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Ellsworth E.J. Jackson
Los Angeles — Veteran chauffeured ground transportation operator and philanthropist, Ellsworth “ E.J.” Jackson, the owner of Jackson Limousine Service, passed away November 1 from an apparent heart attack.
Jackson was known locally as “Mr. Turkey,” a nickname earned from his annual Thanksgiving turkey drive, which has provided meals for thousands of needy families for more than 30 years. His community service became a tradition in South L.A., and attracted celebrities who volunteered their time to help package and hand out food boxes to the needy residents who would sometimes wait in line for days.
According to the Jackson Limousine Service, the giveaway began in 1982 when some area senior citizens who couldn’t afford Thanksgiving holiday meals approached Jackson, who responded by buying 100 turkeys and creating the E.J. Jackson Foundation. The next year he bought 200, and the following he bought 500, and ultimately grew annual community event. In 2015, more than 12,000 turkeys were handed out, along with other Thanksgiving meal fixings. Family members have said that this year’s turkey giveaway will go on as scheduled on Nov. 22. The foundation is still asking for donations of turkeys and other meal fixings.
Visit jacksonlimo.com or theejjacksonfoundation.com for more information.
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L to R: Jeff Larocco, Josh Stanley, Bob Graham, and Hugh Morrow with their trophies and GALA Director Bill Devine of Bluebird Limousine On September 13, members of the Greater Atlanta Limousine Association (GALA), friends, and supporters from all across the country came out in droves for the Georgia association’s annual charity golf tournament benefiting the Aflac Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA). CD’s Publisher Chris Weiss was among the nearly 100 industry members making this the best-attended golf outing GALA has held.
“We had 88 people making up 22 teams,” said Fred Rich of Olympus Worldwide Chauffeured Services, co-chair of GALA’s golf committee, who added that players came from as far north as Boston, as far south as Miami, and as far west as Chicago, and all points in between. “This is the biggest one we’ve had so far with the most sponsors ever, the most players ever, and the most out-of-towners ever.”
The Carey Atlanta team (L to R): Dennis DeLoatch, Barry Childree, Ryan DeLoatch, Tom Nelson, and Norman Allen Indeed, once all the numbers were tallied, GALA’s seventh annual golf outing saw more visiting players and sponsors—a whopping 34—than ever before.
With a roster of site visits also planned around the yearly event, attendees toured local facilities and caught up with their Atlanta-market peers before taking to the Country Club of Roswell for a day of charitable camaraderie and an evening of good food at the event’s awards banquet, where Kirkley Hennessy of Hennessy Transportation won two passes to October’s 2016 CD Show in Washington, D.C.
L to R: Sami Elotmani of Destination MCO, Ryan Hilberth of Rental Limo, Mike Campbell of Grace Limousine, Matt Smallwood of EcoStyle Chauffeured Transportation, Tony Mehdiof of North Point Transportation Group, Scott Tyler of EcoStyle Chauffeured Transportation, Arthur Messina of Create-A-Card, Chauffeur Driven Publisher Chris Weiss, and Sal Milazzo, Chris Geron, and Kevin Duff of Signature Transportation Group paid a visit to North Point’s facility before the golf outing The event’s nine-person golf committee was headed by Rich, who emceed the event, and Chad Casey of Casey Corporate Transportation, to whom Rich credits the charity tournament’s success.
“It took a lot of hard work and a lot of phone calls to make this event so successful,” Rich said. Rich added that, according to Dave Winokur of CHOA, one child a day is diagnosed with cancer, and that in the past 10 years, those children’s survival rates have skyrocketed from roughly 20 percent to 80 percent—and that GALA will continue to do its part to see that number reach 100 percent.
And, of course, knowing that the proceeds benefit a deserving recipient and its young patients helped participants focus on the cause rather than their game.
“Players are of all levels are encouraged to play,” Rich said. “Some players are really, really good, while other players are—shall we say—less good. But everyone comes out and has fun supporting a great cause.”
During the association’s October 18 meeting, members of the GALA board and golf committee proudly presented CHOA representatives with a $10,000 check.
GALA’s holiday party will be December 15, and next year’s golf tournament is tentatively scheduled for September 12.
Visit galalimo.org for more information. [CD1116]
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L to R: LILA President Bill Goerl of Clique Limousines, guest speaker Joe Marotta of The Whitmore Group, and LILA Immediate Past President Robert Cunningham of Platinum Limousines
Plainview, N.Y. — Six years ago, Long Island Limousine Association (LILA) held its first chauffeur-training class; on October 18, it held the second half of the newly resurrected educational event at Hilton Garden.
Twenty-eight company owners and chauffeurs attended the four-hour training session to bone up on their insurance know-how and learn how to minimize risk both on the road and off. A central focus of the sessions were to helping all in attendance learn how to avoid accidents, insurance and safety issues, and points on their licenses.
LILA President Bill Goerl of Clique Limousines credits the association’s 1st Year Director Doug Schwartz of Executive Limousine for “getting the ball rolling” a few years ago. He says that the sessions have become a formal classroom experience now: Defensive driving tactics, cell phone and texting policies, safety, awareness of potential vehicle problems, and presentations from guest speakers like insurance underwriter Joe Marotta from The Whitmore Group and frequent limousine builder and rebuilder Dave Lipsky of Authority Automotive, have all been among the program’s offerings.
At the end of the training, each attendee receives certification and a lapel pin signifying their completion of the program.
The pin that all 28 attendees received upon completing the four-hour chauffeur training
“To get that certification, they have to have a Nassau or Suffolk County Limousine Commission license,” Goerl explains. “To get that license, they need to be background checked, drug tested, fingerprinted, and have to have taken their six-hour defensive driving course. That’s the minimum requirement to get into our program so we know that we’re working with people who want to be here.”
In future sessions, all four hours of the program will be done in one day to better accommodate members’ and chauffeurs’ schedules; LILA plans to make its chauffeur training sessions a regular offering about once a month.
“We had to offer a repeat of the September session right before the October session so people who only attended this October session could complete the training,” Goerl said. “Attendance and momentum really picked up once people saw that this is a real program and that we’re sticking to it.”
November 9 will most likely be next training session, which LILA is certainly seeing a demand for.
“It was so well-received,” Goerl says. “Everyone who took the course said it was unbelievable, they were really appreciative to open up the topics of how the insurance angle looks at points on your license and how to avoid common accidents. It really opened up owners’ and chauffeurs’ eyes to the avoidable accidents that can happen in our industry.”
The next LILA membership meeting will be November 29.
Visit nslali.com for more information.
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