Speaker 1: This is America's truck and Network with Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2: Welcome aboard, Thanks for tuning in on this seventh day
Speaker 2: of Christmas. New Year's Eve, twenty twenty five. My goodness,
Speaker 2: where has the time gone. Generally, at the end of
Speaker 2: the year, there's a lot of different news articles, whether
Speaker 2: it's international news, local news, state news, national news, any
Speaker 2: news round that they do year in review and kind
Speaker 2: of summarize what went on during the year, and of
Speaker 2: course in the transportation industry as well, in the trucking industry,
Speaker 2: it's no difference. And I saw this article that I
Speaker 2: thought was very poignant and talked about a lot of
Speaker 2: the stuff that went on in the trucking industry, a
Speaker 2: lot for the good.
Speaker 3: So let's just get started with it.
Speaker 2: The title of this is many moves by Trump Administration
Speaker 2: shake up Trucking in twenty twenty five. Now, if you
Speaker 2: just read the if all you did was just look
Speaker 2: at the headline there, you would think shakeup. I generally,
Speaker 2: a shakeup is not a good thing at least, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not one of those things that's a warm and
Speaker 2: fuzzy phrase that get people going. But in this instance,
Speaker 2: I think a lot of the stuff in here is
Speaker 2: very positive. Less than ninety days into his second term
Speaker 2: as President, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Enforcing
Speaker 2: Common Sense Rules for the Road of the Road for
Speaker 2: America's Truck Drivers. This set in motion a series of
Speaker 2: actions as profound as any since President Jimmy Carter signed
Speaker 2: the Motor Carrier Act of nineteen eighty, which deregulated the industry.
Speaker 2: Now that's kind of interesting there, because I kept, you know,
Speaker 2: don't we always hear that it's the Republicans that are
Speaker 2: constantly deregulating things that's not good for things, And you know,
Speaker 2: let the various industry kind of you know, self regulate
Speaker 2: and so on the heavy hand of government, relieving the
Speaker 2: heavy handed government. It's kind of interesting that Jimmy Carter,
Speaker 2: a Democrat, actually did that, which was good for in
Speaker 2: a lot of instances for the trucking industry. Signed into
Speaker 2: the effect in April of twenty eighth. One of Trump's
Speaker 2: earlier executive horrors, this one aimed ostensibly at highway safety,
Speaker 2: proved to be part of the administration sweeping and controversial
Speaker 2: immigration and border enforcement policy. I don't think sweeping, it's sweeping.
Speaker 2: I don't know necessarily that it's controversial, given the fact
Speaker 2: that that's what he campaigned on, and the fact that
Speaker 2: if you go back through the comments of various Democrats
Speaker 2: through the years controlling our borders, stopping the flow of immigration,
Speaker 2: even back when Joe Biden was a senator, he said
Speaker 2: those things. But now, all of a sudden, because Trump
Speaker 2: says it, all of a sudden, it's controversial. Order recented
Speaker 2: the twenty sixteen guidance document titled English Language Proficiency Testing
Speaker 2: and Enforcement Policy, which was laxed.
Speaker 3: They did away with that policy.
Speaker 2: It was not the policy was still on the book
Speaker 2: for the FMCSA, but it wasn't one of those out
Speaker 2: of service regulations that somebody could actually, you know, stop
Speaker 2: being forced to stop driving. So they put that in
Speaker 2: a place and issued a new one to fully enforce
Speaker 2: the regulation requiring truckers to be able to speak and
Speaker 2: read highway signs in English, and earlier such order designated
Speaker 2: English as the nation's official language, which you know, if
Speaker 2: you're going to drive on the roads, you ought to
Speaker 2: be able to read the signs. You ought to be
Speaker 2: able to know where you're at and if you know,
Speaker 2: if obviously some of the universal signs of stop and
Speaker 2: go and that type of thing. But when you're looking
Speaker 2: at a particular destination of where you're going to pull
Speaker 2: off a freeway where you need to switch lanes, that
Speaker 2: kind of thing where you're heading, I don't know how.
Speaker 3: You operate a vehicle without that.
Speaker 2: Trump's executive order also required a view of the tightening
Speaker 2: of the state's policy for the issuance of commercial driver's licenses,
Speaker 2: especially those issue to non domicile drivers. It also directed
Speaker 2: Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to identify and begin carrying
Speaker 2: out additional administrative, regulatory, and enforcement actions to improve the
Speaker 2: working conditions of American truckers. So, if you're improving the
Speaker 2: working conditions of American truck drivers, America's truck drivers, I
Speaker 2: don't see that that is necessarily shaking up the trucking industry.
