Trucker buddies linda and robert utteridge of Brighton, Colo., have taken the organization's pen-pal program to a new level. They have linked their U.S. classes with schools in Africa and the South Pacific - and also helped teach the children about the threatened extinction of great apes in those countries.

Linda says she was first inspired after seeing "Gorillas in the Mist," a film based on the efforts of Dian Fossey to save mountain gorillas in Africa. Later, she saw a TV documentary, "Endangered Giants of Africa," and contacted the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund to propose an educational program within Trucker Buddy International.

Ultimately, this led to an international pen-pal exchange between the Utteridges U.S. Trucker Buddy classes and schools in Rwanda and Tanzania in Africa, and Indonesia and Borneo in the South Pacific.

Students learn about each other and also about the conservation efforts directed at the apes. Even some of the apes get involved: Students send letters, drawings and small gifts to The Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, Calif., a research group that teaches apes to understand sign language.

Paul and Veronica Caramico sponsored an essay contest for their Trucker Buddy class at Windsor Elementary School in Elyria, Ohio. The second-graders wrote short essays describing "What have my Trucker Buddies taught me?" TBI board members Joan Kasicki and Paul Abelson, Road King's senior technical editor, judged the essays which talked about lessons in safety and how truckers live and work.

Students had from September 2000 to April 15, 2001, to write their papers. Winners were announced May 24. The Caramicos, who drive for West Side Transport of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, awarded T-shirts, plaques and other prizes to all.