Commendations Corner - January

Arrow Road: James Beran, Diego Bravo, Hayley Buccella, Krystal Buckley, John Danis, Corey Desautels, Theresa DeVries, Giovanni Ferrari, Nicholas Fish, David Forget, Michelle Golding, Dolladeer Gordon, Mykal Griffiths, Maurice James, Massimo Lavecchia, Aaron Nolk, Ray Pennant, Teekah Persaud, Salvador Piccininni, Joan Pitters, Gordon Poole, Hemant Prasad, Frank Ragone, Ryan Ramdwar, Heather Sanford, Manny Sforza, Nunzio Signore, Leslie Simmonds, Roy Simmonds: “His politeness, cheerfulness and ultimate professionalism spoke volumes. The bus was packed, but he still maintained a cheerful disposition.” … David Soucie, Eric Stolarz, Jason Thompson, Paul Vavaroutsos, Richard Wafer, Devon Wilson, Christopher Yates, Roy Vitelli, Tyrone Yorke

Birchmount: Lisa Akouros, Ken Boodram, Douglas Bray, Steve Burley, Bev Cameron, Simone Carrington, Peter Dwomoh, James Davis, Tony Fay, Ahmad Hamidullah, Cearan Headley, Chris Heidinger, Neil Hermes, Robert Hoffman, Carlos Hope, Al Hrynkiw, Myriam Huard, Conroy Jervis, Marvin Johnson: “The bus was disabled and had a loss of more than 20 litres of oil. The Operator had placed crumpled newspaper he found on his bus and prevented the oil from entering a catch basin approximately 50 feet from where the bus was located preventing an environmental problem.” … Mary Kitchin, Antonio Matos, Keith McGill, Neil Moore, Constantine Nassis, Richard Oncangco, Christopher Paulsen, Richard Philpot, Steve Reynolds, Cameron Shepherd, Jose Songco, Robert Spencer, Tim Street, Karen Valenteyn, Calvin Welch, Donovan Williams

Customer Service Centre: Elizabeth Foeller, Claudio Gasparini, Matthew Hurry, Larissa Kabeya, Hovig Kerkezian, Richard Leone, Moira Mullan, Nanica Peters, Edwina Richards, Cheryl Woodhouse

Danforth: Christopher Carter, Andrew Houston, Martin Morawski, Bruce Shaw, Henry Walker

Eglinton: Normand Boulaine, Tammy Brown, Adrian Chan, Bernhard Derksen, Garfield Ewers, Nicole Facey, Andrew Gould, Mohamad Hawchar, Stephen Jeffery, Sherry Jupp, Dean Lam, Oliver Lawrence, Lionell Lim, Colin Mair, Daniel Marshall: “I just wanted to express my feeling of immense joy and happiness to be reunited with my guitar, and my gratitude to the bus driver of bus 7664. Thank you for holding onto my most prized possession, and thank you for making the commuters’ welfare one of your priorities.” … Michael McHugh, Eva Meszaros, Paul Murphy, Yahya Mude, Roydel Porter, Rosalind Salinas, Luigi Spada, Lisa Westdyk, Norm Wilson, Laurie Woods

IT Services: Walter Haluza, Roy Tejares, Andy Young

Malvern: Michael Barnes, John Brown, Nick Cimone, Lee Esmonde, Elaine Fyke, Randy Fyles, Jeffrey Gill, Jeanard Igwe, William Kalina, Jeff Long, Ellington McLeggon, Terrence Medford: “I just wanted to say what a great guy he is, and how much he helped me to feel good about operating the bus again.” … Pierre Menard, Mouneir Mourad, Tina Musciagna, Joey Norman, Anastasios Pakos, Gananand Persaud, Derwin Phillips, Michael Pacioppo, Muhammad Saleem, Scott Savariau, Gurpreet Sekhon, Sukhwinder Virk, Syed Zaidi

Mount Dennis: Ross Bendle, Kevin Borges, Branko Bozin, Craig Brown, Patrick Bygrave, Daniel Campos, Carlos Carvalho, Emran Chowdhury, Deborah Church, Giuseppe Ciardullo, Gerald Cobham, Terri Craddock, Colin Crooks, Robert Culling, Joao DaCosta, Christopher Day, Vito Degiorgio, Balbir Dhillon, David Elrick, Kevin Emoff, Philip Fermo, Angelo Flabiano, Carlos Gois, Richard Hollett, Kiranjit Jassal, George Joseph, Sergio Medeiros, Earl Nembhard, Michel Nunes, Christos Papaiconomou, Frederic Peters, Mauro Pistillo, Filipe Queiroz: “Omg! Omg! Omg! Please send a heartfelt thank-you to this driver. He is the best.” … Helder Ramos, Alain Sanchez Valdez, Sourabh Sehgal, Constantino Sfetcos, Asim Shafique, Addul Shaikh, Steven Small, Foster Thackaberry, Christopher Thompson

