Trucker Buddy News

Trucker Buddy news

Students learn letter-writing, geography, how to tie down a load

After counting down the days to their Trucker Buddy’s visit, the second-grade students in Christina Demonbreun’s class were so excited you’d have thought Santa Claus was coming!
     “The kids couldn’t wait. He was such an awesome Trucker Buddy to them,” Demonbreun says of her experience with her Trucker Buddy An-drew Pomicter, who was paired with her class at Sunrise Elementary School in Ocala, FL. “He wrote long letters and sent postcards and photo-graphs. This experience was so beneficial for my students.”
     At the beginning of the year, the students colored in their own U.S. maps and each made a “Trucker Buddy” folder to keep it in. Every week when Pomicter’s postcard arrived—or pictures or letters—the students put a sticker on the state from which his correspondence came.
     “I did not assist in this. It was up to them to find the states themselves,” Demonbreun ex-plains. “This was an awesome way for them to learn where the states are. It was so much fun for them! They never dreaded it.”
     The class also had a Trucker Buddy bulletin board with a full-size map on it, where the teacher put photos, letters and postcards so the children could read everything over and over.
     “They were able to write to Andy when they were in the writing centers,” Demonbreun adds. “They learned the proper letter-writing skills, since they had to do it so often.”
     Pomicter made his visit educational as well. During the tour of his truck, Pomicter explained the information he provided through his correspondence: the engine, where the cargo was, how the trailer gets loaded and how to strap down a load, including the significance of tight and loose straps.
     “My kids learned to write letters effectively and correctly, all about the U.S. and where the states are and about being a trucker,” Demonbreun says. “They learned all of this through the Trucker Buddy program, in a real-life way. This is a much more effective way to learn than by lectures and books.”
     Pomicter, an owner-operator who runs two trucks with his company Dragon & Feline Trucking, joined the program in 2006.
     Each Trucker Buddy Driver of the Month receives a personalized jacket, along with a check for $300 to spend on the class and $200 in Trucker Buddy merchandise, compliments of program sponsor ACS MultiMedia Advertising. Drivers and teachers can find out more about the program by visiting www.trucker-buddy.org or calling 1-800-MY-BUDDY.

Photo caption:
Andrew Pomicter visits his Trucker Buddy class at Sunrise Elementary School.