Nov 19, 2009

Syngenta Flowers’ Don Snow Donates Truck to CharitySource: Syngenta Flowers

Don Snow, technical specialist manager for Syngenta Flowers, will donate his beloved truck Old Red to charity.

“Though many of my colleagues and industry contacts have given me a hard time about my attachment to my ancient Toyota pickup, I just wasn’t ready to part with Old Red,” said Snow. “I felt it still had a lot to give and that’s when I hatched a plan to donate it to charity.”

Snow has owned his truck for 19 years now, having bought it the week before he started at Goldsmith Seeds. Old Red has more than 357,000 miles and, according to Snow, has only let him down once. That’s why it was so important to him to find just the right charity.

His search led him to a group named Latin American Medical Providers (LAMP). LAMP is a group of volunteer doctors that makes an annual pilgrimage to Jalapa, Guatemala, to provide free medical and dental care of the residents of the town and surrounding villages. For more information, see their site at www.lampcharity.org.

“I have personally traveled to Guatemala over 60 times and have found that the Guatemaltecos are some of the kindest, hardest working and most generous people I’ve ever met,” said Snow. “Without them and other Central Americans, we would not have the quantity or quality of flowers seeds and cuttings that are available to us now. They’ve helped us immensely and I think it’s only fitting that we help those in Guatemala that need us most.”

After speaking with the founders of LAMP, Snow and his wife decided to actually drive Old Red from Gilroy, Calif., to Jalapa in order to raise funds for the charity! And what’s more, he’s donating Old Red to an orphanage in Jalapa that LAMP serves.

They will be leaving on this odyssey the day after Thanksgiving and expect to arrive in Jalapa around Dec. 11. They’ll be writing a blog along the way at jalapabound.blogspot.com so you can keep track of their progress and perhaps have a chance to wish them all the best.

Those interested in getting involved can help fund the LAMP doctors so they can keep helping the needy residents of Jalapa. Just go to www.lampcharity.org/donate and make your donation either by check or online. All donations are tax deductible. Spend some time checking out their site so you can see all the things they do. There’s a very inspirational video worth watching.