When Robert and Linda Utteridge pull into a truckstop at night, they do what every trucker on the road does; they fuel up, grab a bite to eat and clean off. But then the Utteridges go looking for postcards, interesting facts, souvenirs and, sometimes, even vegetation to send back home to their pen pals – 125 10-year-olds who write to them and track their progress across the United States on a map in their classroom.
The Utteridges are Trucker Buddies; they are volunteers in a nonprofit organization that teams professional truck drivers with school children in grades 2-8 to enrich literacy and geography programs and promote safety awareness.
On a recent trip through Mississippi, the Utteridges sent a group of postcards to their pen pals from Southeast Elementary in Brighton, Colo. The postcards had historical and geographic facts; they also had hanging moss attached to them, because the children are studying epiphytes from different regions.
As Trucker Buddies, the Utteridges are responsible for planning program goals with the class teachers.
“We look for things that are historically significant,” says Linda Utteridge. “The kids track routing and learn about geography. We have been most impressed with the way this program promotes literacy with the children.”
One-third of the children in the five classes the Utteridges are partnered with are Hispanic, and most of those speak Spanish as their primary language. As part of the program, the classes write to the Utteridges at least once a month. Linda says she can already see the long-term effects this program has on the lives of the children.
One boy in the grade was working at a first-grade reading level and refused to write in the beginning of the year. After participating in the endangered-species-awareness program, he began to write letters.
