FIXTITLE Halfkut.docx

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The Story

Of

Kris Santoianni

Better known as, Halfkut

(Founder, President of Chi-Town Large Cars)

There are so many different ways to look at life. Maybe as an emotional rollercoaster or a target for curve balls. The way you see things allows your cup to be half full. There’s nothing wrong with that… being hopeful; expecting good with the tendency in trying to see the best in all things. Sometimes you may feel as if you can’t catch a break. It’s hard to stay positive when life continues to kick you while you’re down. In this case, your cup is half empty. I used to say, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all.” You begin to anticipate the worst in any situation and become use to the outcome when it’s not in your favor. This can be in your social life, your dating life or just your everyday life. For instance, I had a friend call me the other day from out of town saying she ran out of gas and had to walk to the nearest gas station. She was beyond livid and considering the rain storm mentioned half way through her ordeal, I could see why. My first question was, how far did you have to walk? “Just up the street,” was her reply. There’s MY cup. See, in my head when someone gets upset and I listen to the entire story and to what set them off, mentally I always add the sentence, “…it could always be worse.” She could’ve had to walk in the rain up to Timbuktu. There is always a positive in everything but it’s easy to lose sight of it in the heat of things.

As we get older we begin to see things more clearly. Our priorities begin to line up in the correct order. Life takes its course through time. Adulthood presents itself and if you look around you’ll notice that things are beginning to take a toll. ‘Things’ that have always been present but the more years you live, the more you see. Friends that you grew up with pass away before their time, not experiencing half of what you’ve already accomplished. Relatives become ill from old age, you’re on your up-tenth pet and your children are starting a family of their own. Life is bitter-sweet and perfect all rolled in to one ball of chaos. Regardless of how straight and narrow your walk of life is, or how prepared you are to handle the ups and downs, things happen. It’s how you carry yourself while you’re under attack. How you get up and dust yourself off after you’ve fallen and most importantly, your support group when you’re in need. Many of us have family that love us in a way that only family can understand. Others have their chosen family. People that they’re so close to and love unconditionally that their bond, rather than blood ties them together through thick and thin. No matter what life hits you with, these are the ones that will help hold you up when you feel like throwing in the towel.

What started as a typical friendship between two young males, both from the heart of Chicago, ignited an alliance so strong and significant, it now unites kinships from around the world. All involved are linked unanimously in favor of one objective: joining one another in helping others. No matter the cause, the distance or the price, the unspoken formality lay within the heart of each member. At first glance you’ll be tested to look beyond the cover. On the exterior, the average individual may take on the persona of a burly truck driver that’s rough around the edges. Maybe with some ink and facial hair, to fit the profile. The tricky thing about life is that it doesn’t discriminate. You can be crazy rich or poor as dirt. Super fit and unhappy or chunky and loving life. But when ‘it’ hits you and you’re at a low, you won’t care if the helping hand comes in the form of a giraffe with two heads.

In 2004, a young guy with the nickname, Kut found himself being introduced to Mario Terzo Jr. Both of their fathers worked together at the same trucking company that Kut drives for now, Altom Transport out of the Chicago terminal. “We hit off. Mario taught me all kinds of different things about custom trucks. It was soon after that when we came up with an idea to form a club.” The whole meaning and agenda behind wanting to round up a bunch of people with a common interest wasn’t to just sit around and play ‘show and tell.’ This circle, group or organization if you will, not only wanted to unite other truck drivers like themselves but this elite ring was strictly for fellas that engulfed the whole concept of trucking the way that they did. They had a goal to bring the old school trucking way of life back to the present. Kut and Mario wanted to surround themselves with professional truck drivers that shared the same values of life; family, respect, loyalty, honor, dignity and most of all, the passion for what they do. Based in Chicago the name seemed fit, Chi-Town Large Cars. However a well-known and respected club in New Jersey, East Coast Large Cars was already founded by Richie Acosta. Out of courtesy and respect for Richie, Kut approached him first with their idea to prevent any bad blood. Richie gave his blessing and the ball started rolling.

