Children say “Thank You” to Bus Captains!

It is 4am and most of Singapore is still deep in slumber. Not Senior Bus Captain Sng Yeow Khim who is already up and about, making his morning checks on his bus as he prepares for a busy day ahead. By 4.30am, he would already be starting off from the Bedok bus depot and getting ready to pick up his first passengers.

On the other end of the spectrum is Senior Bus Captain Lim Ah Lek who works the afternoon shift and ends his day at 1.30am when most of Singapore is already in bed. For him, getting to bed at 3am is par for the course and something he has been doing for the last 25 years.

Working such odd hours, and on weekends and public holidays, is something all Bus Captains have gotten used to. It is also something many people take for granted. This changed on Friday, 20 November 2015 at about 3.30pm, when 40 children from the Singapore Children's Society (SCS) were at the Bedok and Tampines interchanges to say a warm "thank you" to Bus Captains. The children, aged between 9 and 12 years old from the SCS's KidzSHinE programme, presented 160 hand-made thank you cards and snacks to the Bus Captains.

"I am so surprised by the children and it is really a good feeling to know that my work is appreciated!" says 67-year-old Senior Bus Captain Muthiah s/o Periayanan who has been on the job for the past 33 years.

For Firdaus, a 9-year-old-boy, who was at the interchange last Friday, he had this to say: "I am so excited to see the Bus Captains happy. They help us a lot by driving the buses. Otherwise I cannot get to where I want to go so easily."

Ms Aishwariyaa Rajandra, the Programme Coordinator from the Singapore Children's Society who helped to organise this visit, said: "Bus Captains are one group of people whom we see every day but might not remember to thank them. They are our every day unsung heroes and we want this opportunity for our children to give back by thanking them."