Truckin': A Big Donation to the Clear Path Medical Supplies Program

I cannot remember how many times I have been on the highway in a rented truck or in our old cargo van doing medical pickups and drooled at the sight of an Isuzu NPR box truck.

I would watch it go by thinking that it would be the perfect vehicle for us to round up the surplus donations we get from hospitals and nursing homes, not to mention promote our work aiding landmine victims on its big high sides like a rolling billboard.

Of course as a lean nonprofit we can't really justify buying an asset like that even used. But when we lost the old cargo van, a donation from Nick's Electric on Bainbridge Island that served us well for five years, to the scrap yard the need for a new set of wheels became a bit more urgent. Still no money for it.

So after a few failed attempts to get a cargo van donated, I called Hill Moving & Storage in Poulsbo, long a supporter of all sorts of community transportation needs from the giant Rotary Auction to Katrina relief to our own Pakistan earthquake relief and more.

"Hey, Mike," I asked one of the owners after I mustered up the courage to ask for one more favor. "We're looking for a vehicle to haul our medical donations. Do you know of anyone in your business who donates their old trucks."

Mike, a somewhat stoic guy with a great heart, didn't answer right away and the silence tanked my hopes. Then he said: "We do."

He discussed some options: large semis that may be available in a few months but would be way too big for us ($100 each way on the ferry to Seattle and no place to park it). "But we have this 1995 Isuzu diesel truck we're replacing. Would you be interested in that?"

Does King Kong like Big Bananas? Yes. Yes. Yes!

To make a long Blog short, that's what we got: a 14-foot Isuzu NPR box truck complete with lift gate, ramp, furniture dolly and a tank full of diesel. A highway dream come true.

I am already using it next Friday when I take 50 mattresses, two cast saws, reciprocating orthopedic tools and a pallet of casting plaster with me to Yakima where a nursing home is donating 50 beds for shipment to Laos, our second container there.

I'll be on the road again, this time I am in the truck I have longed for since we started our program six years ago. Thanks Mike, Kay, Debbie, Steve and everyone at Hill Moving & Storage. You've come through again in a big, big way!