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Inside The International Towing Museum: Survivor Fund, Growth, And Community · Towing News Now

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: You on the train just with April and West Wilburne.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm DJ Hamrington, the co-host, better known as the tow doctor.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: We're on our way to the town of proper towing and recovery, along with our producer, Chuck Camp in the studio.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go to the town of wood, could have should have.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: You could have done this.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: You should have done that.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Listen every week with mud provoking wisdom.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe a photo show that's coming up.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let us know.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm proud to be part of a great team at the American Dome Recovery Institute.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Let's make 2025 our best year ever.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: I will commit to April and May.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, thank you for that warm intro today.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: So good to always hear your voice.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Wes is doing a class this week, and pretty much all week.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_04: He just actually finished one up in Georgia, or I'm sorry, Alabama last weekend in Enterprise Alabama.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: Did it a one-day class and then a two-day class, and today as we're talking right now, he's doing a two-day fire power class trader with Ron Moore in that Louisiana.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: And then Saturday and Sunday is doing a one-day heavy duty and a one-day light duty.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_04: So he has been a busy little, busy little trainer these last few days.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that will almost close out the season.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then we're already getting dates on the schedule for next season.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: So if anybody's interested in hosting a class, give us a call at 910-7479000, or you can email us.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_04: I am very happy to have this interview to myself.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_04: I've got Jeffrey Godwin with me.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: Jeffrey Godwin, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_05: I'm uh Jeffrey Godwin.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: I am Senior Director of Solution Design and Integration for Cox Automotive and work primarily with the Fleet Net America business.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_05: And with my other hat, I uh volunteer and have the pleasure to serve as the vice president of the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as chairman of the Wall of the Fallen and Survivor Fund committees.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: That is a that is a lot of hats.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: That's not just one because that that towing museum uh they do a lot of things.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: I this past year went to the Wall of the Fallen and watched that ceremony, and I've seen I've seen their front end of it as far as all the stuff that is getting done at that time.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_04: But there's probably a lot of back backroom stuff and a lot of um uh things that you guys have to put in place to get that day to happen.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's always um eye-opening for me when I see it, you know, what you're going to see and you know what you're gonna watch, but when when you hear the names out loud, it's it's more of a tangible and you see the family members walk up and receive those wings.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_05: I certainly tell people who have not been to that wall of the fallen ceremony that they should attend.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's a life-changing kind of thing.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh very powerful for sure.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely um puts a perspective that it puts it hand to me, it puts a tangible thing with a theory.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: You the theory is this could happen to me.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: When you go watch it, this did happen to somebody, you know.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: And these are the people, these are the people's families that it happened to still mourning and grieving that loss.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: So we appreciate we appreciate what you do with that.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: What what is your participation in the Wall of the Fallen?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I've been chair of the Wall of the Fallen since uh since it was being constructed uh 20 years ago.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I think I took a two-year hiatus as chairman of the wall uh stayed on the fund and then went back to the wall as well when we recombined those committees.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_05: So I lead those efforts, um, everything from processing of applications through our committee.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_05: I've got 10 committed individuals who are uh divide the country into regions, as well as uh somebody who handles all of our international claims, and they gather all the information and the committee reviews it, uh, makes sure that it meets our policy requirements, and uh then we, from the Survivor Fund, we're able to issue payment to families, a gift, a financial gift, and for the wall of the fallen, we're able to honor their loved ones at our annual ceremony.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: So when you are con when you're in communication with family, do you approach the family?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: Does the family approach you, or is there a little bit of that back and forth?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_05: You know, the typical process for the committee is we'll get an application in, or we'll hear about a tragedy just you know, through the industry on the news, whatever it happens to be.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, the folks, there's a lot of folks on my committee who've been doing it for uh the same 20 years I have, or a significant portion thereof.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_05: And so we typically hear about those tragedies pretty quickly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: And the committee's charge is based on the region that you represent, there's somebody assigned to each state, and that person will reach out proactively, but to the company, not the family.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_05: We reach out to the company, make sure they're aware of the benefits that are available for the family that has lost a loved one, and we provide them with the application form and links and things that are necessary to do the application.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_05: And then when they provide that to the family, somebody from my committee usually gets engaged with the family to make sure that we help them through that process.