Truck Show with a Heart

SAINT-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Que. — Dominique Bessette, a Quebec owner-operator with a distinctive handlebar mustache and a distinctive fuchsia-coloured long-nose Pete, has a distinctive story to tell about trucking, charity… and fate.

Known to his friends as “Menick,” he helped start the Truck ’n’ Roll en Coeur festival – a popular weekend of food, entertainment, and trucks – to benefit children born with severe heart ailments.

Since its debut 17 years ago, Truck ’n’ Roll en Coeur has raised $400,000. And the offshoot charities it has spawned have collectively raised over $1 million – all for children with cardiac problems.

What he didn’t know when he got involved with Truck ’n’ Roll en Coeur was that his own daughter, Angel-Lee, would be born shortly after the fifth annual event with a congenital heart defect.

Call it fate. Call it irony. Menick has another term: “It’s destiny, my dear,” he told his wife Sandra. “Destiny.”

For years now, Sandra and Menick’s lives – and now Angel-Lee’s life – have revolved around Truck ’n’ Roll en Coeur.

The event has come a long way in 17 years, from its debut as a show for antique cars and hot rods. Menick asked the organizers if they would consider including beautiful trucks in the show. No problem, they said, as long as they’ll help raise money for children who have heart problems.

So that became Menick’s job. In less than a month, he found a dozen participants and $1,300 was donated to the charity. More trucks came the year after, and even more every year thereafter.

“I had no preference, as long as it’s a good cause, and besides, it gave the drivers an opportunity to spend a nice weekend together,” says Menick.

Shortly after they met, Menick told Sandra about the event.

“Well, that just sealed the deal,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Wow, he’s cute and he has a big heart!’ I was in love.”

She helped him prepare the show year after year. Some of his friends even questioned how much energy they were devoting to a charity, pointing out that he could be out making more money if he wasn’t always working on the show.

“But Dominique didn’t give up,” says Sandra. “Some people even asked why we were doing all this for cardiac children. Dominique didn’t know. He just wanted to keep going.”

And the show got bigger and bigger.

“By the fourth year we were married,” says Sandra. “During the fifth, I was pregnant. I was rubbing my belly and asking all the participants at the show for a donation for sick cardiac children. I told them, ‘We’re lucky our children are healthy Some others are not so fortunate.”

A few months later, little Angel-Lee arrived on the scene – with exactly the kind of ailment they’d been raising funds for.

By the age of two, Angel-Lee had undergone three open-heart operations. Last year, the 11-year-old, had a catheter implanted in her heart to do the work of a malfunctioning valve. Now, in good health, she is a spokesperson for The Heart Foundation, along with former NHL coach Jacques Demers.

At the event, of course, Minick’s 2007 Peterbilt is always front and centre.

After he bought it, he spent the first month working day and night to give it a unique look. The fuchsia colour was inspired by the “Pink Panther” Dodge Challenger of the 1970s. Black flames painted along the sides of the tractor testified to the power under the hood. And its 280-inch wheelbase, dominant grille and front bumper, and two tall black tailpipes make the Pete one of a kind.

“On a few occasions, I realized that I was still in the garage at three o’clock in the morning,” he says. “At that point, it’s not worth the trouble to go to bed anymore!”

He also added a very cool sun visor, radical front and rear fenders, and chrome wheel-nut studs to give “the beast” – as he sometimes calls his rig – an intimidating look.

There’s no doubt, he loves the attention the truck draws as much as he loves the business of hauling freight from city to city.

He was born and raised in the transport business, with a grandfather, father, and uncle whom he describes as “pioneers of transport.” They ran their trucking operation on the south shore of Montreal. By the age of eight Menick was already moving the trucks around in the yard.

“When I first met Dominique, he told me straight out that a trucker’s girlfriend had to be strong, and do a lot of things on her own, because of all the time that he had to spend on the road,” says Sandra.

Truck ’n’ Roll en Coeur was just another way to meet guys like him and see the rigs they drive.

“Dominique is the only founding member left of the event that will celebrate its 17th year at the fairgrounds in Huntingdon, Que. on August 19, 20 and 21.

“He never gave up. He’s my hero,” says Sandra. “I always say I married the trucker with the biggest heart… and the hardest head! He just never gives up.”