In early October, the trucking industry came together to help hard working families in the Kitchener-Waterloo region realize their dream of home ownership.
Over four days, teams of employees from Bison Transport, Trailer Wizards, Liberty Linehaul, Challenger Motor Freight, Kriska Transportation Group, Midland Transport, Tandet, Toronto Trucking Association, Erb Transport, and Fortigo Freight picked up their hammers and spent the day learning new skills, teambuilding, and making a difference in their community. Overall, 48 trucking industry employees volunteered 400 hours and contributed $10,000 in corporate support and fundraising to the Habitat project.
Said Pete Dalmazzi of Trucks For Change Network (T4C) , the industry non-profit group organizing the event “When our industry comes together at events like this, everybody wins – we help build stronger communities, our employees build teamwork, and we raise the public profile of our industry. Our goal is to organize more Habitat builds across the country to give more industry people the chance for this amazing experience”.
Habitat For Humanity’s homebuilding program supports families needing a “hand up, not a hand-out”. Partner families are required to volunteer 500 hours toward their home, and receive an interest-free mortgage to help them break the cycle of poverty. You can learn more about their programs at www.Habitat.ca.
This is T4C’s 4th annual “trucking takeover week” organized by T4C at Habitat’s Kehl St. build site in Kitchener. To date, trucking industry teams have contributed over 1500 volunteer hours and $40,000 in fundraising towards the project. The Kehl Street complex, begun in 2013, will be 45 units when completed. There are 28 units completed with 26 families already living in their homes.
Said Danielle Ringer, Volunteer Co-ordinator, Habitat For Humanity Waterloo Region “Our construction supervisors always look forward to working with the Trucks For Change Network corporate build teams. They arrive with a great attitude, and they get a ton of work done!”
Visit www.trucksforchange.org to learn more about the many ways the trucking industry is working to support its communities.