Speaker 2: Maybe improving the trucking industry. Helping the trucking industry would
Speaker 2: have been a better phrase to be used in the
Speaker 2: headline of this story. This led to the announcement in
Speaker 2: June of a series of initiatives, pilot programs, and regulatory
Speaker 2: updates designed to support America's truck drivers. These included expanded
Speaker 2: truck parking, which has been an issue for in the
Speaker 2: trucking industry for at least thirty years now, withdrawing the
Speaker 2: proposal man who proposed mandate for speed liminers, which was
Speaker 2: unpopular with truckers and should have been unpopular with truckers
Speaker 2: as well as the driving public, because putting speed limitters
Speaker 2: on trucks would just be an impediment and also wind
Speaker 2: up with differential speed there on the freeway or out
Speaker 2: on the roads, which those are the things that cause accidents.
Speaker 2: Not extending the electronic logging device mandate to pre two
Speaker 2: thousand models, that's a good sign. Eliminating double brokering, creating
Speaker 2: pilot programs to study flexible sleeper birth combinations, and splitting
Speaker 2: the fourteen hour on duty time now the hours of service.
Speaker 2: For as long as I can remember driving back and
Speaker 2: forth and back and forth to Columbus to visit my parents,
Speaker 2: and when I was out going to different clients' offices
Speaker 2: and driving there at night to be their first thing
Speaker 2: in the morning or be there for you know, when they.
Speaker 3: Open their doors.
Speaker 2: I've heard of hours of service and the problems with
Speaker 2: that for again, almost as long as talking about expanding
Speaker 2: the truck parking and so taking a look at that
Speaker 2: and seeing what makes sense, what can be fit in
Speaker 2: and still make the road safe out there. These are
Speaker 2: all good things, not necessarily I don't classify that as
Speaker 2: shaking up the trucking industry. Maybe improving the trucking industry.
Speaker 2: Non Domicile CDLs and we're in the crosshairs. The awarding
Speaker 2: of CDLs to foreign drivers, including those in the US
Speaker 2: with legal working permits, became a high profile target for
Speaker 2: the Trump administration, and auditive states licensing departments found seventeen
Speaker 2: states and the District of Columbia out of federal compliance
Speaker 2: for how they issue non domiciled CDLs.
Speaker 3: Seventeen states, folks, that's.
Speaker 2: Pretty close to well, just around about a third of
Speaker 2: the states out there.
Speaker 3: Not a good thing.
Speaker 2: And a lot of these the states that were mostly
Speaker 2: in compliance. He called out eight states clashed with publicly California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota,
Speaker 2: and New York. Of course they always are, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, democratic controlled the states that you just decided that, okay, well,
Speaker 2: first of all, we're going to be sanctuary states, sanctuary cities,
Speaker 2: and oh why should we bother doing the little things
Speaker 2: in terms of making sure CDL licenses are distributed properly.
Speaker 3: It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 2: FMCSA ordered all states to stop issuing non domiciled CDLs
Speaker 2: and revoked those they had already issued. It's estimated that
Speaker 2: that would remove as many as two hundred thousand foreign
Speaker 2: truckers from the nation's trucking industry. The emergency final of
Speaker 2: the emergency Final rule issued by FMCSA attracted more than
Speaker 2: eight thousand online comments. However, a lawsuit has been filed
Speaker 2: on behalf of two long time foreign drivers that has
Speaker 2: halted the revocation for the time being. Again, if somebody
Speaker 2: is in this country, if they have emigrated into this country, well,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously illegally they've brought broken the law. But
Speaker 2: since being here, have made no effort to become a
Speaker 2: citizen or to go through the process of becoming a citizen.
Speaker 2: How much do they care about being here? Generally, when
Speaker 2: somebody comes into this country, somebody immigrates here because of
Speaker 2: better opportunity or relatives here telling them how great it
Speaker 2: is to find a job or whatever. The peace, tranquility,
Speaker 2: and the steadiness of the United States as opposed to
Speaker 2: some of these.
Speaker 3: Other areas around the world.
Speaker 2: Why would somebody come in here and just go ahead
Speaker 2: and just keep taking from the system, if you will,
Speaker 2: and not being a part of the system and trying
Speaker 2: to hide in the shadows away from the government.
