Unfortunate situations, but happy faces all the same
The trucking community in the Netherlands is close-knit. In case of need, the men and women know how to reach out to each other and they often join forces to help a colleague. The Noah4All Foundation is the superlative and combines that characteristic generosity of often tough-looking drivers with a small heart in a wonderful initiative: Noah4All Foundation.
Noah used to love trucks, police and aeroplanes
Unfortunately, some people have to deal with serious illness at a very young age, such as Noah. In 2014, a group of professional drivers got in touch with Martijn, the father of the seriously ill Noah (3). Noah used to love everything to do with trucks, police and aeroplanes. A group of people from the transport world wanted to do something for Noah and joined forces to give this brave boy and his family a great day out, where they were allowed to have a look behind the scenes at Schiphol.
Physically, Noah is no longer with us, but this small, brave boy who touched the hearts of so many, lives on in Noah4All. The aim of this foundation is to enable drivers and former drivers in the last phase of their lives to enjoy their passion one more time: trucks and everything associated with them.
Noah4All helps to fulfil last wishes
A few examples of wishes that have been fulfilled by Noah4All:
- a last ride with former colleagues
- a visit to a favourite driver's café
- visiting a truck show again, from the hospice
- experiencing the Truckstar festival again and seeing it from the air in a helicopter
- experience that real driver's feeling again next to a fellow driver during a scenic drive
These are just some of the wishes that Noah4All has fulfilled. The foundation focuses not only on current and former drivers, but also on their families and loved ones.
The initiators of Noah4All approached it well from the outset. A foundation board was formed and the policy plan quickly took shape. You should appreciate, however, that no matter how good the intentions of a foundation are, they cannot be achieved without donations and gifts from both the business community and private individuals.
Kraker Trailers also contributes to Noah4All
Recently, Kraker Trailers also became directly involved with Noah4All. Guido Maassen van den Brink, driver and founder/manager of a number of transport-related Facebook pages, took a terminally ill driver for a ride in '21. Since then, it has been in the back of Guido's mind that he wants to do more for Noah4All. "When you help fulfil someone's last wish, driving that very last ride in a truck, it makes an indelible impression. It made me emotional to see how someone in a hopeless situation is revived on his last ride."
"I approached companies that are active on "my" FB pages with colleagues, with the bold question of whether they could help," Guido continued. "And by helping, we mean raising enough money so that Noah4All can deploy their own truck as often as possible so that sick drivers can ride their favourite route, for example. Such a truck consumes fuel, it needs insurance, it wears out tyres, you name it. And we want to give the sick the best possible comfort. The response has been overwhelming: many companies have made items available for online bidding. Kraker was the best of them all: we were hoping for one box with a few items, but Ellen de Kraker collected a number of large boxes with quality items that were in great demand. Ellen also made a financial contribution to the account of Noah4All. Together with the gifts and items from all the other companies, we have collected a considerable amount of money so far," said Guido, and it was clearly noticeable that this solidarity touched him. "In the weekend of 17 and 18 September we will hand over the cheque with the final amount to the Noah4All Foundation, during the "Tukker Truckers" event. We are keeping the amount a secret for the time being, because we hope that donations will still come in, so that we can really surprise Noah4All".
Can Noah4All also count on you?
Kraker Trailers calls on anyone who can spare something to donate to Guido. This could be as little as a gift of €10 or a nice gadget. The hope is to hand over a cheque with even more Euros than the wonderful amount that has been collected so far. We should join forces so that Noah4All can give many more drivers and their families one last ride.
Donations can also be made directly to Noah4All through the website of the same name. If you want to help get the amount on the cheque as high as possible, please contact Guido Maassen van den Brink by e-mail at bzhn67@gmail.com or by phone at +31 (0)6 42326540.