The Women In Trucking Association (WIT) has a mission to encourage female employment, address obstacles for women in the industry and celebrate their successes. Since 2014, the group has found an extraordinary way to relay this message by empowering G.I.R.L.: go-getting, innovating, risk-taking, leaders better known as the Girl Scouts of America. WIT’s partnership with Girl Scouts enables local transportation and logistics companies, and troops to plan a “Trucks Are For Girls” event with the purpose of obtaining a WIT Transportation Badge.
According to its website, the Girl Scout badge program is meant to help girls develop a strong sense of self, seek challenges and learn from setbacks, display positive values, form and maintain healthy friendships, and identify and solve problems within their community. Girls get the opportunity to choose what badges they would like to receive based on their interests and skills deemed important to them. Girl Scout troops can work together to obtain specific badges, or individual scouts can choose to embark on badge activities separately.
In a “Trucks Are For Girls” event, groups are encouraged to pick an educational activity related to trucking, find a female speaker from the industry, and fill the day with fun activities such as informational coloring books. WIT provides event coordinators with two coloring books, Shelby’s Big Rig Day, a story about a girl who rides along with her mother for the day, and Scouting for Cookies, which describes the supply chain for Girl Scouts cookies.
The first event the partnership put on was in October 2014, where 84 girls met at Olive Harvey School in Chicago to learn about designing trucks to accommodate women, led by a female Navistar engineer. After a day full of activities and jumping into the cabs of two female drivers, these girls were the first to receive the Transportation Patch, according to a blog from WIT.
The Transportation Patch is meant to expose scouts to all aspects of the supply chain. Past events have included tours of the S.S. Meteor, to world’s last Whaleback Ship, ride on the North Shore scenic railroad and science lessons on how airplanes fly.
In 2020, Pohl Transportation hosted an event at their office in Ohio, according to a WIT blog. Two troops attended the event and were able to tour the company’s facility, their repair facility, ask questions of a female company driver and build 3D models of semi trucks.
Past participating companies include J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ:JBHT), Landstar (NASDAQ:LSTR), Daimler Trucks North America (OTCMKTS:DDAIF), Brenny Transportation, YRC Freight, Penske, Trinity Logistics and Peterbilt. A total of 1575 girls have earned their Transportation Patch.
For information about planning a WIT-Girl Scouts of America event, click here.
For more articles from Grace Sharkey.
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