The first truck show on my list to attend this year was the Third Annual Yuba-Sutter Truckin’ for St. Jude Truck Show held on April 9 at the Sutter High School in Sutter, California. Featuring old and new rigs, and even a few military vehicles (three tanks), this year’s show had a great turnout. In fact, the gravel lot was filled to capacity! Anticipating more growth next year, show organizers have already been out scouting around, looking for a larger (and paved) location for next year’s show.
This charity event, hosted by Scott Gardner and Robert Mack, is held as a benefit for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Showcasing some great BBQ food and various truck-related vendors, this show featured over 80 sweet rides, which attendees got to choose from, for the one single People’s Choice award that was handed out. Congratulations go out to Ralph Wilkerson of Radco Trucking in Biggs, California, and his 1995 Kenworth W900L for winning that illustrious special prize. Being just a one-day show, and even though there was a little rain this year, people still came out and showed their support for the cause – and it turned out to be a really good show, as always. Not a huge show, but a really good one, nonetheless.
The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded in 1962 by entertainer Danny Thomas and a few others, is a pediatric treatment and research facility focused on treating catastrophic diseases with children. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee, and is a nonprofit medical corporation. All of the medically-eligible patients who are accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family’s ability to pay. St. Jude is one of a few pediatric research organizations in the United States where families never pay for treatments not covered by their insurance, and those without insurance are never asked to pay. In addition to providing medical services to eligible patients, St. Jude also assists families with transportation, lodging and meals.
This year, with 81 trucks in the high school’s parking lot, just around $11,500 was raised – and they are still receiving donations from all kinds of people. Once they think everyone has donated to the cause for the year, they will send the money raised to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and some sick kids will be able to get the care and treatment they need to survive!
The two guys that put this show on, Scott Gardner and Robert Mack, came up with the idea for this show after a few of their friends were diagnosed with cancer. They didn’t know if they were going to survive or not, so Robert said, “How about we put on a truck show and find a good charity to raise money for?” They asked some friends in the medical field which would be a good charity and 95% of them said St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They also work very hard to get some awesome raffle prizes to help raise even more money, which this year included gift baskets, shirts and hats, and even coupons for a thousand dollars off your next new truck purchase, compliments of the Peterbilt dealer in Sacramento (they gave six of these coupons away)! These prizes were given out towards the end of the show, following the announcement of the People’s Choice winner.
We hope this show keeps growing, like it has been for the past two years, and continues to raise significant amounts of money for such a great organization like St. Jude. Thanks to everyone that came out this year – there were even some trucks that came all the way up from San Diego and one from the green state of Oregon. Scott and Robert would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped, all of the sponsors and supporters, like Gee Farms, and Sutter High School for donating the venue space for the past three years at no charge. A special thank you goes out to Heather Gardner for all of her hard work at the show and for keeping track of all the funds for St. Jude. If you missed this show, we hope to see you next year!