Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Hun­dreds of dri­vers and com­muters were treat­ed to a morn­ing of grat­i­tude, give­aways, and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it yes­ter­day as the Route 2 Maxi Taxi As­so­ci­a­tion held its first-ever Day of Ap­pre­ci­a­tion.

As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Bren­ton Knights de­scribed the event as a hum­bling op­por­tu­ni­ty.

He said the event was a tes­ta­ment to the as­so­ci­a­tion’s long-stand­ing phi­los­o­phy of man­ag­ing its own af­fairs.

“For years we have told the State that we can man­age our own af­fairs, and to­day we proved it,” Knights said. “This cel­e­bra­tion was made pos­si­ble en­tire­ly through the con­tri­bu­tions of our dri­vers and spon­sors. We did not seek gov­ern­ment as­sis­tance, and we are hum­bled to give back to those who keep our net­work run­ning.”

The cel­e­bra­tion be­gan at dawn with dou­bles and corn soup for dri­vers, fol­lowed by give­aways from spon­sors in­clud­ing Nu Wave, Rex Oil, and Hol­i­day Foods.

Prizes ranged from caps, key­chains, and air fresh­en­ers to car bat­ter­ies and gal­lons of oil – col­lec­tive­ly val­ued at thou­sands of dol­lars.

Knights sin­gled out com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives George and Jade Wil­son for their piv­otal roles in sup­port­ing the event.

In a spe­cial mo­ment of recog­ni­tion, the as­so­ci­a­tion al­so ho­n­oured three long­stand­ing dri­vers with plaques, ac­knowl­edg­ing their years of ded­i­ca­tion and ser­vice to the Route 2 com­mu­ni­ty.

Knights said the plaques were a sym­bol of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for dri­vers who have been “the back­bone of our op­er­a­tions and a mod­el for oth­ers.”

“This is the first time in over 20 years that we have done some­thing on this scale, and it will not be the last, God will­ing,” Knights said. “This event was made pos­si­ble en­tire­ly through the ef­forts of our dri­vers and spon­sors. We did not seek gov­ern­ment as­sis­tance.”