Speaker 3: I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: So again, this is some of the things that we'll
Speaker 2: pick this up coming up, because attacking the CBL mills
Speaker 2: was part of this, as well as targeting electronic blogging
Speaker 2: devices making sure that those are in compliance, and of
Speaker 2: course some of the ICE focusing on truckers as part
Speaker 2: of these state troopers pulling people over to find out
Speaker 2: if they are in compliance English language proficiency and in
Speaker 2: some of the inspections of these vehicles during some of
Speaker 2: those safety checks during the year. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's
Speaker 2: struck a network seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 3: I need.
Speaker 1: This is the briefing report on America's drugging network on
Speaker 1: seven hundred WLW.
Speaker 4: Another off season tragedy has struck the NASCAR family a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks ago, as the death of Greg Beffel,
Speaker 4: his family, and three others in a North Carolina plane crash.
Speaker 4: Now the father of NASCAR star Denny Hamlin died and
Speaker 4: his mother is critically injured after a weekend fire heavily
Speaker 4: damaged their North Carolina home where they lived. Firefighters arrived
Speaker 4: Sunday to find a two story home near Stanley, North Carolina,
Speaker 4: mostly engulfed in flames. Dennis Hamblin was seventy five years old.
Speaker 4: Mary Lou Hamlin is sixty nine, and she was taken
Speaker 4: to a burn center in Winston Salem.
Speaker 1: I need this is the breathing repard on America's Trucking
Speaker 1: Network on seven hundred WLW say Dennis and.
Speaker 3: A t N. Running a business is hard enough.
Speaker 5: Don't make it harder with dozens of apps that don't
Speaker 5: talk to each other, one for sales, another for inventory.
Speaker 2: Thinking about this is the well, it's New Year's eve.
Speaker 2: So here we are at the end of the year,
Speaker 2: and of course a lot of stories concentrate on what
Speaker 2: went on during the year, and the story that I'm
Speaker 2: talking about here many moves by the Trump administration shake
Speaker 2: up the trucking, shake up trucking in twenty twenty five. Again,
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure about that headline. It's actually some
Speaker 2: of these things that actually improved the trucking industry and
Speaker 2: probably should have been improvements to the trucking industry. Because
Speaker 2: shaking up, in my opinion, always kind of denotes that, well,
Speaker 2: you're messing with things, you're turning things on its head
Speaker 2: or so to speak.
Speaker 3: So anyway, so if you miss.
Speaker 2: That segment and miss any of our other segments, make
Speaker 2: sure you hit up that iHeartRadio app. And of course
Speaker 2: that's brought to you buy our friends at Rush Truck
Speaker 2: Centers getting into this particular story. When we left off,
Speaker 2: they were talking about cracking down on the CDL mills,
Speaker 2: which again, as you know, we talked to Sam Collier
Speaker 2: the other day having to do with the CDL program
Speaker 2: at Gateway Community College. And the amazing thing is the
Speaker 2: fact that the CDL mills could actually be in existence
Speaker 2: out there, that there's no kind of regulation to make
Speaker 2: sure that they're register that they're actually training people to
Speaker 2: put them on the road. And we're not talking about
Speaker 2: something that is barely you know, is fairly safe. We're
Speaker 2: talking about putting somebody on the road with an eighty
Speaker 2: driving an eight one thousand pound piece of equipment hurling
Speaker 2: down the.
Speaker 3: Highway at sixty sixty five miles an hour.
Speaker 2: And if somebody's not qualified for handling that, that puts
Speaker 2: everybody at danger. And really, I think that people that
Speaker 2: issue these false CDLs, or the CDL mills, they should
Speaker 2: be on the hook for manslaughter or murder or something
Speaker 2: along the lines if any of these CDL licenses that
Speaker 2: they've issued, the person winds up creating an accident that
Speaker 2: kills people. On to some of the first Sean Duffy,
Speaker 2: Secretary of Transportation, announced the removal of nearly three thousand
Speaker 2: commercial drivers Licensed training providers from the Federal Motor Carrier
Speaker 2: Safety Administration's Training Provider Registry, or TPR as they refer
Speaker 2: to it. Later on, he said that the providers failed
Speaker 2: to equip trainees with the proper standards of readiness. Another
Speaker 2: forty five hundred training providers were placed on notice due
Speaker 2: to potential non compliance. Duffy used the announcement as another
Speaker 2: opportunity to continue Trump's efforts to vilify former President Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: Of course they had to throw this in. I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure that this I don't know if this is an all.
