Many of you know the story about my dad and the semi-truck. I wish I could say I wrote a kids’ book about a daddy driving a big truck.

But that’s not the way it went.

In reality my dad was driving to the Atlanta airport December 23, 2004, a plane ticket in his shirt pocket, heading north to spend Christmas with his family.

Around 6 a.m. with an hour to go, he was hit from behind by a semi-truck who’s driver didn’t notice all the traffic slowing in front of him.

Dad never had a chance.

The semi driver said he fell asleep after driving all night, trying to get a load of electronics to Atlanta for Christmas sales. His dispatcher had enticed him to make a deadline in Atlanta in order to have another truck ready for him to drive to Florida, getting him home to his family for Christmas.

My dad didn’t get to spend Christmas with his family. The driver didn’t get to spend Christmas with his family either, he spent it in jail. My siblings and I spent Christmas in shock, sitting in dad’s house, looking at the Christmas tree he’d put up before he left.

Trying to make sense of it all.

And in the following months we found the Truck Safety Coalition, made up of CRASH, (Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways), and PATT (Parents Against Tired Truckers). It’s a group of people who have had similar experiences with large commercial trucks.

Sons, daughters, grandkids, parents, friends, spouses, nobody is immune, we all travel our roads alongside big trucks. TSC supports survivors and victims’ families. It educates policy makers on common sense changes that need to be made to make us all, truck drivers included, safer.

But we can’t do any of it without financial support. We’re a 501c3 nonprofit. We struggle, as do many groups, to fund the activities that give families hope. Giving Tuesday is one of our biggest fundraising days.

This year it’s on December 3rd.

And, this year, we’re trying something a bit different. In addition to using the Facebook platform, we’re asking folks to donate directly to us. Here’s the link to my personal fundraising page: https://secure.qgiv.com/event/trucksafetycoalitionpeertopeer/account/1899034/. Give it a click and see dad’s story and my progress toward my goal.

You don’t have to wait until December 3rd to donate. We’re starting our campaign right now. In fact you could be my very first donor!

I said it on Facebook the other evening; I fully believe that Dad says thank you to everyone that has supported me and my siblings all these twenty years. We needed you and you were there. And along the way I’ve met even more supportive people. You’ve all helped me help TSC to continue the work that helped us in our worst moments.

The circle of support continues. Round and round, as you helped us, we are supporting the new families who keep on coming. Truck crashes continue, families are irreversibly changed, we provide support, and in time, they grow and get stronger and provide support for the next family.

More than 5,000 people die in commercial truck crashes each year. More than 100,000 people are injured. There are so many families.

We are working hard to help as many families as we can, and it all begins with your support. So thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of my dad’s heart.