JRBM fund looking for MATS auction items toward philanthropic ends

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Updated Mar 23, 2015

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The Jacob Russell Boulanger Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisted truck drivers in dire circumstances, is hosting an auction at the Mid-America Trucking Show next week, says the organization’s Christine Green. The auction will be held on Saturday, March 28, and Green reports “we have already been receiving great items for the auction” from a variety of vendors and individuals, but “we really welcome and need more items to make this year’s auction even more successful.”

Items large and small are welcome, Green says. “Tools and items pertaining to the trucking industry or life on the road are great, but other items are welcome too. Redbox has donated a voucher for 25 one-night rentals. I myself am donating an afghan I knit. If someone would like to ship an item they can contact me for an address.” Green can be reached at her email address: [email protected]. Keep an eye on the Fund’s website for a list of thus-far donated items posted likely this week.

Given that the show is just more than a week away, Green directs companies or individuals who will be in attendance at MATS and are eager to donate items to drop the item off at the JRBM Fund’s booth, #72105 in the West Wing Pavilion area at the Kentucky Convention Center in Louisville upon the show’s beginning next week.

The Mid-America Trucking Show’s public hours are Thursday-Saturday, March 26-28.

The fund also needs “folks to come by our booth and bid on items!” Green emphasizes. “This auction is important to us because our volunteers are mostly all drivers and scattered across the country, and MATS is one opportunity we have to come together and host a fundraiser.”

The last few years have been times of growth for the fund, since establishing operations in 2011. In 2012, Green says, the organization provided financial assistance to 17 trucking families. “In 2013 that increased to 26” families. “In 2014 we provided nearly $20,000 in assistance to 37 families. All financial support given is of a life-sustaining and necessary nature in keeping with our belief in ‘A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out.'”

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To help people remember the organization better, in addition to the primary JRBMfund.org website, the group’s created HelpaTrucker.org, where truckers and other can find links to information on getting help, donating, or volunteering to work with the organization. “We really would love to have more volunteers to help handle cases and to shorten the time from a client’s initial contact until the case is submitted to the board,” Green says.