Queensway: Maria D’Cuhna, Mark Farrugia, Deirdre Fitzgerald, Mario Grisafi, Utku Mete, Maureen Harris: “Please give a big thank you to this bus driver. My dad and I parked at Humbertown and were headed to the bus stop and the bus arrived. My dad is 84 and is a little slow, but the bus driver very kindly waited for him.” … Zoltan Pap, Jermaine Scott, Mike Stravakis, Bonny Stroud

Pensions: Cheryl Uroda

Plant Maintenance: Yohannes Kassa, Marlon Whittick

Roncesvalles: Nick Agostino, Terry Amaral, Matthew Arana, Malik Ataul, Jeff Baker, Ebrahim Bhagat, Marc Boulianne, Derek Brackett, Eric Cuskic, Leonardo Debenedictus, Roman Dzerowicz, Patty Ervin, David Freitas, Shelly French, Christian Gheorghe, Kimberly Gottschalk, Derek Grosso, Thomas Gruner, Joseph Harris, Carlo Iannantuono, Daniel Krohmalnik, Jim Lever, Terry Mannella, Kirk McFarlane, Daniel McManaman, Wajahat Mir, Ann Nisiewicz, George Plaitis, Kimberly Poynter, Linda Randall, David Reid, Theresa Santos, Mitchell Soares, Stephen Welch, Alison Willis

Russell: Greg Anderson, Stephen Barreca, Bac Vong, Mike Bowles, Benjamin Escultor, Renwick Felix, Lorne Flannigan, Renata Harper, Christopher Lewis, Tony McEwan, Brian Morrow, William Moyer, Kevin Pett, Andrew Sicat, Richard Sterritt, Donald Turner, James Williams

Stations/Collectors: Nadeem Asghar, Chuck Carr, Andy Czap, Andrew Dixon, James Goldberg, Richard Krzywonos, Terry Lesyk

Transit Control: Charles Alleyne, Patrick Campbell, Martin Flanagan, Mark Guenette, Joanna Hughes

Wheel-Trans: Steve Beurling, Ken Brown, Mike Brown, Anthony Cerqua, Glenn Chadwick, Susan Chow, John Corcoran, Frank Currie, John Czindl, Kevin Dill, Alison Duncan, Ed Duncan, Chris Edwards, Cristina Fornasier, Jen Gibbs, Eric Gottlieb, Lana Gould, Robert Gullason, Mark Hollidge, Heather Hoover, Adam Jackson, Danny Jeffries, Wayne Jones, Mark Kahansky, Bobbi Kavanagh, Simon Kelly, Don Knight, Steve Kolnik, Lise Laprise, Theresa Legge, John Lombardi, Rick Machado, Bill MacKinnon, Cassandra MacNeil, Muhammad Malik, Cristina Martinez, Omar McFarlane, Jason McGill, Patti McGuire, Andres Menendez, Carlos Oliveira, Kathy Paparizos, Susan Patterson, Nigel Richardson, Charles Robinson, Connie Rojas, Michael Schryer, Biago Serra, Peter Skarlatakis, Mike Slade, Abraham Stepanian, Mitra Stergios, Dwight Thomas, Bill Traynor, Shawn Viggers, Rhonda Walker, Darryl Wilcox, Rawle Wood, Brad Zuber

Wilson-Bus: Mauro Amato, Elias Douros

Wilson-Subway: Stephen Marles, James McLean

For providing a leading hand

Earlier this week, United Way Toronto announced that it raised $117 million during its 2013 campaign. A celebration event on Jan. 29 saluted 700 workplaces and 23,000 volunteers who helped raise much-needed funds for more than 200 agencies across the city.

Many spirit awards were presented, including one to CEO Andy Byford for top Public Sector Leadership Chair. Last year, leadership giving at the TTC rose by nine per cent, which represented a $14,000-increase in donations compared to 2012.

“I was honoured to receive the award, but was very clear that I was accepting it on behalf of all of the TTC – and specifically for our fantastic team of co-ordinators, canvassers and volunteers,” Byford said. “I’ve agreed to join the United Way Cabinet to demonstrate my overt support for this wonderful cause. I’m looking forward to our next campaign.”

The Leadership Chair Award will share the mantle with the TTC’s previous United Way fundraising accomplishments, including a Public Awareness Award, Employee Campaign Chair Award (to Kathy Wyeth) and six Labour Participation Awards.

TTC employees and pensioners raised $859,000 for United Way Toronto in 2013 through pizza sales, employee payroll deductions and dozens of workplace events.