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(MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL) – An extraordinary act of kindness to an elderly, stranded passenger earned two Miami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD) employees the Miami International Airport Customer Service Employee of the Year Award, presented at the airport’s Reward and Recognition Program’s Year-End Gala on Thursday, December 6.
For their efforts, Geneva Hairs of Homestead, an Airport Operations Specialist, and Patricia Cardenas of west Miami-Dade, an Airport Operations Senior Agent, each were awarded: two round-trip tickets to anywhere in North America or the Caribbean, courtesy of American Airlines; a limousine ride to and from MIA, courtesy of South Florida Limousines; and a two-night hotel stay, courtesy of UGL Unicco, MIA's janitorial service provider.
Geneva and Patricia were chosen from employee-of-the-month winners in 2007 for aiding an elderly passenger who arrived at MIA from Argentina without money, a place to stay, or someone to pick him up. After assisting him through the federal inspection process for international arrivals, Geneva escorted him to the MIA greeter’s lobby, but no one was there to meet him. After having several public address announcements made for the man’s party, making calls to phone numbers he provided to her, and assisting him until the end of her shift at midnight, Geneva left the man in Patricia’s care.
When Geneva arrived the next day for her shift and discovered that the man had spent the night in the airport and his family members could not be reached, Geneva and Patricia arranged for him to stay with a personal friend of Patricia’s and Geneva drove him to the friend’s house. In the following days, Geneva and Patricia used personal leave time and their days off to transport him to the hospital, launder his clothes and visit him in the hospital. They both continued to try to contact the man’s family members, but with no success.
“Geneva and Patricia were guardian angels to this passenger,” said Dickie Davis, MDAD Terminal Operations and Customer Service Division Director. “They are a credit to the Aviation Department and are more than worthy to be our Employees of the Year.”
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