Speaker 2: They must be taking talking points from an ap article,
Speaker 2: because again, if somebody has been in effect asleep at
Speaker 2: the wheel, allowed our country to be invaded at the
Speaker 2: southern border, allowed these CDL mills to thrive and to
Speaker 2: be available so that people could get their CDLs, not
Speaker 2: enforce the English language preference proficiency standards that were a
Speaker 2: part of the law. If you're encouraging people to break
Speaker 2: the law, I don't think pointing out somebody not doing
Speaker 2: that or not obeying the law and making the life
Speaker 2: of on the road for the general citizenry unsafe. I
Speaker 2: don't consider that vilifying somebody. I call that calling out
Speaker 2: somebody's record. But of course, you know, depending upon the
Speaker 2: viewpoint of the person writing the article. This administration is
Speaker 2: cracking down on every link in the illegal truck chain.
Speaker 2: Under Joe Biden, the Transportation Secretary Pete Buddha judge bad
Speaker 2: actors were able to game the system and let unqualified
Speaker 2: drivers flood our roadways. Their negligence endangered every family on
Speaker 2: Americans roadways and it ends today. According to Sean Duffy
Speaker 2: that he said in December, under President Trump, we were
Speaker 2: raining in the illegal, reckless practices that let poorly trained
Speaker 2: drivers get behind the wheel of a semi trucks and
Speaker 2: school buses. TPR program, the Training Provider Registry lists all
Speaker 2: providers authorized to offer federally required entry level driver training
Speaker 2: for CDL students in the past CDL training providers, I
Speaker 2: get this. We're able to self certify that they met
Speaker 2: federal training standards. I mean, come on, we're not talking
Speaker 2: about dog training, dog walking, something that's not a danger
Speaker 2: to the citizenry out there. We're talking about the qualifications
Speaker 2: and the specific skills necessary to operate an eighteen wheeler.
Speaker 2: And for this to be sloughed off and say that, oh, well,
Speaker 2: you know, we're just not going to do We're going
Speaker 2: to let people self certify. And that's one of the
Speaker 2: things that when we were talking to Sam Collier, dean
Speaker 2: of Manufacturing and Transportations a school at Gateway Community and
Speaker 2: Technical College, those are one of the things that he
Speaker 2: really got riled up about, especially when I talked to
Speaker 2: him off air, that some of these things out there,
Speaker 2: when you have an organization like Gateway Community College that
Speaker 2: is doing things by the book and going above and
Speaker 2: beyond to make sure that people out there, not only
Speaker 2: for their students, but for the general public aer safe,
Speaker 2: it just infuriates the people.
Speaker 3: That actually follow the law and care. Duffy said.
Speaker 2: The first step fmcsa review of sixteen thousand training providers
Speaker 2: listed in the TPRs who have identified and removed non
Speaker 2: compliant providers. Duffy said CEO training providers were being removed
Speaker 2: due to falsifying or manipulating training data. In other words,
Speaker 2: saying that they've completed programs that they hadn't completed, neglecting
Speaker 2: to meet required curriculum standards, facility conditions, or instructor qualifications,
Speaker 2: failing to maintain accurate, complete documentation, or refusing to provide
Speaker 2: records during federal audits or investigations.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Training providers that receive a notice of proposal removal were
Speaker 2: given thirty days to respond to the FMCSA and provide
Speaker 2: evidence of compliance to avoid removal from the registry. During
Speaker 2: this period, the provider's name will be including the tpr's
Speaker 2: proposed removal list. So again, asking people to comply with
Speaker 2: the rules and regulations of the road, asking them to
Speaker 2: make sure that the people that are getting behind the
Speaker 2: wheel are fully trained. Especially again, I can't emphasize enough
Speaker 2: and eat eighty thousand pounds piece of equipment hurling down
Speaker 2: the highway, and if it's not in control, it is hurling.
Speaker 2: It's not just moving, it's not rolling, it is hurling
Speaker 2: down the Highway also one of the things that they
Speaker 2: were targeting this year, targeting electronic logging devices. Throughout twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five, FMCSA actively worked at cleaning up the list
Speaker 2: of electronic logging devices. As the year came to a close,
Speaker 2: more than thirty eleds were stricken from the agency's list
Speaker 2: of registered devices. Again, this is an area where they
Speaker 2: talked about that some of these things could be manipulated
Speaker 2: and falsified, and that the qualifications for this was part
Speaker 2: of a self policing effort where they were certifying their
Speaker 2: own piece of equipment when in fact they weren't up
Speaker 2: to the standards that were.
Speaker 3: That were necessary.
