So today, I visited my old internship, NATSO (National Association of Truck Stop Operators) Foundation to interview my boss for my EL paper. In this interview Sharon, the executive director of NATSO Foundation, brought up a good point. She pointed out that everyone is effected by the trucking industry. Almost everything, we purchase is transported on a truck, even if it was made in China. There has to be a way for the products to get to your home or to the retailer. So that really got me thinking. During my time at my internship, I could not understand why truck stops would need an association. But now that it was put in that viewpoint, I understand. With the changing of gas prices and the up and downs of the economies, it affects so many factors in our lives. For example, this previous year the increasion of gas prices had a major influence on the increasion of prices in our products, especially groceries.

So here is a little bit of background information on the NATSO Foundation:

NATSO Foundation is a subsidiary of NATSO, Inc, a trade corporation. They were created in 1989, it was formed to disberse the scholarships. The foundation is funded by their endowment (the interest made off of stocks they had invested in order to gather money for the foundation), their annual fundraiser, and their major gift fund (donations from sponsors). The NATSO Foundation’s mission is to use their geographic advantage to take care of everyone who travels along the interstate system. They help connect the truck stops with their community.

I found my interview with Sharon to be very enlightening since I never really asked her direct questions about the purpose of NATSO having a foundation, so that cleared some things up for me.