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_05: Application comes in.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: They can be pretty sparse at first, which is fully acceptable as long as you know we can see that it was an on-the-job tragedy and there's something to prove that up.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: We are able to immediately pay survivor fund benefits to the family, which is the goal of the fund, is the timeliness.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: And then beyond that, we begin to collect other backup documentation for our files and for our audit purposes, particularly for the wall of the fallen, to ensure that we have uh police reports and all the things that go along with these tragedies in the file.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: And so we have a punch list of things that we have to uh incorporate into that to get final wall approval and order the plates and honor folks on that wall.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's amazing how much administrative goes into these things that people don't think about, but you you have to do those things to, like you said, for any audit or anything like that that happens.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: You you gotta have all those things lined up and then contacting the company first before you before the before the family is contacted.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: Has to be something that I don't know if the family getting the dynasty call call with that family.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know how much more drama or stress I would put on them, but at least letting the company deal with that first aspect of it before it's turned over to them has to be something that was well thought out as well.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, we've certainly tried it a couple of different ways.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: And um and we have families that don't want to participate, we have companies that have reasons they don't want to participate, and so it's also a bit of a vetting process for the application to make sure that it's something that um, you know, we're going to process.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and also, you know, we have to look at each case individually and make sure that we understand that it was an on-the-job kind of a uh tragedy and what the circumstances were and make sure that those align with our policies.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_04: So none of this could happen without the generous donations of um folks out there putting money into this fund.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_05: You know, this fund started 20 years ago, and of course, we didn't have any money when we started.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we started raising money.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_05: We were very successful early on in gathering a nest egg, if you would, to get started.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, we had a$500 death benefit to families when we first started issuing funds.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_05: And um at our last event, because of the generosity of all the people who have donated over the years, we raised our minimum death benefit to$10,000.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_05: So everyone in the industry uh towing in road service worldwide is covered by the Survivor Fund.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um, certainly not insurance, it's not insurance kinds of amounts, but it's um you know an amount that's designed to uh help with some immediate bills where these tragedies occur because the honestly, this industry and the tragedies that happen typically hit uh folks that are in their mid-40s and are in a single breadwinner household and have uh multiple children at home.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so we we look at the survivor fund as an opportunity to pay some money to the family as a gift that they can use at least to cover rent and groceries for a short period, um, as they work through whatever else they may need to related to the difficulties they're going through, everything from you know burial expenses to you know what's the next step in life.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_05: And um we we try to help with that.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: We try to help companies as well.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_05: We have uh folks that have been through this, folks that have lost operators and uh have had to deal with these types of tragedies at work when you have to immediately send somebody back out into harm's way.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_05: And so we try to provide some uh assistance in connecting people who've been through it with those who are going through it now.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_05: And uh I think that's a valuable ad to what we do.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_04: I can imagine um I can imagine that is very valuable uh because you feel like you're alone when that happens, even though as evidence being at the wall you you're not.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: But you still feel it, and having at least somebody who can relate to that has got to be maybe not comfort, maybe comfort's not the word I'm looking for, but just just somebody else to talk to.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and we see a little bit too with the family fellowship that takes place after the event, um, for you know, specific for the families of our fallen and getting those folks together.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, they often, you know, they have private Facebook groups and different things where uh the families work together as well because they're all dealing with the same types of situations, at least generally speaking.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: That's just a it's a wonderful thing that the that the museum has undertaken.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna go to a break, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about some other things um from the museum, okay?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: For bringing us back on the break.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: We we have with us Jeffrey Goblin, who was talking about the museum.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: We just discussed the survivor fund from the museum, and now we're going to talk about some of the other things that are going on there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_04: Jeffrey, thank you for joining us back again.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_05: Happy to be here.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: What exciting things do you see in store for the museum?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Well, um, you know, we always have a lot of aspirations and things we want to accomplish.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_05: But I would say that uh first and foremost, the thing that's top of mind for the board today is um we need a new building.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, um those things don't come free.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_05: And uh though we have some very generous donors who support our efforts, um the donations we receive annually certainly cover operating costs and help us to grow the uh museum entity, but it's gonna take uh a bigger effort than that to get a new building.