What an exciting day we had at the 2nd annual Touch a Truck fundraiser for Explorium!
This year, we added a few new vehicles, activities, and food trucks to our repertoire. The outcome was bigger than we could have imagined. Our clickers stopped working at about 4,000 people, so we can only assume that there were over 4,000 people in attendance. This is almost DOUBLE what we had last year! And the fundraising total was double at $11,000! Thank you, Denton!
The purpose of Touch a Truck is two-fold. Of course we want to raise money, and we certainly did! Secondly, Touch a Truck provides an opportunity to expose children of all ages to career paths and lifelong hobbies, as well as for smaller children to explore and learn using all their senses.
One fun thing we added this year was a raffle for some amazing John Deere toys donated by AGL constructors. We also added a signature Touch a Truck t-shirt that was so popular we sold out of the kids’ sizes. (Let us know if you want one, and we’ll make it happen!)
Trike races by Fred Moore Day Nursery School
Board president Codie Causey with Frenchy and Director Anyah Martinez
Another addition to our program was community organizations. We had several groups contact us about being a ‘vendor’ but we didn’t want to turn our program into a sales event. We decided to allow non-profits and other community-oriented organizations to participate, for a small fee, and bring a children’s activity. The result was magical! There were tricycle races, woodworking, and event Batman made an appearance! For those who were not interested in the vehicles, there was plenty to keep entertained and educated.
Thanks to the cold weather last year, we decided hot chocolate and coffee MUST be available this year. Well, who knew the weather would be so spectacular people would leave with sunburns? Oh well-coffee prevailed and the three food trucks did well also.
VFW 920 with military vehicles
The main event, the vehicles, yielded long lines, happy faces, and lots of light-flashing and horn-honking. It was a delight for all. At the end of the day we had raised a lot of money that will go a long way toward opening a facility, and we will be making an even bigger donation this year to the Denton Public School Foundation as a thank you for their partnership in this event.
For more pictures, check out our event page on facebook and just scroll through all the comments. Thank you for sharing all these wonderful pictures!
Our board and staff couldn’t be happier with the end result. As always, we are happy to accept donations online or via mail any time. We are already planning for next year’s 3rd annual Touch a Truck!
Denton County Antique Tractor Club