Community pitches in to refurbish veteran's truck
<p>Tomy Parker (left) awards the Best in Show trophy to Paul Krueger (right). Parker, a Marine from Ronan, was the guest of honor at the Hot Springs Car Show this year. During the show Parker was surprised with his 1988 Dodge pickup, which the car show's organizers had completely refurbished with the help of donations from throughout the community.</p>
HOT SPRINGS – The third annual Homesteaders Days car show was capped with a surprise presentation last weekend in Hot Springs.
The surprise was for Tomy Parker, the event’s guest of honor.
Parker, a Marine who lives in Ronan, lost both legs and part of his left hand when an improvised explosive device detonated on Dec. 11, 2010 in Afghanistan.
Parker knew he had been invited to the Hot Springs car show as the guest of honor, but he didn’t know that his pickup, completely refurbished by the event’s organizers, would be waiting for him at Homesteaders Days.
The annual car show neared its end around 3 p.m. with a parade of the vintage automobiles down Main Street and ended with an emotional finish.
With the parade nearing its conclusion the announcement was made there was one more vehicle slated to roll past the main stage.
Parker’s truck turned the corner and made its way in front of the stage to the applause of the crowd assembled on both sides of the street.
The pickup’s owner recognized the vehicle immediately but was completely surprised at the truck’s transformation.
“I love it. When I saw it I was speechless. I had no idea about this until I saw it,” Parker said.
Prior to last weekend’s car show Parker’s 1988 Dodge pickup was in need of substantial repairs.
His truck already had hand controls, which enable Parker to operate the vehicle, but it needed a lot of work to get the vehicle running again.
Dave Campbell, his daughter Crystal Graham, son-in-law Josh Graham and a number of their family members were instrumental in undertaking those repairs.
According to C. Graham, when Campbell heard about Parker’s truck, he (Campbell) approached J. Graham and asked if they could get the car fixed up by Homesteader’s weekend.
J. Graham quickly got to work a little over a month ago and applied the finishing touches only hours before the afternoon ceremony last Saturday.
“He (Josh) got into this way more that I thought he would. He has been a big help,” Campbell said.
Prior to the show’s parade C. Graham noted she was looking forward to seeing Parker’s reaction to the new truck.
“I am pretty excited to get it back to him,” C. Graham said.
Campbell said he was overwhelmed with the support that came forward for this project.
He noted Chris Gerber of Transolution Auto Care in Missoula put in a new transmission for the truck for free and Jim Borders of Burnt Ranch, California, purchased new tires and wheels for the truck.
Campbell stated because of the donated transmission and tires a $500 donation from Hot Springs V.F.W Post #5159 was able to go towards a brand new blue paintjob for the pickup.
The organizer was proud of the work done on the truck.
“It’s a beautiful truck,” Campbell said.
A stereo for the truck’s sound system was also donated to the project.
Graham echoed her father’s statements regarding the joint effort that was put in to complete the refurbishment project.
“The Hot Springs community has donated a lot to this. The whole thing was a huge team effort,” Graham said.
In total 28 cars took part in the car show and all proceeds from the event went to the Wounded Warrior Project.