The plan was to grow their club but never in a million years did the two imagine it would be like it is now, ten years later. At first, there were seven members. That’s including the two founders. The name, “Chi-Town” was originally picked because of the location of where it all began, not knowing they would eventually branch out much further than their state line. Right before takeoff, when the course looked like smooth sailing, life hit a bump. A huge bump! One that was totally unexpected and put a twist in Kut’s life that would jump start a revolution of quiet warriors. His best friend and partner, Mario passed away. With such a hard blow, Kut moved forward as he would have if Mario were still alive. “I wanted to honor him and continue with this thing that we started.” He completely emerged the club into the trucking scene. Attending truck events and hosting truck shows of their own. When word got around about this club formed from up north and what the members stood for, it got everybody’s attention. Kut was approached from every angle he turned, as the head count escalated. Where the total stands today, Chi-Town Large Cars has over 120 proud members scattered throughout the U.S. to Canada and down to Australia. Trucking events are a given but what Chi-Town Large Cars is known for is getting involved with fundraisers and benefits to help assist whoever is in need. Right now they have shifted their main focus on kids with cancer. They’ve previously worked with local law enforcement, Wounded Warrior Project and Special Olympics.

WHAT THE EYE CAN’T SEE

The Man behind the Name

On my first phone call after meeting Kut a week earlier at the MATS in Louisville, I was right… he is as down to Earth as I first imagined. He had just arrived home and was finishing up some of his single daddy duties around the house. “I think it’s funny when I tell people that think I’m some main guy, ‘Hey I’m a truck driver just like you. I live in a two bedroom apartment with my teenage daughter and I drive an old car that’s completely paid off.’” Kut remains very humble and I think a lot of that is credited back to his upbringing. Even though his parents split when he was little, the two remained close and still consider each other good friends. “There was not really any arguing between them. They both loved and cared for us like they were still together. We were a tight family.” They grew up in the basic Chicago suburb, well-populated but not like downtown ‘city-city.’ His graduating class attendance was in the 900’s. His father was an over the road truck driver, while his mother worked three jobs. One in a factory, a limo driver at night and a cocktail waitress on the weekends. Kut divided his time equally between his parents until he reached the fifth grade. He followed in his older brother’s footsteps and laughs as he explains that they were slightly trouble-makers as kids. His brother was his hero and with a four year age gap, he still admits that he was pretty much following right behind him in everything that his brother did. The boys’ parents decided it was best if the two came and stayed with their father to get the guidance that every child needs from their closest male figure. Their dad was influential in Kut’s life as a professional truck driver but the life lessons that helped shape his character and frame of mind came from both sides; his mother and father. Together they instilled in their son the importance of family and love. That nothing comes before the two and to respect and honor both, for yourself and of others.

Growing up, Kut was always into trucks and was never interested in sports. His fondest memories take him back to riding shotgun next to his dad in his truck on the road. “It’s all I wanted to do. I loved being in the truck and seeing the country. If he wasn’t out on the road, I was at his work helping him wash his truck. I was all about any and everything to do with trucks.” His passion for trucks goes beyond the lifestyle, “If I won the lottery I’d be at the Peterbilt dealership ordering the exact truck that I’ve always wanted but I’d still work every day! Not because I had to but because I want to… it’s trucking.” At the age of fourteen a friend of his father, that owned a bar hired Kut to stock beer and dishes. He stayed put until he turned sixteen and he started working at the nearby truck wash until he graduated high school. After finishing, he took on another full time job as a security guard at the local mall. “I’d work at the truck wash for four days and then security for three. On the weekends I’d do both. I did this until my dad said I needed to slow down.” He purchased his first car at sixteen, “It was a 1976 Cutlass…baby blue with white leather interior. I loved that car!” At eighteen, after he sold this car is when his custom truck fetish started. His first custom pickup truck was an all-white 1986 Chevy S-10 Low Rider.

