Kickstarter

Dear Friends of The Milk Truck:

I want to thank you for your commitment over the last year - your donations, tweets, words of encouragement, and support of the breastfeeding community have created the power that we've run on. The Milk Truck has raised awareness and support for mothers and babies in Pittsburgh and beyond. This project was received with better reception than I had ever dreamed. (Imagine our surprise when we were given a proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for our advocacy for mothers and babies!) The Milk Truck began as a work of art and has transformed into a community of people who are united and dedicated to advocating for the rights of women, their babies, and the healthiest food on earth, breastmilk.

It is a bittersweet moment as I make this announcement: The Milk Truck is moving to California in August. My family (husband, 2 young boys, and me) have been given an opportunity to set our roots in the Bay Area. It has always been home to us, as Eric and I both went to UC Berkeley. We have had a great love affair with Pittsburgh over the last four years, and the decision to move was not an easy one. After much discussion with my advisory board, we have decided that the truck will come to Berkeley with me; however, the important work of The Milk Truck team will continue here in Pittsburgh. The plan is to focus on breastfeeding bags for our local hospitals, which is the next logical step in supporting breastfeeding mothers and normalizing nursing in our community. We hope that you will continue to support our commitment to this cause, and we will be in contact with you in the future when we move into the next phase.

The Milk Truck will be making one last "stop" in Pittsburgh to say farewell to our friends, sponsors and community. We plan to stop in Highland Park at the Super Playground on Sunday, July 22nd from 9-11AM. Please come to take pictures, bid us farewell, and get some free goodies.

Again, thank you for supporting this project - and more importantly this movement - and I hope to see you on the 22nd.

With gratitude,

Jill Miller
Creator and President
The Milk Truck
www.themilktruck.org

The Milk Truck Hits the Road

Last Saturday, September 17, we took our maiden voyage (avec giant boob) and unveiled The Milk Truck at the Pittsburgh Biennial @ The Andy Warhol Museum! The Milk Truck is a reality. And she's an awesome sight: pink and blue stripes and polka dots, and one mammoth fiberglass bazoom perched perkily on top. Not to mention the flashing beacon-nipple!

New Press

Bonnie Rochman of TIME magazine wrote a piece on the project: 
http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/16/boob-on-the-move-trucks-public-art-defends-public-breast-feeding/

Keep Tabs on Us

Check out our new web interface and track The Milk Truck as we drive around Pittsburgh visiting events and waiting for those breastfeeding 911 calls. 
www.themilktruck.org

Rewards

Bumper stickers have been mailed! Collector edition stickers are in production with the collector prints. Tees are being packaged and will ship next week! Hooray!

Again, thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us make The Milk Truck a reality. 

Keep Truckin',

Jill

Truck Update

We've been busy bees here in Pittsburgh working on The Milk Truck, and things are going well. Trixie, the truck, spent the week at the auto shop getting new brakes and other repairs that will make her road ready. Our brilliant fabricator and artist, Brandon Boan, has been working on the giant boob-topper. We are on schedule, and probably over budget - exactly what we expected!

Exciting News

The Milk Truck is receiving a proclamation from Councilman Patrick Dowd in the City of Pittsburgh in September, for our support of women and babies. We can invite our friends and supporters to the city council for the ceremony. Any one interested in being our guest?  

Rewards

We've received our first batch of tees - they look fantastic. The bumper stickers have been ordered, and the special edition Milk Truck sticker and prints are in design. We plan to ship everything in September, although we may get the tees out earlier. 

Fundraising

Know a person who would love a tee or sticker? Still for sale on our website, until we run out! http://www.themilktruck.org/Donate.html Know a business that should have their name on the side of The Milk Truck? We have approximately 2 weeks left before our vinyl fabricator cuts the vinyl and finalizes the design of the truck. There's a little bit of time to pledge... think of the thousands of people who will see your business name in TIME magazine. Oh, did we mention that? Read on...

Press

We just concluded a segment with Ivanhoe Broadcasting, which focuses on health and women-related issues. It will run nationally next month on multiple channels across the US (we'll give you a heads up when we have more info). TIME magazine is running a piece on us (their web magazine, not their print!) in September, date TBD

Upcoming Events

Trixie will be unveiled at the Andy Warhol Museum for the Pittsburgh Biennial next month, September 17, 2010. Here's a picture of Tara and I taking her for a test drive, followed by another of our giant-boob-in-progress!

Thank YOU for the support, and keep truckin'!

Jill and The Milk Truck Team

Hello Backers!

Thank you to every one of you for your generosity and faith in this project. From the small pledges to the large, I thank you for helping The Milk Truck team exceed our Kickstarter goal. We did it!

In the next couple of weeks, I will be sending surveys out regarding sizes for those of you who will be receiving shirts. I will also continue to post our progress as we begin to collect in-kind donations and work on the truck. We continue to take pledges with the same rewards via PayPal on our website.

Please update your credit card if there was an error when Amazon tried to process it. I will be posting the donors in the $50 and up category on our Credits page in a few days. I want to give you time to correct your cards - don't want to leave anyone out! Contact me if you have questions. 

I want to take a quick minute to thank a handful of people who were critical in making this project a success:
Tara McElfresh - my project manager and sanity-keeper 
Vanessa Manz - our project researcher and PR referee
Golan Levin - colleague, friend, tech advice and wise soul
Caitlin Boyle - the wonderkid behind the kickstarter animation and video
Vicky Yuh - our official project illustrator
and
Eric, Paxton and Argo Paulos - my family and personal cheering squad

Love you guys!

Thanks again and keep truckin',

Jill 

The Milk Truck Updates
Two exciting things to share!

1. Our illustrator (and my former student at Carnegie Mellon University) Vicky Yuh has just completed the final iteration of our bumper sticker. Here is a teaser for you!

2. We found The Milk Truck! We placed an offer on her, and it's been accepted. As soon as we receive our Kickstarter funding, she will be ours. Thanks to all of you for backing this project. Here's a picture of our perty girl.

And lastly, please continue to spread the word about The Milk Truck. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and every dollar helps. 

Many thanks, and keep on truckin'!

Jill