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_05: So that's a that's a big push, but at the same time, the building that we're in, um we're doing a lot of work to that place.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um we recently received a grant for um$100,000 that we were able to use um in uh fixing the roof and doing some painting, and we uh seal coated the parking lot, and we fixed and replaced some air conditioners and just a lot of different things.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_05: If you were up there this year, you would have seen we uh uh took out the walls that were the Hall of Fame and we rebuilt and reconfigured how the Hall of Fame flows in the building, and we built a new remembrance room for the Wall of the Fallen for families to go and have a quiet place to reflect on their loved one in the tragedy.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_05: So we've got some things underway like that, and we also uh just received um that same grant again for this year.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_05: We just got word, I think last week, that we'll be receiving another$100,000 to do um some more upgrades, and we have a lot of work planned for um for that so that we can continue to make better use of the space we're in until we can find a way to um get a bigger home.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what are your what when you talk about getting a bigger hall?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_04: What are your aspirations on that?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: What do you what do you envision?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: Well, oh let's see.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um when the Friends of Towing started, you know, the museum began in 1985.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_05: So we're 40 years down the road, and the first 10 years, the museum was a trailer that got pulled around the country from show to show.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: And um, you know, then we moved into um an actual building in Chattanooga and had a facility and uh spent I think eight years there before we moved to our current location.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_05: We've been at the current location, which is a converted grocery store.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um and we've been there since uh 2003, I believe.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_05: And um it's just we've outgrown the building.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_05: We have a lot of people who would like to donate uh vehicles and other artifacts for our exhibits that we haven't had room for.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_05: And so now, in order to number one, rotate out some exhibits, we moved everything around this year, but next year we will have rotated out some trucks and things.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_05: But to be able to do that, um, you know, we've got some off-site storage arranged so that we can have some things in uh you know protected that have been donated.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_05: So now we'll spend some time over the next six months bringing in vehicles that have been donated and getting things ready for exhibit and hopefully refreshing the place a little bit for this year.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_05: But the thing that we're lacking, you know, we have low ceilings, like I said, it's a converted grocery store.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_05: Uh it would be really nice to be able to have a rotator or any type of modern heavy vehicle, even if it wasn't a donated unit that we owned, if it was something that could be displayed to show more of the evolution and timeline of the industry.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we don't have a flatbed in the place at all.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yes, you know, whether you call it a carrier, a flatbed, a slide bed, a tilt bed, whatever it is, we don't have one.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_05: And we need to have some of those more modern pieces of equipment too.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_05: And we have access to a lot of those things.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_05: We just don't have the space.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, definitely there is there's a lot to um if you've ever been to the International Town Museum, you need to go as as an experience.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: Um when you go on the floor, the the museum floor with all the trucks, it is a lot in a little space.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I think you guys have even overflowed some down in um the the bottom floor too a little bit, it looks like.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's pretty full down there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_05: We're reconfiguring that space.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_05: We're going to uh we get a lot of requests from folks that want to have events at our facility, and so we do um smaller local events, things like through the chamber of commerce and stuff at the museum.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_05: And um, folks that want to use that space, it can be a profit center for us.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_05: So we're going to um make modifications to the space to make it more attractive as an event venue and to make sure that the artifacts that are in there, other than those that are against the walls, can be easily pulled out and make room for those types of events.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_05: So that's you know, the the downstairs is um actually full now too.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_05: Uh but through some reconfiguration, we'll have some flexibilities there, and then again more as we um have some offsite storage and things like that.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, in recent years, Wes has done classes down on that bottom floor too.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I know that I know there's been other training events down there as well.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_04: And the kitchen, the kitchen is very adequate for what you guys gotta do as far as like bringing food in and and and having so there um there's a lot of possibilities on that down that downstairs area.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I also did notice um the the hall of the wall of the hall of fame.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_04: That I could when I walked through there, I was like, oh, what happened?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um it took me a s it took me a moment to to um to regroup myself I was walking through there because I was used to walking down that one hallway.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_05: And then I think that expanding it gave us the ability to put everybody in chronological order.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_05: And we were out of space to add any new classes in that hallway.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_05: So now we have a whole nother hallway.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: Plus the way it was reconfigured instead of that hallway.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_05: We could have done it before with that hallway being a dead end.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_05: We could have made the hallway for the extra photos and continued, but then people would have had to go down and turn around and come back out.