DUBLIN – Bladen Community College hosted their fifth-annual “Touch-A-Truck” April 12 and this year’s participation from the community input and spectators was the largest to date.
This is a program that encourages children from the community to know the vehicles that surround their everyday lives in Bladen County.
Coordination was the key to getting all the different vehicles out on a Saturday morning to the college grounds and to get them all there at the designated time of 9 a.m. and running until noon.
“We invite various community partners to come in and to bring all kinds of vehicles,” Sondra Guyton, Vice president for Institutional Advancement and Community Relations said. “We have tractors, a dump truck, school busses, ambulances, fire trucks, our marketing van, our culinary food trailer and all different kinds of vehicles here at Touch-A-Truck.”
There were so many vehicles this year that it was hard to keep track of it all. In addition to the vehicles Guyton mentioned, they had lawn racing vehicles, motorcycles, a Play-Doh truck, a talking interactive mini-school bus and perhaps the most popular vehicle was the helicopter from Cape Fear Valley Health – the Air LifeLink which is padded at the Cape Fear Valley Bladen Hospital.
“Our goal is to get the young children to get out, climb on them, get in them, toot the horn and to think about what it’s like to grow up and drive one of these vehicles,” Guyton said. “This year we also have a Play-Doh truck which is just a good opportunity for kids to look at a truck and hold a little can of Play-Doh in their hand and think about what they can make with that little can of Play-Doh. It may be a truck, it may be a car, but it’s really to encourage a fun activity.”
The helicopter is usually the highlight of the show, according to Guyton. It’s always barring good weather, and although it was a bit windy, the first one came in around 11 a.m. from Bladen.
“This year we also had the North Carolina Baptist Men on Mission who have their vehicle out here this year,” she said. “They have brought a different truck this year. We have Tanker 57 from the Tarheel Fire Department which is a beautiful brand-new vehicle. We also have the BCC big rig for truck driving here at Bladen Community College which we offer. We want folks to ask about that program and we have classes starting real soon. Both daytime and evening classes to learn how to be a truck driver.”
The day began with the opening ceremony featuring the Paul R. Brown middle school colorguard which marched in the colors to cast a patriotic flavor on the day.
One can only guess as to what memory this will provide for a child growing up. Perhaps it will cause a child to be a firefighter or a police officer or a truck driver. This is a program that invests in its community and is sure to offer big dividends.
At least 10 boys and girls mentioned that after their tour of the helicopter, they would love to do that for a living.
“It’s all about inspiring these little children,” Guyton said. “To get them thinking about what they might want to do when they grow up. We want them to not only think about that but also to think about Bladen Community College and all we have to offer them. We are here for our community, our children and their parents. We’re here for families.”
There was literally a huge crowd of children that ran for the helicopter as it came over the tree line and landed on the Bladen Community College green space. The helicopter was piloted by Daniel Denton.
“I did over 20 years in the Army flying helicopters,” Denton said. “I’ve been working here at the Elizabethtown base for almost two years. On a busy week, we would have as little as two and as many as seven flights in a week.”
According to Denton, maintenance is a very big part of the Air LifeLink program.
“When it comes to the aircraft, the primary concern is safety,” Denton said. “We want the maintenance to be done correctly and have decent parts. Sometimes those parts can come from overseas so there may be some delays with that. Anytime our guys take the aircraft down for simple maintenance, it could take 2-4 hours as opposed to an hour maintenance on your car.”
What Denton emphasized was how big it was to have a helicopter onsite in a rural area.
“It may take 90 minutes to three hours to get a patient to either Cape Fear or UNC or Duke,” he said. “This allows us to move the patient within the hour to any of those destinations. It allows us to moving patients into a higher level of critical care.”
The pilots are allowed to fly eight hours per day, according to Denton and a flight may take up to five hours.
“If we have a patient that we have to take out to CMC in Charlotte that’s a five-hour turn, but it’s not five hours of flight time. We always have a three person team flying on each run.”
Two of the stars of the BCC truck driving school and were going to school to drive big rigs were Nathaniel Stewart and Kaleb Wilson.
“The program is time consuming,” Stewart said. “I should be finished June 19 and from there I can be ready for testing. The first time you drive it’s a bit nerve racking but after a while you get used to it.”
Steward who works as a mechanic for a truck repair company (Stewart’s Mobile Service) in Bladen wanted to take the course so that he could actually work on the trucks and then drive them to confirm the repair himself.
“It’s been a good experience,” Wilson said. “I think we have a good instructor in Rick Whitaker. I’ve learned that the biggest challenge is the other people on the highway. I know what I’m doing sitting in the captain’s seat, but those folks on the road are not quite as considerate of big truck out on the highway. You just have to make sure you leave enough room between you and the drivers around you.”
Wilson comes from Wilson Cattle Company, a family farm in the Oakdale Community – Columbus County and he is going to get his CDL license to help drive for a new family trucking business (Bar W Transport) that they are starting up.
“We have trucks out on the farm and we just started a new trucking business,” he said. “I am kind of a backup for my brother who is spearheading the effort. We hope it’s a successful venture.”
Wilson says that although they are just transporting sand and old shingles, he hopes to be hauling cattle soon.
Some of the other features of the day for the kids were the give-away of tiny toy trucks to take home with them. The Bladen Library had the book mobile on site and many happy children were leaving with new books.
A win-win situation came to the College and to those who participated in the event. Not to mention the kids who were the biggest winners of the day – judging by their ear-to-ear smiles.
For more pictures, go to this week’s Bladen Journal Pictures – page 11. You can also visit our Facebook page and see our posts on April 12.