Now living in Griffith, Indiana Kut was offered a job to come on board with a trucking company cleaning and polishing trucks. Soon he went after his CDL and was in school and training before he turned twenty-one, so that the day his twenty-first birthday came he was able to get it. A year later he went to work for an owner operator. “I was making more money and I got the opportunity to drive a much fancier truck.” At first he had to prove himself to the owner, “…I was stuck in a raggedy Freightliner that I wasn’t real happy with but I kept that truck spotless! It was always clean and polished. I kept it nice.” After the first year he received a call, asking what he thought about another one of his owner’s trucks. It was a 1986 379 Peterbilt that they called the Choo Choo Truck because on the back of the sleeper it had a train on the bunk. Then on the side and across the hood it had written across, ‘Choo Choo Coming Through.’ “It even sounded like a train, it was so loud and it would pour black smoke out of the pipes. It was gorgeous! All black, straight pipes with a million lights. The guy that drove the truck was retiring. He asked me how did I feel about the Choo Choo Truck but I knew that I was the low man on the totem pole and there was at least nine other guys in front of me to get this truck. Then he asked if I thought I could handle this truck. I told him that I loved the truck but I didn’t get it. Why was he asking me?” The owner of the truck went on to tell Kut that it’s because he knows he’ll take care of his truck. “He told me, ‘This truck is my baby…and you have the ugliest truck in the fleet and you keep it the cleanest.’” Kut continued to drive for him for the next four years, traveling everywhere nine days at a time. He would haul hot dogs out of Chicago and deliver to all of the ball parks out East, down to Texas and reload with onions for the trip back to Chicago.

Kut’s father had a friend that he worked with that also had a son around Kut’s age. “We hit it off and started hanging out all of the time.” I can hear his tone of voice pep up a bit, talking about his close friend and remember some of their first memories together. “He had this gorgeous, red extended hood Peterbilt Day Cab. At the time I wasn’t into custom trucks yet and he got me wrapped up in it. That’s when the idea about starting our club generated.” The both of them were all about trucks, trucking, truck shows, just anything cool to do with trucks but they agreed that trucking was on a downhill slope. After talking more on the subject, they knew that the only way to change things is if they did something about it.

ONE DECADE LATER

Chi-Town Large Cars

In the last twelve months, the organization Chi-Town Large Cars has made a significant move as far as their impact in the lives of others. “This has been the most important year for us, period. This club has come such a long way and we continue to grow and help in all directions.” Kut continues to be completely hands on with his group. He has personally interviewed every member himself and strives to take the time to get to know each individual, one on one. “It was after our second year when we decided to expand out of the Chicago area. It’s just recently in the past five years that we’ve had our largest growth.” He continues in more detail, “All of the members are important to me. Each one is a friend, someone that I would rely on and trust. I value their friendship! When we have one of our own in a situation where life has picked them to hit with bad news, we’re there without a moment’s notice. We uphold our brotherhood with an unfaltering loyalty.” Kut leads by example with respect and honesty. In return, it spreads like wild fire… through each member, their family and friends, through people involved in the fundraisers and events to raise awareness. Their reputation for being a club that is respectable, honorable and loved by many from around the world needs no introduction. Know the name, Chi-Town Large Cars. When you see it, hear it or have the privilege to be amongst it, know that something good is brewing nearby. It’s not just a ‘club’ but an entire body of amazing people wanting to make a difference in this world for the better, starting in our trucking industry.

ONE OF THEIR OWN

Fred Ponting

Marmor Queensland, Australia

Born the son of a professional truck driver, Fred Ponting knew his calling very early in life. He grew up in Auckland, New Zealand where he started his own career in trucking. His love for the job landed him in Australia, carting explosives for mines. Fred’s route isn’t the typical load, “I haul large road trains out west to places like Darwin from Brisbane one way, pulling three 45 footers with two dollies grossing approximately 130 tons.” Making a living, doing what he loves the next step was inevitable. He met the love of his life, Allison. They soon married and started a family. Hayley Nicole, or as everyone knew her as ‘Butterfly’ was born November 1st in 2006 and a couple of years later they welcomed their son, Nathan John on August 28th, 2008. Life was going well for the Ponting family. “After I met my wife, where she was a roadhouse cook…we bought a house, started our family and life was happy…until one day.”

Fred and Allison became worried when Hayley began complaining of having pains in her body. They were in and out of doctors’ offices, trying to get the answers they so desperately needed to help their daughter. Unaware of the magnitude of the situation, they were all stunned by what happened next. In 2011, on November the 17th their baby girl was diagnosed with cancer; neuroblastoma. Hayley received an outpouring of support from many for her strength and courage in her battle with cancer. It was during this fragile time that Fred was introduced to a man half across the world, back in the U.S. by the name of Halfkut. “…this man seemed to say all that needed to be said to make life easier with what we were going through.” On January the 24th that following year, Hayley passed away. “When Hayley lost her fight to this cancer I was a wreck but family that I have never met was there for me. They would check on me and make sure I was ok…that’s more than my family that lived three minutes away. These men and women have become family to me, my wife and son. They’re some of the best people that you can ask for. It’s amazing to know that we have the same respect for each other and we live over thousands of miles apart. I would back any of them up!” When you’re faced with tragedy so close to home that your heart feels ripped out, there’s not much anybody can do to ease the pain. But knowing that you’re not alone in your sadness and that there is still enough love here in the present, it helps keep you going.

