Keep on truckin’: Gift enables group to fulfill its mission

Published 5:22 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2014

An emotional Lisa Adams (left), founder of Angels N Camo, thanks the organization’s supporters for their roles in helping the nonprofit win the truck as Brian Pecheles, president of Pecheles Automotive, presented her the keys to the vehicle.

An emotional Lisa Adams (left), founder of Angels N Camo, thanks the organization’s supporters for their roles in helping the nonprofit win the truck as Brian Pecheles, president of Pecheles Automotive, presented her the keys to the vehicle.

 

A gift to Angels N Camo will help the organization carry out its mission to grant wishes of terminally ill children.

On Tuesday, Pecheles Toyota awarded to Toyota Tundra pickup truck to Angels N Camo as part of Toyota’s 100 Cars for Good program, a major philanthropic initiative in which the automaker is giving away 100 vehicles to 100 nonprofits over the course of 50 days, based on votes from Facebook users. The program helps entities like Angels N Camo that positively affect the lives of individuals in their communities and is the first Toyota charitable project that engages the public in how corporate philanthropic donations are awarded.

“The Angels N Camo organization is only about two years old, I was reading the other day, and what they’ve been able to do here in their short time is amazing,” said Brian Pecheles, president of Pecheles Automotive, during the presentation ceremony attended by many Angels N Camo supporters. “We’re proud here at Pecheles Toyota to be able to help them with their efforts and their mission and being able to assist them in winning — and they did all the work, of course — a 2014 Toyota Tundra truck. … Again, the Angels N Camo organization, with Lisa Adams’ direction, they deserve all the credit. It’s just a great, great organization. We’re glad to be able to help the mission of assisting disabled children and those with terminal illnesses with their dreams.”

Pecheles then presented the keys to the truck to Adams, founder of Angels N Camo.

“Thanks for coming out today. It means a whole lot to us,” said an emotional Adams. “Again, we could not have done this without all of y’all. This is a tremendous deal for us. We’re only two years old, and we’ve done six adventures. We’re getting ready for another at the end of this month. So, we’ll be arriving to pick our next adventure child up in this new Toyota Tundra in style and take him on a duck hunt. … We did not win this truck by ourselves. As I said earlier, I only had one vote. It was all of your votes that counted, that got is there. We really, really appreciate all of your support. We cannot thank you enough.”

The teenager going on the duck hunt attended the event.

“It’s a big surprise to me. It’s special,” said Gene Malaguti, 16, who has achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, about his upcoming hunting trip.

The truck’s bed was loaded with hunting and fishing gear to help support Angels N Camo’s mission of granting the wishes of terminally ill children to explore wildlife adventures.

During the voting process, which began Oct. 1, 2013, the 100 Cars for Good program profiled five finalists at www.100carsforgood.com. Members of the public were able to vote for the nonprofits they believed could do the most good with new vehicles. The two organizations with the greatest number of votes at the end of each day won their choice of one of five Toyota models. In addition, runners-up each received a $1,000 cash grant from Toyota.

Angels N Camo will use the new Tundra to transport children and parents from their homes to the activity site as well as load necessary equipment needed for the hunting and fishing voyages. The vehicle will also be used to take staff to speaking engagements and events that help raise awareness about the nonprofit.

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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