This story is the ultimate tragedy with a hopefully happy outcome for two-year-old Enoch McGovern of Lee, Maine. McGovern’s mother, according to Bangor CBS channel five, “left notes behind at home before she stepped in front of a tanker truck on I-95 near Lincoln earlier this month. Her death was ruled a suicide.”
Her young son was with her at the time and survived the aftermath but with severe injuries. Machinist Jason Perry, Treasurer of IAMAW Local S6 out of Bath, Me., found out about young Enoch’s situation via a dump-truck driver friend who’d posted about it to his personal social media profile. That friend, who hauls for a paving company, “wanted to get a few trucks together to drive past” McGovern’s hospital room as an honor to him, Perry says, to let the young boy know that the trucking community was thinking about him and supporting his recovery. The friend “didn’t want [Enoch] to grow up hating trucks” and truckers.
Seeing that post, Perry, who has memorial convoy-organizing experience in his recent past and runs the Maine Diesel Classifieds enthusiast Facebook group, shared the original post and, since then, the “Convoy for a Cause” has occupied him almost entirely.
Posted by Maine Diesels on Friday, October 12, 2018
This Saturday, October 27, truckers, motorcyclists and others will gather at the Winterport Dragway in Winterport, Me., then have a police escort to I-95 and up to Bangor, where they’ll proceed through town to pass the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center where Enoch McGovern is recovering. “We will be collecting a minimum $10 donation at the gate that will be donated 100 percent to the family,” Perry said, and the food vendor for the event has likewise “pledged at least 50 percent” of profits to go to the McGoverns, who have requested privacy through local media while thanking the community for its outpouring of support. There will also be a raffle to benefit the young man.
Truckers looking to participate need not pre-register, Perry noted, though he did note that no trailers will be allowed in the convoy, bobtail tractors a-OK. If you arrive with a trailer, he suspected, though, that the dragway is likely to have space to drop a limited number.
If you’re based in the Bangor area or the greater region, this event could well be a difference-maker to be part of.
You can access information and communicate with Perry via his parallel Maine Diesels info page.
