National Association of Independent Truckers Donates $150,000 to TCA’s Scholarship Fund
Orlando, Florida:
The National Association of Independent Truckers (NAIT), an organization that supports the needs of independent contractor small-business owners, will be donating $150,000 toward the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) Scholarship Fund. Although full details have yet to be worked out, the money will be designated for a special scholarship that will be named after NAIT.
The announcement was made March 9th during the Live Auction at TCA’s Annual Convention, held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. According to Bill Webb, chairman of TCA’s Scholarship Fund and operating partner of Fenway Partners, “NAIT really made our Live Auction a success. We started by auctioning four terrific packages that included things like 2010 Super Bowl tickets, a golf and spa get-away, a diamond pendant, Indianapolis 500 tickets, and tickets to see the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees play a home game in their respective brand new stadiums. This brought in $31,501.Then NAIT told us officially of their decision to donate an additional $150,000, which brought our grand total for the evening to $181,501!”
NAIT spokesperson Sandra Yambor, vice president, marketing, had given TCA’s Scholarship Fund Committee a heads-up that the money would be coming when she participated in the Committee’s meeting on March 8th. Yambor told the Committee that she had initially attended TCA’s 2008 Independent Contractor Division meeting in Chicago and was impressed with its content, information and speakers. Therefore, when the NAIT Board made a decision to donate some of its funds to a 501(c)(3) organization, she looked for some tie-in with TCA, which ended up being TCA’s Scholarship Fund.
“NAIT wanted to work with an organization that respects and understands the needs of the Independent Contractor. What appealed to us most was the fact that TCA’s rules specify that scholarships can only be given to students who are personally involved with the trucking industry or who have a family member in the industry. We wanted to see our money go to those involved with trucking and stay within the trucking industry family,” said Yambor.