Speaker 2: Of course, ICE Immigration Customs and Enforcement have been out
Speaker 2: on the highways along with some of the state troopers
Speaker 2: enforcing some of the these immigration laws. There have been
Speaker 2: stops in Alabama, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Texas trying to crack
Speaker 2: down on you know, illegal CDLs, people that don't have
Speaker 2: the English language proficiency and as well as also maintaining
Speaker 2: their trucks and making sure that they're in proper safety
Speaker 2: order and if they're not then they're given out of
Speaker 2: service notifications and they're you know, obviously their license well
Speaker 2: they didn't have a license begin with, so it's suspended,
Speaker 2: but they're precluded from driving that truck any further. So,
Speaker 2: a lot of this going on in the trucking industry,
Speaker 2: which I think was good, especially focusing on expanded truck
Speaker 2: parking and eliminating double brokerage, and especially making sure that
Speaker 2: removing that mandate of speed limitters, which is a good thing.
Speaker 2: So again, a good year, hopefully moving forward into twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six. Coming up, I'll be speaking with Amber Karen.
Speaker 2: She is director of Communications Reese across America. We'll be
Speaker 2: talking about their recent successful wreath laying ceremony across the
Speaker 2: country and a special matching opportunity through today December the
Speaker 2: thirty first for anyone sponsoring a wreath for National res
Speaker 2: Across America Day, which will be on Saturday, December nineteenth,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, twenty twenty six. So we'll be speaking
Speaker 2: with her shortly. I'm Kevin Gordon, America's struck In Network
Speaker 2: seven hundred WLW seven hundred WLW. I'm Kevin Gordon. This
Speaker 2: is America's truck In Network. Joining me is Amber Karen,
Speaker 2: director of Communications Rees across America. Welcome into the Program Amber.
Speaker 6: Good morning, Kevin, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: My pleasure talk about a fantastic organization that I won't
Speaker 2: learned about only about three four years ago. And the
Speaker 2: work that you guys do is just absolutely phenomenal. Kind
Speaker 2: of give us a thumbnail sketch of reefs across America
Speaker 2: and uh, and we'll talk about the past wreath laying.
Speaker 3: Easy for me to say this past, I know.
Speaker 6: It'd be surprised at the Tung Twisters.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, res across America. We're a national nonprofit. We're
Speaker 5: in every single state. Our mission is very simple. It's
Speaker 5: to remember the fallen, honor those who serve, and teach
Speaker 5: the next generation the value of freedom. And this is
Speaker 5: a year round mission that includes many free programs that
Speaker 5: do just those things in your communities across the country.
Speaker 5: It obviously we're probably best known for our annual reef
Speaker 5: laying event called National Wreaths Across America Day. This year
Speaker 5: it was held on Saturday, December thirteenth at five thousand,
Speaker 5: five hundred and.
Speaker 6: Ninety eight locations nationwide. We're in everything in Alaska, Hawaii, Yeah,
Speaker 6: it's amazing.
Speaker 5: Puerto Rico, we've grown a lot, almost seven hundred new
Speaker 5: locations in twenty twenty five, which is really a testament
Speaker 5: to the mission. Yeah, all run by volunteers, and that's
Speaker 5: the part that I think people are surprised by.
Speaker 6: It's really a volunteer program.
Speaker 5: These are people who have participated in the program elsewhere
Speaker 5: and want to bring it to their community, want to
Speaker 5: make sure the veterans and service members and military families
Speaker 5: in their community are being.
Speaker 6: Honored and remembered, and that's how it grows.
Speaker 5: So it's it's pretty you know, we had a pretty
Speaker 5: great National Rescross America Day this year. We placed just
Speaker 5: over three point one million sponsored veterans reads just over
Speaker 5: three million volunteers, a third of whom were children, participated
Speaker 5: in this LIBE.
Speaker 2: I think, so, I think that part is really fantastic.
Speaker 2: The thirty percent of the people that attended our children.
Speaker 2: I was only able to participate in this once over
Speaker 2: the last four years, both the other times I've been
Speaker 2: out of town, but the time that I went, I
Speaker 2: was amazed at how many young people that the parents
Speaker 2: bring to this event and just the all respect and
Speaker 2: just when you think in terms of these fallen soldiers
Speaker 2: and these veterans that to honor them it's very humbling.
Speaker 2: I don't know how else to explain it other than
Speaker 2: the fact that seeing it and witnessing it is amazing.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's definitely an experience, and I think that that's
Speaker 5: the important thing.
Speaker 6: Whenever anyone says, well, what can I do to get involved?
Speaker 5: I always say, the first thing you can do is
Speaker 5: just find a location near you to go to one year,
Speaker 5: you know, take your family. It's something that's super simple
Speaker 5: to do. It's a very simple act. Place to read,
Speaker 5: it's very memorable. It's a core memory for a lot
Speaker 5: of kids, I think, because it becomes it's something you
Speaker 5: can do, it's an action.
