Red Bingham, an 87-year-old retired marine construction worker, and his wife Beverly, gave the Northwest Lions Foundation the boost it needed to purchase a new Kenworth T660 tractor that would pull a new trailer designed for vision and hearing screenings. The Lions Foundation uses the tractor-trailer to visit schools in Washington State and Northern Idaho and offer free hearing and sight tests for elementary school children to identify potential problems before they interfere with learning.
The truck travels about 25,000 miles a year, the organization said, conducting tests on about 28,000 children. About 12-14% are identified as having previously undiagnosed sight or hearing problems.
“The [old truck’s] engine had been rebuilt and they had to do repairs nearly every year they had it,” said Bingham, himself a member of the Lions. “It was too small and under-powered to be pulling the old trailer, let alone a new one. I’d been in heavy construction work all my life and I know the value of durable and reliable equipment. Kenworth has always made the best trucks and that’s what we wanted to see hauling the new trailer. My wife and I talked it over, and we both agreed: the only way we were going to get what we wanted would be if we bought the tractor ourselves.”
The problem was how to raise the $150,000 cost of the new tractor. The Lions Foundation was already in the process of raising another $150,000 for the specialized trailer. Then came a solution. The Binghams donated 3,000 shares of Paccar stock with a value of $148,000, with the stipulation that the proceeds could only be used to purchase a tractor.
“Our wish list included a new tractor, but we really needed to raise $150,000 for a new trailer first,” said Roger Richert, chairman of the Northwest Lions Foundation Board of Trustees. The Foundation is a division of SightLife.