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_05: And so this makes the flow a little better.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_05: They can go through the Hall of Fame and see all that.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_05: And then when they come out, they're over in the area where our uh little tater tot, the rotator for kids to operate, is and that kind of stuff.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: And so um, yeah, we like the the new configuration and it gives us room, like I say, for um, you know, years to come of inductees to be added if we end up staying at this building.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, hopefully um right now it's gorgeous.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's a great place to go to.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I love going there.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: I love going to the gift shop.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: They've they've done so much with that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: West gets a little, I don't want to say emotional because that's not the West feels uh uh um a connection with that place.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: I feel I think he feels like he was part of the initial um parts of it as far as help helping with it goes.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_05: And when you put some what equity equity in something, you do feel, but also there is a time things grow, and when things grow, you've got to figure out where to move that to Yeah, no, and uh Wes was certainly instrumental in um what the museum has done over the years, and uh he's provided a lot of valuable information on the history of the industry and those kinds of things, and he certainly appreciate all that involvement as well as he's done a tremendous amount of fundraising over the years for the Survivor Fund and uh helping us to get to where we are.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, every everybody uh, you know, it's a it's a team effort, that's that's an everybody thing, but Wes is a very big advocate for the industry itself and the museum and and the people that put their hearts into uh making this thing something that we can come to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: All right, we're gonna go to break, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about um some more about the museum because this is this is our passion.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, this is something that we love and a place that we love to go.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_04: And we're also gonna talk about membership drives, the Survivor Fund and the museum, which I believe, and when Jeff Jeffrey Kozek, you could you get you can correct me if I'm wrong, are two different um membership drives.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: So we'll be back in one minute.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: We also offer the National Town Operator Certification, an independently sourced virtual testing program covering light duty, heavy duty, electric, and alternative fuel vehicles.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks for uh bringing us back in.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: And we have Jeffrey Goblin who is um joining me on this podcast today to talk about the International Tony Museum and all the great things that that have happened in the past and the bright future that we are looking into for this for this um wonderful building.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_04: Jeff, what else is going on at the museum?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_04: What else can we look forward to?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I think that uh you know we're experiencing some growth and we're looking forward to more.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_05: So we're always like anybody looking for new members.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um the museum is supported by donations and by our annual events, so I'm always trying to raise awareness around those.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_05: You know, our annual fundraising auction is uh uh quite the spectacle to people and raises a tremendous amount of money.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_05: And it's also an opportunity for people to meet that year's inductees at that meet and greet event.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um, this year we had eight folks go into the Hall of Fame, so we now have 382 members after this year's class.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_05: Amazing.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_05: And um, so you know that's stuff that um we enjoy doing, and it also helps the museum.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, again, we're always looking for new members.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_05: We've restructured some membership levels and things recently, and uh there's a lot of different ways that people can join and support the museum and its efforts.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_04: All right, let us know what is what is the best way if you want to become a member or if you want to donate, either either one or both, what is the best way to do that?
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_05: Uh well towing museum.com has a uh membership form available there.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_05: You can sign up straight on the website.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_05: You can certainly contact the museum directly for that.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: And as far as donations, um I accept.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_05: It's just real simple.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_05: If somebody has something they want to donate, whether it's a financial gift or it's um an artifact to donate to the museum, um, our goal is to you know accept those things and to do so quickly and put them to good use, whatever is most beneficial to the museum in the process.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_04: I I heard this thing and it's kind of stuck with me that we have at our fingertips access to so many things that people are looking now more for experiences than they are objects.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: If you want an experience, go to the international if you have never been, or if it's been a long time since you have been, go to the international towing, make it a weekend trip, make it a week trip, make it a beach, you know, make it a uh uh spring break trip.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: It is a trip in also Chattanooga gorgeous area.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: So for that experience, I really implore you to um to take that trip and walk down the memory lane of the past.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I I think we also can see a future for this too.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_05: Can we just absolutely and you know if people are looking for times to attend, certainly the museum weekend is a great one.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_05: But uh if you're within a couple hours of Chattanooga and any other travel, it's worth the trip to Chattanooga to uh experience the museum.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, there's also other opportunities.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we started working with um the local minor league team, the Chattanooga Lookouts, a few years ago.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_05: In the last two years, they've had an alternate alternative identity of the Chattanooga Wreckers.