Speaker 6: It's something that you can go back home with your.
Speaker 5: Family and maybe look up the service member that you
Speaker 5: place to read for and learn about their life. And
Speaker 5: it's a very simple way to teach your kids what
Speaker 5: it means to serve, also.
Speaker 2: To understand from the ultimate price and the saying and
Speaker 2: it chokes me up every time I hear it or
Speaker 2: even try to say it. And when they say a
Speaker 2: soldier dies twice, once when they take their last breath,
Speaker 2: and then once their name is no longer mentioned. And
Speaker 2: the fact of laying these reefs at these grave sites
Speaker 2: and then taking the time to speak that person's name.
Speaker 2: It's just it sends chills down your spine because you
Speaker 2: realize that this person either died in combat, served or whatever,
Speaker 2: but actually was there to preserve the freedoms that we
Speaker 2: take so much for granted, and.
Speaker 6: Not everyone has the is given the ability to become
Speaker 6: a veteran.
Speaker 5: You know, a veteran is somebody who served who's living
Speaker 5: when we place it, replacing veterans reeds, and it's what
Speaker 5: we called them, their veterans reads and replacing them for
Speaker 5: service members who.
Speaker 6: You know, maybe never had the chance to be called
Speaker 6: a veteran.
Speaker 3: And well that's a good point. That's a very good point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, even if they did, you know, it's they
Speaker 5: could have had military career, lived a long, healthy life
Speaker 5: and passed away. They still chose to serve and they
Speaker 5: were willing to do whatever was necessary to protect our freedoms.
Speaker 5: And for that, it's something we can all agree on.
Speaker 5: It's something that is easy to support. A responsorship is
Speaker 5: covers a lot of things. I mean, yes, when you
Speaker 5: place when you make a seventeen dollars sponsorship, yes, you're
Speaker 5: placing a wreath at a specific location, but in many
Speaker 5: cases you're also doing in every case you're supporting the
Speaker 5: year around mission. But right now we also have a
Speaker 5: little promotion going on through the end of the year.
Speaker 5: And one thing that people don't understand about rascross America
Speaker 5: through we have a program called our Group Sponsorship Program.
Speaker 5: And so through that, any other nonprofit so or a
Speaker 5: veteran service organization, if you're a VFW American Legion, you're
Speaker 5: a soup kitchen, you know, or kids baseball team, you
Speaker 5: can sign up to be a sponsorship groups across America.
Speaker 5: And this is a year round program.
Speaker 6: And through it you can do the.
Speaker 5: Five dollars back and so for every seventeen dollars sponsorship
Speaker 5: made through your group, you can earn five dollars back.
Speaker 6: We've given back over twenty eight million.
Speaker 5: Dollars to other nonprofits over the last seventeen years through
Speaker 5: this program. And you know, some other groups sign up
Speaker 5: as to be a five dollars forward instead of taking
Speaker 5: the five dollars back, they want five dollars to go
Speaker 5: towards another wreath, which helps please you know, local cemeteries
Speaker 5: get full coverage.
Speaker 6: But we have a promo going on through the end
Speaker 6: of this week, so through.
Speaker 5: The thirty first any registered group, So if you're registered
Speaker 5: as a sponsorship group through resacross America and you sponsor
Speaker 5: read through their group, if they'll get a second matching
Speaker 5: WREAF for from res across America and.
Speaker 2: That doubles your doubles your contribution. So how do you
Speaker 2: do that on the website because I kind of tinker
Speaker 2: around with that the other day and we're on the website.
Speaker 3: You go to the Reach across America do and then you.
Speaker 5: Click on when you go up to the top, you
Speaker 5: can look for search and you can when it pulls
Speaker 5: up the search, it'll be there's a locations and then
Speaker 5: there's groups. So if you know the location that you
Speaker 5: want to support, you can look up your location and
Speaker 5: it'll it'll pull up the location if it's a participating
Speaker 5: location and they get their own their own page, and
Speaker 5: then you can scroll down and see all the groups
Speaker 5: that support that location, and if you click on their group,
Speaker 5: you can sponsor a reach right through that group. Or
Speaker 5: if you know the name of the group, so so
Speaker 5: you know your local VFW or your local American Legion
Speaker 5: is a sponsorship group for your cemetery, you can go
Speaker 5: directly to the group section and just look up the
Speaker 5: name of that post or that chapter, or the name
Speaker 5: of the whatever the nonprofit's name is, and you can
Speaker 5: pull up their page. So anyone who any group that's
Speaker 5: just you know, participating location or participating group has their
Speaker 5: own page on our website, so it's really easy to
Speaker 5: to find them and to sponsor a reath through them,
Speaker 5: and then we take care of it on the back end.
Speaker 5: So and that's a great way, and you can also
Speaker 5: call you can call our customer service at eight seven
Speaker 5: seven three eight five ninety five oh four and see
Speaker 5: if you know, what are the groups that are supporting
Speaker 5: the local cemetery that you care about, and you can
Speaker 5: support that group. So that way, you know your money
Speaker 5: is going that much further. You know, you're not only
Speaker 5: are you you're also you know, when you support a group,
Speaker 5: you're also supporting two organizations. So for your seventeen dollars contribution,
Speaker 5: you're sponsoring the REEF and you're supporting RECROSSMERCAS programs, but
Speaker 5: you're also helping this other nonprofit in there in your community.
Speaker 5: So it's a really great way to kind of do
Speaker 5: good twice all throughout the year. But obviously, this promos
Speaker 5: through the end of this week is a great way
Speaker 5: for us to help our volunteers to be successful and
Speaker 5: get a great head start for next year.
Speaker 2: My guest is Amber Karen. She is the director of
Speaker 2: Communications Rees across America.
Speaker 3: Now, to be.
Speaker 2: Clear on your web page, you don't want to go
Speaker 2: to the sponsor wreaths, correct?
Speaker 3: You want to go again?
Speaker 6: If you yeah, you actually can do that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: If you go to sponsor wreaths and you say you're
Speaker 6: going to click one sponsor.
Speaker 5: One wreath, you can go ahead, I'm gonna go through
Speaker 5: the process and you can add to cart, you can
Speaker 5: proceed to check out and basically you can go through
Speaker 5: and you can actually edit and you can say where
Speaker 5: you want your wreath to go. You can be very
Speaker 5: specific as to what group and location you want to
Speaker 5: go to. That things that I find it easier just
Speaker 5: to start at the group that you want.
Speaker 6: So by going to search sponsor, Yes, yeah, that's probably
Speaker 6: the easiest way, is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's more better way of going to
Speaker 2: it because you know, but backing up, also, if you
Speaker 2: are interested in being part of this and being part
Speaker 2: of the reath playing ceremony, you can go to the
Speaker 2: get involved, and it's very simple. You go you and
Speaker 2: you tell them where you're located or your zip code.
Speaker 2: And when I did this three maybe four years ago,
Speaker 2: within a half hour, one of the people contacted me
Speaker 2: and said, hey, we're interested in having you and all this.
Speaker 2: And so they talked about what cemetery they sponsored and
Speaker 2: how close it was to where I live. And it
Speaker 2: was a very easy sign up policy. And so to
Speaker 2: do that again going back in and purchasing a wreath,
Speaker 2: you can go to that specific sponsor and sponsor the
Speaker 2: wreath at that location. And it's very important to do
Speaker 2: that because you want to get that bang for your buck.
Speaker 2: You want to make sure and it's seventeen dollars. I mean,
Speaker 2: you look at these wreaths. I'm telling you folks. You
Speaker 2: go online and you look at the reefs across America
Speaker 2: dot org and look at the picture on there, and
Speaker 2: that is just such an amazing picture. And I think
Speaker 2: originally at Arlington Nationals a mitery, uh, the when that
Speaker 2: first took place and the snow on the ground, and
Speaker 2: when you look at these reefs, I mean, these are
Speaker 2: anybody that's gone out and bought a wreath seventeen dollars
Speaker 2: for these reefs. You should be probably paying twice as
Speaker 2: much for them. They're that beautiful.
Speaker 5: Well, and you're and you're not just paying And I
Speaker 5: want to be really clear for people saying it's not
Speaker 5: just paying for the wreath.
Speaker 3: The reef is.
Speaker 5: One thing that gives place. But you're supporting local programs.
Speaker 5: You're supporting the res Across America mission and our year
Speaker 5: round program. We have so many things including you know,
Speaker 5: our own we have our own radio station that you
Speaker 5: know that we share content from our veterans and service members.
Speaker 2: We have our.
Speaker 6: We have our museum and our traveling museum.
Speaker 5: We have our education program free curriculum for teachers and
Speaker 5: educators across the country. So there's a year round mission
Speaker 5: here that's being supported with that seventeen dollars sponsorship, and
Speaker 5: a reason is getting placed.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I should I should have been more specific on that.
