As a relative newcomer to trucking, I’ve learned a lot – but still have a lot to learn.

Case in point: Leading up to this year’s Truckers for Troops Telethon, I was apprehensive.

How could OOIDA members possibly match, much less exceed, the $43,000 in contributions they made last year?

After all, we’re in the throes of the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression and truckers aren’t spared from the hard times.

I shared my concern with a member who called in about a week before the telethon.

“Oh, don’t worry” he said, “truckers are the most generous people there are.”

“Why do you think so many panhandlers hang around truck stops?” he asked.

“Dunno,” I said.

“Because they know truckers will help them out.”

He proved right about OOIDA members being generous.

When the weeklong telethon ended and they crunched the numbers, donations for care packages for our troops overseas came to an astonishing $54,567.

That’s $11,000 more than last year.

During a live online Internet session, one member’s daughter messaged the total to her husband in Iraq.

He immediately messaged back – on behalf of himself and his unit – “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

The other night, my brother called and I told him our truckers had donated more than $54,000 for the troops.

“Wow. In this economy?” he said.

“They’ve got to be hurting themselves.”

“Yeah, they are,” I said, “but they gave anyway.”

Like I said, I’m relatively new to trucking.

But I’m learning.