Warrior Marching Band Gifted Semitruck

Warrior’s Donated Tractor and refurbished trailer
Photo: AccessWDUN

By Lawson Smith

(Cleveland) – The White County High School Marching band was recently gifted with a custom semi-truck courtesy of TURBO Trucking in Gainesville.

White County High School Band Director Michael Pickett, stated the need for the vehicle in the program has been an ongoing issue for years, he explained, that as the program got bigger we started to use multiple trailers, and with the three trailers that we had, it would take us about an hour and a half to load before and after the games.

To resolve the issue, the band purchased a used furniture moving trailer and had planned to rent the tractor needed to pull the equipment. However, policies of tractor-renting companies due to COVID-19 at the time, they were unable to. That’s when TURBO, a company that specializes in renting and selling tractor-trailers, approached the school about donating the needed equipment.

“They contacted us approximately two years ago to start giving us the tractor,” Pickett said. “And wanted to take our trailer and fix it up to make the tractor and the trailer match.”

Photo: AccessWDUN

The tractor was donated in memory of Jerry Thomas, a TURBO employee who passed away in 2018, who was with the company for the majority of his career. He always felt very passionately about investing in children within the community. “And they thought that that would really honor his memory by donating the tractor-trailer.”

The White County Band currently hosts 120 students and is expected to grow. Pickett emphasized that when the surprise was revealed to the program on August 21, the students were thrilled.

“They were screaming and jumping up and down because it’s nice to let them have something to be proud of,” he said, “And the only reason we have that is because of TURBO.”