I’m sure most of you have seen the custom designed Forest River NOBO we had built and raffled off for Care Camps this past year. We originally intended to include and video the actual build process for our show, but when the COVID-19 crisis hit back in March, production of the NOBO came to a halt. So did all the plans we had, including taking the NOBO around the country, sharing this story, and promoting Care Camps.

Well, thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Forest River NOBO team and the dedicated companies that got onboard with all their products, the Super NOBO got finished, and we are super delighted the way it came out. The one question that always seems to come up is, how did that unique looking exterior come about? I’m sure many would say from a not so normal mind, and they could be right. You see, years ago, I designed and customized this wild helicopter for a client that wanted something radical and unusual that would draw a lot of attention. So, I came up with this dragonfly paint scheme using 13 different blended colors. To say this helicopter drew a lot of attention would be a vast understatement. 

When this opportunity to do the fundraiser for Care Camps came about, I knew we needed something that would garner a lot of attention. That’s when my mind snapped again, and I thought back to that helicopter paint scheme and said, “Why not?” The parameters we would work with would be the NOBO, had to be eye-catching, using Care Camp colors, and needed to be dimensional. Meaning the closer you look at it, the more features you would see. Years ago, we called it ghost graphics. Being hung up on blended colors, bird feathers, yes, bird feathers became the starting point of the colors and patterns for the NOBO. And if you look closely at the finished graphics, you will see those bird feather inspirations. 

Now, I knew what I was looking for, but the big challenge would be to convince the team at Graphics Unlimited that I was of sane mind, and see if they could come up with a wrap that could achieve the same effects and look. Working closely with Melissa Vitali and Monica Lambert and their graphics team, not only did they come up with exactly what I envisioned, but they even went over to Forest River and installed the wrap themselves. Thank God for that, as I can’t even wrap a Christmas present, and this was a tough, complex job.

Melissa Vitali: Hi, I’m Melissa Vitali with Graphics Unlimited, and today we are putting the graphics on the Super NOBO for the kids’ Care Camp. We do do some custom things, especially for shows and special projects for a lot of our OEMs.bBut this one is unusual in the way it’s for a charity and a good cause. And we hope it raises a lot of money. This is–the design is very colorful and eye-catching, so it will definitely stand out from your average RV package. So, all of the suppliers and Forest River as the manufacturer came together to put this RV together for kids’ Cares Camp. And all the money is going to kids with cancer so they can enjoy the experience of camping.

Jose: As you see, the finished NOBO ended up being a definite attention getter. We know that for this NOBO to be a Super NOBO, it had to have more than great looks.

So, working with our sponsors and partners, we outfitted it with some of the top of the line components that any RVer would love to have, starting off with those great looking tires and wheels, which came from Tredit Tire, and includes a built-in tire pressure monitoring system. Of course, staying connected today is usually priority one, so this NOBO is equipped with the newest Winegard Air 360+ omnidirectional VHF, UHF, and FM antenna with a 4G LTE Wi-Fi gateway router. You got all that? Well, what it means is whoever wins this NOBO is going to be well connected. When it comes to electric power, this NOBO has 300 watts of solar power using three low profile roof-mounted panels, which feed the power to a 250 amp hour lithium battery from GoPower. The system also has a 2,000 watt pure sinewave inverter with remote, and 30 amp controller with Bluetooth. And to make sure you have clean water, we had a super water purification system by No Dirty Water installed to ensure that no matter where you are, you have pure, clean water. As we often say, you’re not officially camping till the awning comes out. And this NOBO is equipped with the newest Carefree of Colorado Altitude awning system with Bluetooth remote. When it came to the interior, we decided to leave it factory stock, as Forest River does such a great job outfitting their NOBO interiors anyway. Of course, the winner will always add those personal touches. The fact that we couldn’t take the NOBO out on tour because of the COVID travel restrictions, Darryl Searer from the RV/ MH Hall of Fame Museum was kind enough to give us space to display the NOBO, which we did until we picked the raffle winner. 

And our grand winner was Rose Wright from Michigan. Rose and her husband Greg picked up their NOBO at Tiara RV in Elkhart, Indiana, where they met up with Brian Brenneman, the regional sales manager for NOBO, and Tanner Livingston from Tiara RV. Tanner Livingston: Yeah, it’s really neat. It’s neat that we get to provide this for someone who, you know, especially who is grouping with that Care Camps organization. I mean, the organization itself is amazing. I mean, you know that. And so, being able to, especially in 2020 when there’s just an aroma of negativity, it’s really neat that we get to help someone, or at least help a company that is helping this great organization, and be able to provide Rose and Greg with their brand new Forest River No Boundaries. 

Brian Brenneman: Yeah, it’s been a long journey to get this here to this point with the Super NOBO. We finally did the raffle last week and gave it away. And the customer’s here now to pick it up, and it’s been exciting to see this transition throughout the process of building this unit. It’s a one of a kind No Boundaries unit as well, so it’s just been very privileged, you know, to be able to see it firsthand going down the production line. Care Camps is an organization that Forest River has partnered with. For every unit that is delivered, we are donating money to Care Camps to help out kids with cancer. Care Camps has 139 locations throughout North America. Care Camps is there to help families in need to heal outside of a hospital. They have specialized medical physicians on staff and counseling there as well to help families cope with their struggles through the cancer treatments. announcer: It was a busy morning for Greg and Rose as they got a full orientation about the NOBO and did interviews with local TV stations, including ABC 57.

Rose Wright: I’m anxious to get it home so I can really dive into it. There’s a lot to learn. You know, until you actually go through everything yourself, you don’t really know what you’re not understanding. So you know, and then there’s plenty of YouTubes online,
YouTube videos online. We can always go through those, but you know, it’s going to be quite a process, put it that way. It’s like learning to use new appliances in a new house.

Greg Wright: It’s very impressive. I mean, it’s got all kinds of bells and whistles. They’ve really outdone themselves, it appears, on all the amenities with it. It’s pretty awesome. Solar panels for electricity. Again, we were pop-up campers, we didn’t have hot water, we didn’t have really running water, we didn’t have a shower or, you know, all that type of thing. It’s a lot different than what we’ve been used to in the past with camping, so it’ll be a new experience. Rose: It’s still disbelief because I thought, “I thought, “I’m never going to win the trailer.” And it wasn’t like we were in the market for buying one. It was just, “Oh wow, that might be nice to go traveling come spring if we still can’t go anywhere.” But it’s just exciting. I mean, I can’t hardly believe that we’re gonna be taking that home and putting it in our garage. We hope it goes in the garage [laughing].

Jose: It wasn’t long before Rose and Greg headed off, taking their NOBO to its new forever home. Of course, the main goal with this NOBO raffle was to raise money for Care Camps, which are special oncology camps for children with cancer. And even with the obstacles and delays we faced, we reached our $40,000 goal and then some. Now, none of this would’ve been possible without our partnership with Forest River, and in particular Kevin McArt and Cody Schade, who were responsible for this whole NOBO build. Was it worth it? You bet, and here you see Kevin and Cody with that big check presented to Care Camps. And you know what? We’re going to do it again this year!