The Futurliner was hosted at the AACA Museum in
Hershey, PA prior to the week of the car show and swap meet. The
museum is really two museums in one. It displays cars and buses.
While the Futurliner is not a bus (it was never intended to haul
passengers), the point is that the museum does have doors big enough
to allow it to enter and be displayed. If you never have toured the
museum, you will have to do it. It really is a "must see" automobile
and bus collection.
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The Futurliner on
display inside the AACA Museum. Unlike the show field, visitors had
the leisure to take their time and look it over quite thoroughly.
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Volunteers, Wayne
Jackson and John Marsh, were on duty when this 18 year old young man
by the name of Gavin showed up. They could tell he was enthralled by
the Futurliner as he looked it over from end to end. After a while
he stopped at the driver's access door and looked up at the 10' high
driver's seat. Everyone wants to sit in the driver's seat but Gavin
suffers from Cerebral Palsy and he couldn't physically do it on his
own.
For the men who did what some said could
never be done and restored the Futurliner; where there is a
will, there is a way!
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Gavin was enthusiastic
as the men offered to help him up the narrow access passage to
sit in the driver's seat of the Futurliner. They studied the
situation and decided that one would take him under the arms and
another would carry his legs.
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(LEFT) Elated, Gavin
sits in the 10' high driver's seat of the Futurliner and imagines
what it must have been like to drive the vehicle. As tears of joy
run down Gavin's cheeks the men choke up a little themselves.
The Futurliner brings wonderment into the
lives of those who view her. Some are amazed that it could ever be
restored, some are amazed that it ever existed, some are amazed by
the story behind it and the GM Parade of Progress it traveled with.
And then there is Gavin ... amazed that he had
the opportunity to sit in the lofty driver's seat.
And then there were the volunteers ... amazed
that they had the opportunity to touch someone's life with such a
thrill of a lifetime.
Sometimes helping someone achieve an impossible
dream is the most rewarding part of it all.
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