Couple of photos of FWA built truck at Ground Zero

On Thursday, November 29, 2001, the employees of the General Motors Fort Wayne Truck Plant donated their time and the UAW and General Motors Corporation donated the materials to build four full-sized extended cab pickup trucks at the Fort Wayne facility.  These trucks will be donated to the New York City Fire Department to aid in the Sept. 11 recovery efforts.

This was part of a larger UAW and GM effort.  UAW-represented GM workers from 17 plants in the U.S. did donate their time to build 60 cars and trucks for the FDNY. Each vehicle will bear commemorative badging that salutes both the firefighters and plant workers.

Corporate-wide, UAW members and GM salaried employees have contributed to the Sept. 11 disaster relief efforts in a number of ways.  As an example, donations from employees, plants and matching funds from the GM Foundation total more than $3.7 million.  At the local Fort Wayne Plant, employees contributed over $30,000 to disaster relief and the corporation matched that amount.

These Black and White photos were taken by Sara Leffler a graduate of Snider High School (FWCS).She went on a school trip in early June with other Snider student to NYC. Their goal was to visit the site of the attacks on America on 9-11-01 and put together a multi-media presentation to show others in Fort Wayne how they "saw it" (Ground Zero). These Snider students put on a program at the Scottish Rite Auditorium during Fort Wayne's Three Rivers Festival.

While in NYC Sara saw a Chevy pickup with the logo on the side.  It was one of the donation trucks built where her father works, Eddie Leffler Paint Maintenance Pipefitter 2nd shift. She was proud and excited to have seen this truck.  She quickly took the pictures you see here, even though it was an overcast day.  She had heard from her father, that the UAW and GM were building and donating vehicles to the fire departments in NYC. Now it all comes together, special thanks to Sara for the sharp eye and Eddie for passing this great story on to us.

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