Speaker 2: I apologize for that, but yeah, I think.
Speaker 5: It's an important distinction that people don't realize, yeah, because
Speaker 5: I think they're like, oh, well, seventeen dollars, I'm getting
Speaker 5: a wreath, yes, and.
Speaker 3: Adding all these other things yes.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And in a lot of cases with these sponsorship groups,
Speaker 5: you're supporting on another another group's.
Speaker 6: Mission, right, I mean twenty eight million dollars. I mean
Speaker 6: we haven't gotten the updated figure yet.
Speaker 5: For twenty twenty five, but I guarantee it's going to
Speaker 5: be over thirty million dollars this year. We've we had
Speaker 5: over seven thousand sponsorship groups last year.
Speaker 6: So these are groups that are you know I have.
Speaker 5: I had kids that played baseball and we sold four
Speaker 5: mate popcorn for absurd amounts of money, and those kids
Speaker 5: would see a dollar you know of it, whereas this
Speaker 5: is seventeen dollars and five dollars goes directly back to
Speaker 5: whatever the program is. It's a great it's a great
Speaker 5: way to raise funds and especially for youth programs for
Speaker 5: them to learn about those service members and their community.
Speaker 2: And it is an absolutely fantastic organization and I recommend
Speaker 2: it highly. It's just one of those things that really
Speaker 2: touches your soul. Again, Amber, Karen direct your communications. Rescross America.
Speaker 2: It I just can't speak enough about it, the good
Speaker 2: work that you do. And my other well, my full
Speaker 2: time gig is with America's Truck and Network and we
Speaker 2: were a part of Rescross America and do the truck
Speaker 2: and Tuesday and do the show there. And it's been
Speaker 2: great going to the America Mid America Trucking Show and
Speaker 2: being right around the corner from the booth of Recross America. Uh,
Speaker 2: it's always great to talk to them. Jeff Pearce, in
Speaker 2: your in your crowd. It's just an amazing organization. So
Speaker 2: once again, anybody interested in getting on board, go.
Speaker 5: To read across America dot org and there's plenty of
Speaker 5: ways to followed get involved if you want to look
Speaker 5: to how to get involved locally, or go to the
Speaker 5: search function and look up a sponsorship group near you
Speaker 5: and see where you can make your contribution doubled over
Speaker 5: the next week.
Speaker 2: And if if you prefer the phone route, that would be.
Speaker 5: The phone round at eight seven seven three eight five four.
Speaker 2: And again my guess, Amber, Karen. And by the way,
Speaker 2: I know it was kind of rushed and getting in
Speaker 2: touch with you over the weekend, but I certainly appreciate
Speaker 2: uh you spending time with us today. And again, folks,
Speaker 2: recross America dot org support a very fantastic organization. Get
Speaker 2: on board. Look at the website. If it doesn't touch
Speaker 2: your heart, well nothing will. And that's all I have
Speaker 2: to say, and it's a fantastic organization. Remember, honor and
Speaker 2: teach Heather. It's been a pleasure talking to you. I
Speaker 2: have to do this again sometime and again, folks. This
Speaker 2: is a promotion that goes till December thirty first, New
Speaker 2: Year's Day. Get double bang for your buck, sponsor a
Speaker 2: wreath and they match that from Recross America. Any closing thoughts, No.
Speaker 6: I appreciate it, Kevin, Thank you so much. Everyone.
Speaker 5: Like I said, even though even though Reese Cressmercod Day
Speaker 5: is over for twenty twenty five, the mission continues year round.
Speaker 5: There's ways to get involved year round, and never too
Speaker 5: early to get involved for next year exactly.
Speaker 2: And oh, by the way, save the date December nineteenth.
Speaker 5: Nineteenth, Yeah, twenty six, December December nineteenth, twenty twenty six.
Speaker 5: We'll do it all over again and probably at over
Speaker 5: six thousand locations next year, all right, which is crazy
Speaker 5: crazy to think about.
Speaker 3: Let's hope. Ember.
Speaker 2: It was just mentioned to me that a couple of
Speaker 2: minutes ago I misspoke and said that the promotion for
Speaker 2: Reese Cross America was going through New Year's Day. It
Speaker 2: actually ends today December the thirty first, So I want
Speaker 2: to make sure that you're aware of that. Go to
Speaker 2: their website and make sure that you make that donation
Speaker 2: and sponsor that rece so you get two for the
Speaker 2: price of one, and certainly a worthwhile thing to do.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned for EDI Radio Top the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon.
Speaker 2: America is struck in network seven hundred wl W