wear a new garment and share in that feeling can prove to be elusive.</p><p><a href="https://www.gopenske.com/" rel="noopener">Penske</a> associates across Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin have teamed up with the Daisie Foundation to help provide new dresses for women in Chicago and Milwaukee as part of the foundation’s Mother’s Day makeovers initiative.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="383c52c9bcd05923f040ebff3aae8615" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="fee6f" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMTk5NDQxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjA4NDY3OX0.CYDJ0qNnOMRhGbjw_4rl6bqbX3MUyWiaXK3ZCplwFmE/img.jpg?width=980"/><small class="image-media media-caption">Penske associates (pictured left to right) Angelica Hampton, Morgan Vogt, Colleen Walters and Chanley Keathley holding new dresses for the Daisie Foundation's Mother's Day makeovers.</small></p><p>“When you wear something beautiful, you feel beautiful,” said Angelica Hampton, a consumer development manager and lead chairperson for Midway Cares, a community outreach organization made up of Penske’s Chicago Midway associates. “Being able to put on a new dress is the beginning of taking a step toward success.”</p><p>Midway Cares is one of five associate-led community councils collecting new dresses for the Daisie Foundation initiative. The others are in Green Bay, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and North Chicago.</p><p>In May, the foundation will provide makeovers for about 500 women in Chicago and Milwaukee thanks to the generosity of people like Penske’s associates.</p><p><strong>Helping Women and Children Blossom</strong></p><p>For nearly three years, the Daisie Foundation, a Chicago-based non-profit, has made serving the needs of underserved communities its focus.</p><p>“We are very fortunate to empower and impact at-risk children and underserved communities. Our two pillars are specific – women and children,” said Julie Hightower, president of the foundation’s executive board.</p><p>Each December, the foundation hosts a holiday outreach at a Chicago school providing students with holiday gifts and winter accessories, as well as providing a holiday luncheon for faculty and staff.</p><p>“We surprise the entire school with a holiday celebration. We bring in Santa, and we literally have thousands of gifts we distribute and give to the children,” Hightower said. “We also surprise the teachers and the principals as well with amazing gifts, and it is absolutely incredible.”</p><p>Penske has participated in the holiday event since 2017, offering the use of a Penske rental truck to help transport the gifts, while associates have assisted with wrapping.</p><p>“The Penske team has grown each year, and it is absolutely phenomenal,” Hightower said.<strong> </strong></p><p>Each year the organization hosts a Mother’s Day makeover event providing single mothers, cancer survivors as well as military spouses and veterans with the opportunity to receive transformational makeovers.</p><p>The day of beauty includes full makeup, a new dress, accessories and the chance to participate in a photo shoot, which also provides the women with professional headshots.</p><p>This is where the new dress donations take center stage.</p><p>“It is extremely important that these are brand new dresses and not used. These moms are used to getting hand-me-downs or dresses that have been worn, so we want them to experience a day of transformation,” Hightower said. “We want them to feel amazing, fabulous and celebrated on Mother’s Day.”</p><p><strong><u>Midway Cares</u></strong></p><p>When Penske’s Hampton and other members of Midway Cares first heard about the Mother’s Day makeovers earlier this year, they knew they had to become a part of it.</p><p>Midway Cares formed last fall to provide associates in Penske’s Chicago Midway district with volunteer opportunities in their local communities.</p><p>The core mission of the council is to be an advocate for positive change in the community by empowering and supporting associates to make a difference through attitude and volunteerism.</p><p>“We created this with Penske’s mantra of having a will-do attitude in mind. We wanted to make sure that the same attitude not only was applied throughout the Penske brand but throughout our communities as well,” Hampton said.</p><p>In addition to assisting with the Daisie holiday celebration, the council participated in Penske Pink Out, a day set aside by associates across the company to highlight breast cancer awareness, as well as a local 5K event to bring awareness to Epilepsy.</p><p>Midway Cares began to rally support for the Mother’s Day makeovers in January asking women – and men – throughout the district to commit to donating a new dress.</p><p>“We wanted to give back, whether through manpower or being able to provide something more tangible,” Hampton said. “We found an opportunity to not only give our time but something that could also change the next person’s life.”</p><p>Colleen Walters, an assistant rental manager in Penske’s Romeoville, Illinois, branch, said she was inspired to join with the dress donation drive because it gave her an opportunity to empower other women. She is planning to donate a casual dress that can be adapted for work or leisure.</p><p>“The dress will help them feel empowered and beautiful after receiving it as well as cared for on a different level,” Walters said.</p><p>Chanley Keathley has one hope for the woman who chooses her garment.</p><p>“I hope that the dress will make her feel appreciated, to know someone out there cares for her and recognizes that she is working hard,” said Keathley, a management trainee at the Chicago Midway branch. “They should continue to push hard, no matter what they may face. People are rooting for them.”</p><p>It is this kind of support that Hightower said will make a difference in the lives of the makeover recipients.</p><p>“We have been able to partner with some amazing companies like Penske that truly have a heart for social responsibility and that truly have a community giveback spirit, and that’s what helps us have an amazing event,” Hightower said.</p><p><em>By Bernie Mixon</em></p></div>
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It was Matt’s one true wish – to ride inside a big rig and speak with his sister Heather on a CB radio.
