The Thomas Minotour will benefit the club serving the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation

HIGH POINT, N.C. — The Boys and Girls Club of Aha Macav, located in the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, recently took delivery of a donated Thomas Minotour bus. The local club was selected to receive the bus through a drawing held during the Boys and Girls Club of America’s national conference. The club serves 450 children who live in and around the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, near the Colorado River where the borders of Arizona, Nevada and California meet.

Karen Cabanillas, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Aha Macav, said the new bus will be used to transport children to the club from four nearby villages. “Previously we had two hand-me-down vans, one of which was donated to the club with 250,000 miles on it,” she said. “In the summertime, it can get up to 120 degrees here and the vans weren’t always dependable and the air conditioning didn’t work properly.”

The donated bus is a Thomas Built Minotour multi-functional school activity bus, which meets the same federal and state safety requirements as a school bus, but is painted white and is not required to have flashing lights or a “stop” arm.

“These Minotour buses are becoming very popular with youth groups, day care centers and other organizations wanting to replace their 15-passenger vans,” said Joe Craver, Type A sales manager for Thomas Built Buses.

Craver said that this is the second year in which Thomas Built Buses has donated a Minotour to the Boys and Girls Club of America in conjunction with its national conference. Another Minotour was sold to the national organization and will be placed with the Boys and Girls Club of East Valley in Tempe, Ariz. Thomas Built Buses has been a strong supporter of the Boys and Girls Club of America, and in July donated a Saf-T-Liner C2 bus to the Boys and Girls Club of Coastal Carolina.

“The generosity of Thomas Built Buses has made a tremendous impact on our ability to serve literally thousands of club members over the past two years,” said Roxanne Spillett, president of the Boys and Girls Club of America. “We are very appreciative of the support of Thomas Built Buses and look forward to continuing this partnership in the coming years.”

Thomas Built Buses is the leading manufacturer of school buses in North America, with more than one third of the school bus market in North America. Thomas Built Buses is a member of The Freightliner Group, the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America and a leading manufacturer of class 3-8 vehicles. The Freightliner Group produces and markets commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star, American LaFrance and Thomas Built Buses nameplates. The Freightliner Group is a unit of DaimlerChrysler, the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer.