Chute is former military himself. “I enlisted in 68,” he says, “finished in 1975 active-duty” in the Air Force, “had a year 
Chute’s run was from Grand Island, Neb., down to San Antonio. The Grand Island connection is to Kathy Siemon there, whose son Craig (both also pictured, with Chute’s rig) is a Special Olympian and a prime force in gathering more than 1,500 donated hats this year. A story about the pair ran in the Nebraska Independent newspaper late last year, featuring owner-operator Howard Salmon when he picked up the first load.
As with Salmon’s load, of which Conway Truckload driver Bill Compton drove the final leg, Chute got help from a larger carrier, too, he says. “Averitt has a terminal directly across the street – they were kind enough to allow us to park across the property to deliver the caps. They didn’t have to do that – they could have said no, but they didn’t.”
And in the final analysis, Chute adds, “It was rewarding for me – It’s really surprising how something as simple as a baseball cap can mean so much to people.”
Read my prior “Exit Only” column about “Hats for Heroes” in Truckers News or the Channel 19 blog entry.