<p><a href="http://philasv.wish.org/">Make-A-Wish</a>, a charitable organization which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions, put out a call for one truck driver to help make Matt’s wish come true. More than 40 responded, giving rise to what would become an annual tradition in <a href="http://www.co.lancaster.pa.us/">Lancaster County, Pennsylvania</a>.</p><p>Some 28 years after that first Mother’s Day ride, professional drivers – including five from <a href="https://www.gopenske.com/whypenske/">Penske</a> are set to assemble Sunday, May 14, at <a href="http://www.burlepark.com/">Burle Business Park</a> in Lancaster for the Mother’s Day Truck Convoy & Family Fun Day to raise money to help fulfill the wishes of other Make-A-Wish children.</p><p>“It was so wonderful that the drivers who were there that year wanted to come back and turn this into something that casts a positive light on Make-A-Wish but also on professional truck drivers who aren’t always held in high esteem as I think they deserve,” said Ben Lee, regional director of Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, Northern Delaware & Susquehanna Valley.</p><p>Over the years, the convoy, which charts a 26-mile route in Lancaster County, has raised close to $6 million. This year, the chapter hopes to raise $450,000, which will help to grant wishes to children in the Susquehanna Valley. Last year, the convoy set a Guinness World Record for the longest truck convoy with 590 trucks.</p><p>“It was so long that by the time the first trucks were returning, we had a couple dozen still sitting in the parking lot, so we had an unbroken loop still going of trucks and trailers,” he said.</p><p>Among the 500 trucks that are expected to participate this year will be a 16 ft. Hicube, a box truck, a reefer truck, a day cab tractor and a sleeper tractor from Penske, named this year’s “Official Convoy Trucking Company.”</p><p><a href="http://wish.org/#sm.000gzv9dbqgnd8911td2cafsdajuv">Make-A-Wish America </a> was founded in 1980 by a group of caring police officers who helped to grant a terminally ill boy’s wish to become a highway patrol officer. Since then the organization has grown to include 62 chapters across the country as well as internationally.</p><p>The organization grants one wish every 35 minutes, and since it began more than 270,000 wishes have been granted in the U.S. alone.</p><p>Lee’s chapter, which serves children in Bucks, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Perry and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania as well as New Castle County in Delaware, reached a milestone of its own last month by granting its 6,000<sup>th</sup> wish.</p><p>The chapter receives referrals from parents, guardians and medical professionals of children ranging in age from 2 to 18 years old at the time of referral.</p><p>Few boundaries are placed on a child’s wish.</p><p>“We really do hone in on what is the one true wish if you could wish for anything in the world that would contribute to hope, strength or joy in your life to give you the strength to battle through treatment,” Lee said. “In the case of some families, the wish is an opportunity sadly to have one last shared memory together.”</p><p>Making memories on Mother’s Day is what the convoy and carnival is all about.</p><p>“We have a lot of moms who bring their kids and that is the kid’s gift to mom – being present and volunteering,” Lee said.</p><p>The day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a carnival featuring food, an auction, games, clowns and costumed characters, live music and other performances. Proceeds from food purchases and auction items benefit the Make-A-Wish chapter. Last year about 7,000 people attended the carnival.</p><p>Then promptly at 1:30 p.m., the convoy begins to move along the 26-mile route, winding through Amish country, through downtown Ephrata and back to the Burle Business Park. About 25,000 people line the route each year to watch the convoy, Lee said.</p><p>Each truck in the convoy will have a banner on the front bumper that says “Make-A-Wish” or “Wish Child on Board.”</p><p>“Probably the highlight for most people that they love and the reason why they line the roadways is every year about 150 or so former Wish Kids come back and they get to ride in the trucks,” Lee said. “Seeing the Wish kids in the cabs of the truck and cheering them on is the highlight of the convoy for most people.”</p><p>When it came to finding a trucking partner for this year’s event, teaming up with Penske was a natural choice, Lee said.</p><p>“Penske is such an iconic image on the road. Make-A-Wish would do well to share their name with such a large and respected company like Penske,” he said. “Penske every year has donated a full-size moving truck that we use for convoy set up and transporting goods that day.”</p><p>Andrew Stevenson, a manager of national retail truck centers at Penske, said he spent many Mother’s Days sitting along the convoy route watching the trucks go by. It is a tradition that he has passed along to his young son, Chase.</p><p>“It is an experience sitting along the convoy route watching all of the trucks go by. Each driver honked their horns and waved to the crowds,” Stevenson said. “Seeing the smiles on the faces of the Wish kids riding in the trucks is priceless.”</p><p>Admission to the event is free. For more information on the Mother’s Day Truck Convoy & Family Fun Day, visit the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.philasv.wish.org_convoy&d=DwMFAg&c=h3doYy8SM5A3ClRIfuW3kMsQeA1oLqCc_JYUUs-p_mE&r=EJ5SUrl5Gl6-9lui79j0pDMkgCpNgReCD3C-1pzpJOo&m=vALN2GxQiw27MW0FfoVleSVql7Fyk9j_LhT-pEP6D2Q&s=IOioaORy_eZcJ3a5_WLm-k7OjrU5syMPDm5EwwfCUo4&e=">Make-A-Wish</a> website.</p><p><em>By Bernie Mixon</em></p></div>
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