Louisiana Classic Truck Club

One of the goals of this club since it was started has been to host our own show for a charity. It has been discussed several times before and has been one thing we have been working towards. We have something that we think is for a great cause and something everyone will enjoy doing. The whole clubs participation will be needed to pull this off, so here it is. Tell us what ya'll think!



What if we had a statewide 3-4 day Rod Run/toy drive for a Childrens Hospital, Charity, Organization etc. Something similar to the Power Tour, just statewide La. and for a good cause.

We can plan it to start or end at a big show. Some of the things that have been discussed are to contact sponsors/business's/childrens organizations to donate toys that we could pick up along the way as we make our way around the state. Each night of the cruise we can stop at a predetermined town and maybe try to schedule it in to attend a local show, just hang out, go out to eat and catch a few z's. Get up the next morning to head out on the next leg of the cruise with stops along the way to pick up more donated toys.

For our members and anyone else that wants to participate in the cruise but can't make the entire trip, we can plan our route to pass near our members towns where they would be able to jump in and cruise with us far as they want. To end our statewide run we can cruise into one of the larger shows in the state where we could give out some awards and trophies to the cruise participants, sponsors etc. Then we would have the honor to taking all the toys/donations we gathered along our statewide cruise and go to the hospitals/charity we have decided on and give them out to the children.

I think if we plan this right we may even get some hotels involved to help out the cruise participants along the way.

We think that something of this size would take atleast a year to plan/organize and kick off and it will take the clubs participation to make it happen. We want to see if this or something the club would like to start working towards.

Wynne has been contacted by someone representing a charity hospital in the past that wanted to do somthing like this and still has his contact information. There are LOTS of charities or childrens hospitals in Louisiana that we could cruise for.

We dont have any set time in mind but think it would be nicer to do this in spring or fall when its cooler.

We need to hear from everyone. What do ya'll think?

I like it ALOT! I'm in and will do anything that I can to help.

One charity that I know would appreciate the help is The Jake Owen Raborn Foundation. It was started a few years ago here in Monroe to provide assistance to families of children with cancer. I am friends with a brother of the founders and know that they are doing some good stuff. Just an idea, I will help with whatever I can.

Yep, I like it too. It will be a lot of fun, and will be great for the club in many ways, but it will take a lot of planning and a lot of help to make it happen. Keith are you thinking that we travel to each person or place of business that wants to donate, or have central drop off points, or? Just curious.

I was thinking of a central drop off at each stop Wynne.

Great charity idea Keith!

We may have to get a club member to be responsible for getting all of the donations to the drop off point. (The closest club member) That way the donor won't have to do it unless they want to. We should also make a web page off of our home page for the event. That way it will be easy for people to look at updates and pictures before and after. We could also decal up a lead truck to advertise what we are doing, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, lol.

The logistics is gonna take some serious pondering but I'm in!!! Lil Jake's Foundation is a great one but so is Shriners Hospital, or St. Jude's in Baton Rouge. Picking one is gonna be hard job. Are we thinkin Toy Drive close to Christmas or just Because? Christmas may present opportunity to help Marine Reserves Toys For Tots.... At any rate just consider me there!

I think the main question at this point is Can we pull it off successfully? Or should we start out with just a show? I know that we can do it if we set our minds to, but how much time and effort is everyone willing to give to get it done? I'm not trying to be ugly about it, but that's the bottom line I think.

I agree Wynne, Its a great idea. I think we should start off slow with a show and see how that goes. Thats my opinion.

I have no doubt we can do it. Split the state in sections. People in that area handle event in that area...

You are absolutely right Wynne. We need to put it all out there and really get everyones honest opinion. It will take all of us to do it, all of us need to discuss it.

ToddWalden wrote:I have no doubt we can do it. Split the state in sections. People in that area handle event in that area...

I agree, if we can get enough people that are interested, we can get it done, but we need everyone's honest input because in my opinion, it will take at least 15-20 people to make it what I would consider a success, and of course the more we have the better it will be. I think the most work will be in getting donations, which most people don't like to do. I could go either way, personally. I would love to be a part of it, but I know that the planning will be a lot of work, and I've never done anything like it. Should I try to contact the guy that I got the email from for some help with the planning? Or should we make our decision first? If I contact him, I feel sure that he will want the proceeds to go to his charity hospital that he works for.

Judging from the lack of response I don't think we will be able to pull this off as well as we would want to. Maybe we can scale it back some and host our show, with some sort of cruise worked in with it or something?

Sorry guys. My head is all crazy. I just received my new official position today, and my daughter got her job in Kansas, so we been trying to get all the weird crap arranged for me to move her up there in two weeks. I'll try to pay more attention later.

Hey don't worry about it Bill, we are in no hurry, just discussing the possibilities at this point. I'd still like to see this done, but we may have to get some help or make it a "future plan".

I'd like to see this done also. I don't have any experience with setting something like this up, like I'm sure most of us don't.

The owner of my company does a benefit for his deceased son once a year to give out scholarships in his son's name. He does a skeet shoot, with an auction for a couple of items while we are there. Last year he raised something like $76,000.00 for scholarships. I know that when he gets the oilfield big-wigs involved they usually way overbid the items in the auction, just because it's going for a good cause. They also sell sponsorships, if you pay the sponsorship money, you get your company name on the sign and website. The point to all of this rambling is that maybe we can bring something from his event over to ours. I know we can't have a live auction with the cruise being all over the state, but maybe we could sell sponsorships and have some sort of signs that we can have made up to set in the beds of our trucks to display our sponsors while we cruise the entire state.

I also think that any company that gets their employees together to donate either money or toys should get the joy of having us pull into their parking lot to accept the donations. I just think that there might be a little more donations if the people donating have some way to be involved, even if it's just checking out some old trucks for 20-30 minutes. This is just my 2 cents, what do ya'll think?