In Hayley’s honor, for her funeral Fred used his truck to carry her. On the side of his truck were the beautiful words, “Hayley’s last ride” for the world to see his daughter one final time. Since meeting Kut, Fred has joined Chi-Town Large Cars as their first member from Australia. “This club to me, shows loyalty and respect on a daily basis. I take pride in the fact that I am a member and that I have brothers and sisters from over the pond.” Fred will soon have the chance to meet his fellow members this August. Together the club raised enough money to fly Fred and his family over to the states to attend the Chi-Town Large Cars truck show in Chicago. What a heartfelt meeting that will be, for everyone involved!

However, the Ponting’s are not in the clear yet. Young Nathan has recently began showing signs of trouble when he walks. The doctors have performed multiple x-rays and tests to determine the issue. They believe Nathan may have Perthes disease, which is a bone deforming disorder. Right now the family is still waiting for more results but continue to stay positive. As they do, we will join him and his family in hope and prayer for strength and good news.

REACHING OUT

The Heeren Family

East Peoria, Illinois

Back in 2011, the Make a Wish Foundation contacted Ashley Heeren, mother of six year old Breanna and eight year old Brooklin, to be a part of their fundraiser. They were looking for a military family to represent and ‘Make A Wish.’ Ashley’s husband, Matt was just recently deployed after serving twelve years with the Army. Their ‘Make a Wish’ was to visit Disney World. “One of the coolest things that they did for us was have a semi-truck come in with a princess and surprise our girls. It was really neat!” Ashley and Matt devote their lives to their two beautiful daughters. Breanna was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at an early age and Brooklin is autistic. It was through this event that the Heeren family met Kut. “We’ve remained in contact with Kut ever since then. The entire Chi-Town Large Cars club has been absolutely amazing to me and my family! My girls are extremely close to Kut… they actually call him Uncle Kut. It’s the cutest thing.” Since forming their friendship, Kut and the rest of the club has raised money and continue to shower Breanna and Brooklin with gifts of love. “They’ve received toys and an iPad to play with for when we have to stay at the hospital. Just everything kids love, they’ve provided.” In 2012, at the annual Chi-Town Large Cars truck show they dedicated all of the proceeds to the Heeren family.

When the Heeren family is on the road to make their usual clinical visits, they try to squeeze in some time for the girls to meet up with their Uncle Kut. Even though the distance between them is a good five hours, they know that any opportunity to see each other is a must. The Chi-Town club still remains a big supporter of the family. Sending presents for the girls to celebrate Christmas, helping with the numerous doctor bills and raising money to get their house out of foreclosure. We all know how times can get tough and it feels like you can barely keep your head above water. Its then, when the men and women of Chi-Town Large Cars steps up and fills that empty void, whatever means necessary. Whether it’s a friendly conversation during a sad time or money to get you back on track, there’s no judgment in how the cry for help comes across. Whatever the need is, the club will be there.

Ashley put it best, “These guys don’t meet the stereotypical cliché of truck drivers. They may look all tough like a biker gang but there’s more to it. They’re about family and loyalty…. That’s how they treat us, like we’re a part of them. To these guys, it’s not exactly what they do for a living but it’s what they do through their living... They’ve done a lot for the awareness for childhood cancer and other different causes. That’s what we love about them! They’re able to do all of this and still stay true to who they are, as truckers and you just don’t find that now days.” Ashley is right. You don’t see many that are willing to use their career for something good and reach out to other people. “Kut has a heart of gold and when he sees someone that needs help, he’s going to do what he can. That’s what the whole club is about.”

A message for Chi-Town Large Cars from Breanna, Brooklin, Ashley and Matt Heeren:

We are truly grateful for the CTLC family for taking us under your wing and making us feel like family. You are our angels on Earth! We love you guys!!