When trucker-songwriter Tony Justice and fellow organizers conceived of this year's inaugural Large Cars & Guitars truck show event as a benefit to the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research, among those Justice called early on was Bryant D. Mann, owner of Maryland-based White Pine Paving and this impressive 1998 Cat-powered 379 tribute dump.
Find may more views of the 1998
About eight years ago, Mann and company started a rebuild with intentions to continue using it in the paving/local-regional hauling business -- and, bonus, as a tribute to the memory of Mann's lifelong friend Debbie Schaffer. Yet "Ribbon Runner" has evolved to well more than a workhorse. In fact, as Mann told me in the video up top, the 1998 he originally purchased in 2006 has been fully retired from rough-and-dirty paving work and, during show season, is involved in a parade, truck show, cancer-awareness gala or other event pretty much every weekend around Maryland and in the region.
The truck's festooned with pink ribbons and a variety of other detail work -- ribbons laser-cut into grille and breathers, and more, down to the custom steering wheel, clutch and brake pedals, accelerator, too.
Being a breast-cancer-awareness-themed rig, at the Large Cars event "Ribbon Runner" held something of a place of honor. It was first truck you met walking in from the attendee parking lot.
Since debuting the truck, Bryant Mann and company have expanded its mission to remember all those connected to the family and company taken by cancer. Mann adds each name to the hood for a constant reminder each time he takes the rig on the road.
The Manns' giving spirit doesn't end at the truck -- or at Large Cars on the show lot. In the auction of the first positions in a Convoy for a Cure held Saturday, May 7, White Pine Paving gave $1,500 worth of proceeds the truck had collected via t-shirt sales and more for the fourth convoy position.
