V&H Trucks Inc. and Gypsum Management & Supply Inc. collaborate to make it happen

By Adam Hocking

Editor

MARSHFIELD — V& H Trucks Inc. of Marshfield and Gypsum Management & Supply Inc. (GMS), a building materials company based near Atlanta, presented a check for $205,000 to the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation (MCRF) on Monday, May 18.

Gypsum Management & Supply Inc. bid $500,000, winning this breast cancer awareness-themed boom truck at auction. V&H Trucks Inc. put the truck up for auction and is donating the $205,000 profit from the sale to the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.

Wanting to raise money specifically breast cancer research, V&H Trucks Inc. designed a pink, breast cancer awareness-themed boom truck with the plan to auction it off and donate the profits to MCRF.

Tim Wolf, general sales manager for V&H Trucks Inc., said the idea behind auctioning the truck was to raise awareness for the importance of breast cancer research.

“It was just kind of a brainstorming deal, and what we wanted to do is use this to increase awareness in our market and in our industry of the increased need for cancer research,” Wolf said. “We came up with the auction idea just as a kind of an exciting way to do it.”

Wolf added, “We felt there’s so many people touched by cancer and specifically breast cancer, and it’s so well-known, and we felt we wanted to raise dollars for that.”

V&H Trucks Inc. invited about 700 vendors and friends of the business to bid on the truck. Bids were presented, and the winner of the truck was announced at the Intex Expo trade show in Long Beach, Calif. GMS submitted the winning bid of $500,000. V&H Trucks Inc. netted $205,000 in profit, which will go to MCRF, earmarked specifically for breast cancer research.

Steve McCune, a corporate fleet manager from GMS, was present at the check ceremony Monday and said his company has been working with V&H Trucks Inc. for about 20 years. He added that when GMS decided they wanted to bid on the boom truck, it was in part because many of the company’s decision makers had previous experience with cancer.

“Really, everybody in the room at some point in time had been touched by some form of cancer, so that’s what was kind of driving the interest from everybody,” McCune said. He added that the truck would be used in promotional activities of the company as well as utilized in a true working capacity.

Marshfield Clinic Chief Development Officer Teri Wilczek said that the donation was the “single largest gift to MCRF from a volunteer fundraiser” in the foundation’s history.

Marshfield Clinic Health System CEO Dr. Susan Turney said that Marshfield Clinic is well positioned to translate research dollars into bettering the lives of patients.

“It does bring the money into the local system,” Turney said. “We have the unique ability to take research and translate it into patient care.”