OOIDA’s 15th annual Truckers for Troops campaign is next week

Monday is when OOIDA’s Truckers for Troops campaign starts.

The annual fundraiser allows truck drivers to show appreciation for all of the sacrifices that members of the military make.

Occurring each year during the week of Veterans Day, the 15th annual Truckers for Troops campaign is set to begin Monday, Nov. 8, and run through the start of business on Monday, Nov. 15.

As in past years, truckers can join OOIDA for a discounted rate of $35, with 10% of that going into the fund for veterans, and then OOIDA matches that money. Truckers can join for as many years as they like.

Truckers and OOIDA life members also can make direct donations into the fund. Individual tax-deductible contributions to the Truckers for Troops fund can be paid to the OOIDA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

To date, the effort has generated $697,196.

The goal of Trucking for Troops is to send aid packages to 65 different facilities caring for wounded, disabled and homeless veterans, including Veterans Community Project. OOIDA is focusing on helping get homeless veterans off the street and into good homes, good jobs and stable living situations as well as connecting them to any and all services available to them.

Land Line Now plans to have special programming during the entire week of the Truckers for Troops campaign. Programming will focus heavily on the Veterans Community Project, a nonprofit organization that provides housing for homeless veterans and helps them transition to permanent housing.

To participate

To participate in Truckers for Troops, just call OOIDA’s main number, 816-229-5791. Let operators know you’re calling about Truckers for Troops, and they will transfer you to membership. Phones will be answered live, and the switchboards will stay open later than usual, until 7:30 p.m. Central, to answer your calls.

The phone lines will remain open Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 13-14, but calls will be directed to a voice mail box. Leave your name and phone number and the OOIDA Membership Department will call you back so you can participate.

Online applications for dues and/or donations also will be accepted. There will be a direct link to the online form on the websites OOIDA.com and LandLineNow.com.

If you mail in a payment during the campaign, please indicate on the payment if it’s “Dues & Donation” or “Donation only” and MUST specify “TROOPS,” so your contribution is counted.
Make donation-only checks out to the OOIDA Foundation.

15 years in the making

Truckers for Troops started in 2007 – during Operation Iraqi Freedom – as a way to send care packages to our country’s troops overseas and veterans’ facilities in the United States.

Truckers for Troops started using funds in 2020 to help the Veterans Community Project in addition to sending care packages.

The program helps provide housing for homeless veterans through a community of “tiny houses.”

Listen to a Land Line Now broadcast featuring a veteran who said the Veterans Community Project saved his life.

The Veterans Community Project’s locations also include a community center that provides comprehensive services to veterans, such as “navigating the VA and their benefits, identification services, mental and physical health referrals, financial counseling, and employment supports among other services. In addition, veterans can receive hygiene kits and utilize a food pantry. All services are free of charge.”

In December 2020, OOIDA presented the program with a check for $24,520. LL