From left: Million Mile Club members Joey Carpenter and Jeff Cashion; Mayor Rogero; Million Mile Club member Jimmy Leatherwood; Transit Director Dawn Distler; and state Rep. Rick Staples
It's official: Today, by mayoral proclamation, is Knoxville Area Transit Driver Appreciation Day.
Mayor Madeline Rogero, state Rep. Rick Staples and Transit Director Dawn Distler praised KAT's 170 transit operators during a short ceremony today at Knoxville Station.
Distler urged passengers to hand “thank you” postcards to their favorite bus operators, or to take “safe selfies” with drivers and post them to KAT’s Facebook page.
KAT’s operators do an amazing job, day in and day out, Mayor Rogero said. They drove 2.9 million miles last year – or, to be precise, 2,902,433 miles.
Today's recognition saluted a special group of KAT bus operators - the 25 members of the Million Mile Club. These operators have each driven a million or more miles behind the wheel of a KAT bus without a preventable accident.
The veteran of the group, Jeff Cashion, has driven more than 2 million miles, accident-free, over 28 years.
The drivers and KAT staff also gave a round of applause to Ventrice Hodge, who was driving the Route 23-Millertown bus last year when she noticed an elderly woman who had fallen in her driveway. The bus was safely parked, and Ms. Hodge didn’t hesitate to jump off the bus and help the woman get back on her feet. It wasn’t her job per se – "but it was what we’d all want someone to do if it was our grandmother who’d taken a spill," Mayor Rogero said.
Ms. Hodge is modest, and her KAT colleagues wouldn’t have even known about it, except that one of her passengers wrote a letter to Distler, commending her for what she did.
"Happily, this isn’t an isolated incident," the Mayor said, noting that KAT employees’ acts of kindness are a daily occurrence. "They deliver smiles and offer a sympathetic ear. They care about their passengers. They do everything they can to make sure their passengers have a 'good ride' – that they get to where they’re going on time, hassle free."
Thank you, KAT drivers, for your professional and friendly service.
25 KAT drivers are Million Mile Club members - they've driven a million miles or more without an accident.
Mayor Rogero proclaimed today as Knoxville Area Transit Driver Appreciation Day.