Search title image

TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

October 2008

Miriam Gholikely Public Service Award:
AC Transit Employees Catch the Spirit of the Drive

A few members of the “family” known as the AC Transit Richmond facility workers show pride in their ability to help others.
(Photo: Noah Berger)

The bus operators at AC Transit’s Richmond Facility know what it means to drive. But in the past year, they’ve become familiar with another kind of drive: a fundraiser.

Bus drivers often overhear the comments of their riders while on the job — most of which they’d probably like to tune out. But last December, while driving his regular route on AC Transit’s 72M Line, Hector Perdomo overheard a conversation between a mother and her son that he couldn’t ignore. The little boy said all he wanted was a basketball, but his mother — who was living at the Richmond Rescue Mission — could not afford to buy him a gift that Christmas. Perdomo couldn’t stop thinking about them, and he eventually ended up at the Richmond Rescue Mission trying to locate the boy and his mother. They had already moved out, but Perdomo now had a new idea: helping all of the children at the Rescue Mission.

The Richmond Facility workers are a close-knit family, and when one of them feels a burden, they all feel it. So when Perdomo proposed creating a giving tree for all of the families staying at the Rescue Mission, the rest of Division 3 — all 209 of them — fell in line. The names of the family members were hung on a Christmas tree in the break room, and the workers selected a person (or two) for whom they would purchase a gift. Only an hour and a half after the giving tree went up, all of the names were gone, with enough funds left over to purchase extra gifts in case there were new arrivals. On Monday, December 24, several of the bus operators loaded over 100 presents on a Van Hool coach and delivered them to the Rescue Mission.

While Perdomo had a positive outlook on life before the gift drive, he says this experience has taught him a lot about the needs of others and his ability to help.  “Many times our minds are filled with angry faces,” he said, “but now my mind is filled with their happy faces” as the families received the gifts. He now believes that together, the Richmond Facility workers can do great things, and says this experience has taught him how “an idea can turn into something happening.”

With the 2008 Miriam Gholikely Public Service Award spurring them on, the Richmond Facility workers started a school supply drive this past September, and are considering turning their Christmas gift drive into an annual event. It’s still just an idea at this point, but the AC Transit Richmond crew members make things happen from ideas. They see life as more than just driving — they also have the spirit of the drive. 

— Pam Grove

See VIDEO: A.C. Transit’s Richmond Facility Workers

Contents