Chief Transport Officer Brings Cheer to her Staff

There are over two hundred persons employed in the enforcement, traffic and terminal team at the Department of Transport. And today, for the first time under the leadership of Chief Transport Officer Diane Vasquez, a Christmas Family Program is taking place. Vasquez has been going across the country surprising these public officers with a grocery bag containing food supplies just ahead of the Christmas. There was also a female Santa Claus issuing gifts to the employees for their children. The program is the brainchild of Vasquez who says that she is simply saying thank you to the staff that has been working around the clock at the terminals and along the highways.

Diane Vasquez, Chief Transport Officer, Department of Transport

“We began preparing and planning from earlier this year so we could capture the staff of DOT and so we are here today. As you witnessed having all the staff from Belize City, terminal, enforcement being present and participating in the program. They did not know what to expect so it was actually a nice surprise and I hope that they enjoyed and appreciated it. This is something that I’m doing for my entire department in all districts, so almost two hundred staff. My mission this year, this Christmas, is to give back to all of them because I always say there are so many faces behind DOT that go unrecognised for all their contribution to the department. So this is my way of showing appreciation to them and thanking them for all that they do to keep this department going.”

Duane Moody

“Let’s talk about what they received today because outside of the raffles they got these opportunities to win different prizes, they were also given a hamper.”

Diane Vasquez

“Yes, they were given a grocery bag. So basically the idea behind the grocery bag was that you know I wanted that all of my staff to be able to have a Christmas meal. And you know every Christmas, we have we rice and beans, we salad, we cranberry, we ham and so that is what we tried to capture in the grocery bags. A lot of my staff they have confided in me. I have staff that are all in different financial brackets and so being at the helm of the department, I found it important to try to reach out to everybody – it doesn’t matter, top to bottom – and to be able to give them and their kids that little extra cheer for Christmas. I mean what kids doesn’t like presents, right; I love presents. So we try to give to all the kids and we will be giving to all the kids of DOT countrywide as well. This was all done by donations. So from almost the beginning of the year, we were reaching out to private businesses, individual. And so we managed to fundraise enough to be able to purchase all of these items that you see here and we also had generous donations from private businesses as well. So we really thank them for helping to make this initiative a success.”