Fun Town RV, a 13-facility dealership based in Cleburne, Texas, has emerged as a major provider of RVs for medical professionals engaged in the fight against the coronavirus.
Fun Town RV owner and CEO Jarrod McGhee said cities and towns in both Texas and Oklahoma, where his company’s dealerships and service centers operate, have come to Fun Town RV to purchase units, especially for doctors, nurses and other frontline caregivers. These units enable them to stay near their health facilities either for a few hours’ rest or even overnight.
“We have sold hundreds of units in Texas alone over a period of several weeks. But our participation doesn’t end there,” McGhee said. “We also send drivers along with the deliveries to show people how to set up the RVs and how to use them safely. Right now, we are setting up campsites in two cities.”
As well as filling orders for needed RVs, Fun Town RV is also making donations to local organizations that help to protect the safety and daily life of the area. One such contribution was to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, for use by county jail employees who must remain quarantined after exposure to coronavirus.
As his company faces the new demands of surviving in the time of the coronavirus, McGhee reveals there have been a few obstacles with some municipalities who want to make purchases.
“They want to help, but city officials don’t know what they can or can’t do,” he said. “They want to buy from us but are not sure if they can. There’s no clear message from governmental communications. We are helping them to get in a position where they can buy more from us, and quickly.”
Despite some setbacks, McGhee is still optimistic that things will work out.
“I’ve been through September 11 and the 2008 housing crisis, and some tough business ups and downs,” he said. “But I believe that if our company and other RV businesses continue to do things right by offering help to those who need it, including helping our employees, we can make it through this and come out better for it.”
RV dealers across the continent are taking action to help fellow citizens impacted by the coronavirus.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Chisolm Trail RV employees and outside volunteers assemble and donate care boxes to locals unable to obtain food or other necessities.
“I try to get some type of meat product, canned goods, water, toilet paper,” Chisolm Trail RV co-owner Rosella Erin Chisolm told KOB 4 News. “If we don’t have toilet paper, paper towels, anything we can get to give them something.”
The dealership has spent its own money and received donations from organizations to leave the care boxes on the doorsteps of people who need them. Chisolm Trail RV accepts donations for boxes, including the boxes themselves, at its locations in Albuquerque and Aztec, New Mexico.
In Calgary, Alberta, nine-location Western RV Country—the province’s largest RV dealer—is loaning units to health care workers. Many medical professionals working with coronavirus patients are seeking to borrow RVs as temporary housing to eliminate the possibility of spreading the virus to vulnerable family members at home.