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_05: So they played six games each of the last couple of years as the Wreckers.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, they've got logos and stuff for Major League Baseball.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_05: We sell all those things for uh Major League Baseball in the gift shop at the museum, as well as they do that at the stadium.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_05: But this year, this coming year, um and I don't have the dates yet, but the Lookouts are building a new stadium that opens in April, and uh they're going to use the alternate identity of the Wreckers this year as instead of six games that are spread out, they're gonna have some double headers and stuff and make like a weekend out of it that's Wreckers weekend.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_05: And so I think that we'll probably have some things in conjunction with that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_05: And once those dates are ready and we know what's going on, we'll get that out to people.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_05: But that'll be something to look forward to this summer when we hope we can get a lot of folks from the industry there.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, support the baseball thing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_05: It's a great tie-in to what we're doing.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_05: The team is extremely supportive of the museum and our efforts and uh in recognizing Chattanooga as the birthplace of the tow truck in general.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds amazing.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: I I somehow didn't know that.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_04: As soon as you get that, we'll post it all over the place as well and um to get the word out for that.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_04: But I bet you a lot of people will be interested in that.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, you know, if uh if people want the the baseball gear or whatever, like I say, we have that stuff at the museum and in our online gift shop.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_05: But really, I think that it's uh it's a fantastic thing to come and experience.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and they really do a great job of recognizing our industry at those events.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_05: They do a lot of work on slowdown move over at those events and just trying to educate the public.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_05: And so it's been a good partnership, and we're excited about it continuing.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_05: We're even looking at having some of our annual events at the stadium next year because they're going to have some some great venues to host uh some of our events.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds I'm excited about that.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_04: I'm looking forward to that already.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna go ahead and book a room right now at this day bridge.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_04: So all right.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_04: Jeffrey, would you like to have any closing comments?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_05: No, I uh I hope that um you know your listeners will uh visit the website and hopefully at some point have an opportunity to visit the museum itself.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, you know, we look forward to their feedback and how we can continue to improve and uh meet the mission of the museum at the same time that we you know serve the industry we support.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead and go over that um way to contact for for any donations for membership and um and we'll leave it there.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, the Towing Museum website is probably uh the best place for those things.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, obviously, if folks have complexity in what they're giving or whatever, it's easier to contact a person.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_05: People can reach out to me, they can reach out to Bill Graziano, who's the president of the museum, they can reach out to the museum directly, and the staff there can assist.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_05: And then, as far as um donations and that kind of stuff, we also accept donations on the website, um, just financial stuff, we can set up recurring things.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_05: And then we are also restarting a uh pledge drive that we do for the Survivor Fund that each time an operator's killed and the survivor fund pays out to a family so that we already know it meets the requirements and everything.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_05: People who have made a pledge, we send out some information to them that says, hey, here's a tragedy that happened, here's the basic details.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_05: We've already supported the family in this, but you made a pledge that each time one of these operators got killed, you could donate you know X amount of money, we'll say$20.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_05: And so we send that out, and so we've written a check to a family that you know in in current times it's$10,000 minimum, but we we've written that check, and then through the pledge program, we hope to replenish some of those coffers.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_05: And um we've we turned that off about uh 12 to 18 months ago just because we needed some better ways to administer some things, so we're building some software tools, but we're gonna be launching that program again first of the year, and um, we're hopeful that that will help to you know offset some things.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_05: A year and a half ago when we shut it down, it was um it was a couple thousand dollars in pledges, and those things would come in each time we had a tragedy, and so it helps us to be able to raise the death benefit and to improve the offerings from the Survivor Fund.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, I I see that is always something you guys have to work in.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um And if anybody happens to have a really large high-ceiling building somewhere in the Chattanooga area that they'd like to donate, I would be more than happy to talk to them about how we can help them on their taxes from that.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: You take it off their hands and help them with their taxes.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_05: I would be more than happy to accept a building as a donation.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: That is so nice of you.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you guys heard it here, so I'm sure people from Chattanooga are gonna hear this.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: And if they know somebody who knows somebody, get a hold of Jeffrey.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: All right, Jeffrey, thank you so much.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_04: I have enjoyed this conversation.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_04: And if you haven't been to Tennessee and to the Tell Museum, you need to go.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_04: All right, everybody, come next week.