As I write this, much of the southern U.S. is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast last September. Those of us safely removed from the storm watched the scenes of devastation with terror and dread, coupled with an urge to help our countrymen in need. Some of us donated food and clothing; others sent checks to charities like the Red Cross. Watching the initial relief efforts on TV, former Four Wheeler editor and longtime contributor Jimmy Nylund decided to get involved in a more immediate fashion.
Jimmy recounts how it all started: "I saw this story on the morning news where local volunteers had hundreds of pallets of donated stuff for the United Way, which the Teamsters were supposed to pick up and transport. The next morning, they had even more pallets, the volunteers looked a bit worn out ... and still no Teamsters. The morning after that, same thing. That's when I thunk, 'Enough is enough.' I called the people in Van Nuys (California) and told them I'd be there the following morning."
And the next day, Jimmy was at the Van Nuys relief station, loading up his own Peterbilt semitractor with 12,000 pounds of supplies for delivery to Louisiana. As he sped across the country, subsisting on little food or rest, unusual things started happening. Total strangers began confronting him at fuel stops, and handed him fistfuls of money: "You wouldn't believe how many people said, 'I'm so glad somebody is actually doing something. I was just gonna send a check to the Red Cross.' Somehow I ended up being a Rubber Duck (as in Convoy) of sorts. All of a sudden, I had a following that just kept growing, and I had no clue why these people had chosen me as their 'leader'. Maybe because I was one of the few who didn't just send a check?"
Whatever the reason, Jimmy collected enough in donations to cover his fuel expenses-all $1,800 worth-and he came home with a couple hundred to spare ... which he then donated to the Red Cross, in the form of a personal check.
At first, I'd only asked Jimmy to write a brief re-cap of his experience to appear in our "RPM" column, but his story soon spiraled into a 4,000-word narrative that begged for its own place in the magazine. While there's no trail-riding, no transfer cases, and no four-wheeling whatsoever in it, I thought that Jimmy's story was deserving of recognition, as an example of one person getting involved and trying to make a difference in a time of need, and you can read his recollections this month, starting on page 46.
And on the subject of "getting involved," we'll be doing it our own way later this month, at our annual Clean-Up at the Stoddard Wells OHV Area, near Barstow in the California high desert. We'll truck in some dumpsters for the day, and haul them out, we'll have trash bags galore to hand out-and, most likely, some coffee and snacks for our volunteers. And with any luck, we'll have time left over for some 'wheeling too. We'll hold our clean-up on Saturday, January 28, 2006, rain or shine ... and you're all invited come out and join us. Some folks from our sister pubs, such as 4-Wheel & Off-Road and Jp, will be there as well, so if you'd like to meet the editors and help us keep one of our favorite 'wheeling spots clean (and open), we'll see you there. We'll be at the Sidewinder Staging Area, near Interstate 15, at 9:00 a.m. sharp. You don't need to bring 12,000 pounds of supplies. Just bring yourselves, your rigs ... and your willingness to get involved and make a difference.
-Douglas McColloch