‘American Trucker’ to show USA Truck relief efforts
by July 13, 2011 9:36 am 93 views
A national television show set to air Thursday night documents the efforts of Van Buren-USA Truck to send relief supplies to Joplin, Mo., following a May 22 tornado that destroyed large parts of the city and killed 159.
SPEED Channel’s “American Trucker” series sent a crew to document the loading of a USA Truck trailer parked at the First Baptist Church in Van Buren. Cameras were mounted inside the truck to record truck driver Ken Vosejpka’s drive to Joplin.
The show, to air at 9 p.m., July 14, on SPEED Channel is the series’ season 2 premiere. The show may be viewed locally on Cox (Channels 60 and 2060 HD), Dish Network (Channel 150 HD) or DirecTV (Channel 607 HD).
“Tragedy is also an opportunity to help, and truck driver Ken Vosejpka was one of those people who heeded the early call,” noted the promo story on the SPEED Channel website. “A retired United States Marine of 25 years, he and his USA Truck colleagues were among the first outside supply teams on the scene in the aftermath of the devastation. For the past decade, responding to natural disasters has become a part of the company’s charitable culture.”
Jeremy Scott, USA Truck marketing supervisor, said the company sent two truckloads to Joplin. A trailer, parked at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith and loaded through the efforts of hospital employees and volunteers, made the Joplin trip on June 1.
On June 3, a trailer loaded at First Baptist Church in Van Buren was delivered to Joplin.
USA Truck also delivered trailers loaded with relief supplies to Tuscaloosa, Ala. (May 9), and Denning, Ark. (June 1).
“I guest the show found out about that,” Scott said when asked how the Joplin delivery documentary came about. “They contacted me and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in a show because we’d like to show how trucks get supplies to affected areas.’”
Scott praised the work of the USA Truck employees who helped make the process work, and also praised the employees and volunteers with St. Edward and First Baptist Church of Van Buren.
“They deserve a lot of that (credit). … They filled those trailers,” Scott said.
American Trucker host Robb Mariani, said the trip to Joplin proved that news accounts of the devastation were no match for seeing it in person.
“What you see on the news, in that five-minute bit on your local station or newspaper, doesn’t come remotely close to the impact of what actually went on in the strike zone. We were all left speechless, crew and all, and we were dumbfounded at the amount of devastation. It literally looked like you took that path of ground and stuck it in a meat grinder. There was nothing left,” Mariani said in the promo report.