Dubuque’s Veterans Freedom Center found out how well a good beard shave or a hair trim could pay recently when a group of Truck Country employees, family members, and some of the organization’s business partners put together a grassroots fundraiser for the organization.
During the reception celebrating this year’s Top Tech winners, a group of five individuals volunteered to sit down for a shave or hair trim to benefit the local veterans group. When all was said and done, the impromptu fundraiser received more than $11,200 in donations and pledges in approximately 60 minutes.
The seeds for the fundraiser were planted a day before the competition, as the team from the Truck Country Training Institute was preparing its facility to host Top Tech on April 10. The idea came to life when trainer Andy Hedrick proposed the idea to Torrens Yount, an instructor for Daimler Truck North America, who was in town for the competition. Yount participated in a similar fundraiser for a veterans’ group in Texas last year.
With Hedrick and Yount set to shave their long beards, initially, the goal was to raise $5,000. However, the target increased to $10,000 when Truck Country teammates Kyle Webb and Darius Ripp also volunteered to shave, and Truck Country-Cedar Rapids Service Manager Tyler Zahn offered to trim his “mullet” hairstyle. With the training center’s director, Ray Clark, soliciting funds from the crowd using a microphone, Todd Trentz, also of the training facility, went around the ballroom with hat in hand, collecting cash and pledges from those who gathered. By the time the clippers were put away, the total amount collected or pledged surpassed $11,000.
On April 23, members of the organization’s training center and marketing teams visited the Veterans Freedom Center for a tour and to present the check Allan Rowe, the director of the non-profit group. The money will be earmarked for the organization’s Operation: We Care fund to support local veterans and their families in financial need. “It’s folks like yourselves that keep us going,” Rowe said. “You’re now a part of this. Remember that. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!”.