Ganado driver awarded by state association
Courtesy photo Joey Begay, center, a bus driver for Ganado Unified School District, accepts the Driver of the Year award from the Arizona Association for Pupil Transportation.
WINDOW ROCK
Joey Begay, a bus driver for the Ganado Unified School District, has been named Bus Driver of the Year by the Arizona Association of Pupil Transportation.
Begay, 28, said he was surprised by the honor, for which he was nominated by fellow bus driver Freddie Yazzie.
Originally from Sanostee, New Mexico, Begay, who is Tachíinii born for To’Aheedlíinii, started driving a school bus nine years ago for the Red Mesa Unified School District and moved to Ganado five years ago.
As a board member of the Ganado Transportation Association, he has helped raise funds for extracurricular activities for students, such as rodeo entrance fees and travel expenses for Down Under Sports.
But Begay says the real reward is his day-to-day job getting students safely to school.
“I feel like I’m making a difference in kids’ lives every day,” said Begay.
In his nomination letter, Yazzie said Begay, after being put in charge of the parts department, “transformed it into an AutoZone store.”
“A person like Mr. Joey Begay seldom comes along and motivates an entire transportation (department) to better themselves and accomplish anything they put their mind to,” Yazzie wrote.
Highway 264,
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