| Phoenix Garbage Truck Driver Lands Childhood Dream Job | https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/public-works/2865 | Public Works (Trash and Recycling) | | 9/21/2023 9:30:00 PM | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/NewsArticle/Attachments/2865/Lyon newsroom.jpg | https://youtu.be/otE5vn6DoDM?si=NRExYYmB7YKnTtHs | Phoenix Garbage Truck Driver Lands Childhood Dream Job | <div class="ExternalClassE3ADAA85833546D4942EF76926A6888B"><html>
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<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">While m</span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">ost kids</span>
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<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">say they know </span>
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<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">many adults </span>
<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">will tell you t</span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">hey had no idea they would end up in their current career.</span>
<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0"> Perhaps that’s why </span>
<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">Lyon Marcheschi</span>
<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:16px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0"> is so excited to have the job he always hoped for.</span> </span></span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“This is definitely a dream come true, in a way,” he said. “Ever since I could remember, I was really fascinated by garbage trucks.”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">Marcheschi’s obsession with the roaring engines, the squeaking brakes, and the boom of a side arm started years ago. He was able to dig up a 2005 picture of himself happily pointing to a garbage truck in front of his house. He was just five years old. As time went on, he began doing more than just watching the trucks from the sidewalk.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“I started following my trash drivers when I was 8 to 10 years old. I would just grab my bike, and I started around six am. I’d go find them when they were just starting and I’d go out and follow them all day on summer vacation,” he said. </span><span style="background-color:window;color:windowtext;" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Each year I kind of went further and further and then I was doing about 50 miles on my bike a day.”</span><span style="background-color:window;color:windowtext;">
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">After a while, the City of Phoenix truck drivers started to recognize Marcheschi along their routes.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“He was sort of a celebrity,” said Richard Cota, who was a bulk trash foreman when Marcheschi was a kid. “He was a favorite among the operators because he would film us and he would be around us all the time. We knew his passion around this.”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">The videos Marcheschi shot got better with time, experience, and better equipment. He got shots of the trucks driving by, of barrel collection, and of operators collecting bulk trash. Occasionally, he would narrate what was happening. As an 11-year-old, Marcheschi started posting his videos on Youtube.</span>
<span style="" data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> Eventually he got a nicer camera and started refining his work. </span>
<span style="background-color:window;color:windowtext;" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">His channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/THETRASH153" target="_blank">THETRASH153</a>, has almost 1,700 subscribers. His 300+ videos have garnered more than one million views. And yet his visits with the solid waste equipment operators (SWEOs) weren’t only about capturing video.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“They kind of hooked me up with some route maps, and I would fold them up, take them home, and I’d put them in a binder,” Marcheschi recalled. “I had a pretty good collection going of all the service area routes. Almost like a fantasy league of some sort.”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">After years of what could be called an unofficial, unpaid internship, Marcheschi finally had the chance to become a paid apprentice with the City of Phoenix Public Works Department.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Many, many operators knew of Lyon,” Cota said. “So when we heard his name finally becoming – that he was an applicant to become a City of Phoenix employee, a lot of us were really happy because we’d known him for years. Lyon knew some of the areas better than some of the foremen did!”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">When Marcheschi was hired as an apprentice, his first foreman was none other than Richard Cota.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“At first, when I saw that Richard was going to be my foreman, it’s kind of cool. It takes the edge off of meeting a new foreman. I had already known him since I was like 15, so it was kind of cool,” Marcheschi said.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">The SWEO apprenticeship is a two-year program during which apprentices get classroom training, on-the-job training, a paycheck, and ultimately their commercial driver license (CDL). Marcheschi’s hard work during his initial years with Public Works paid off; he was named the City of Phoenix’s 2023 Apprentice of the Year.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“I think Lyon was the apprentice of the year because of his work ethic, his attitude, he comes to work every day, he works hard.," Cota said. “I was not surprised at all. He excels in pretty much everything we ask of him. I think it’s a good reflection on the department. It’s showing that this apprenticeship program works; we bring in good quality people.”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Lyon is out there now modeling for others around him on what it means to be a great city employee and provide an excellent service to our customers,” said Assistant Public Works Director Felipe Moreno, who nominated Lyon for the award.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“It felt pretty crazy at first because you think back to when you’re a kid, and you kind of want to tell that kid that he’ll be getting awarded from the city, along with just getting to do the job, it would probably be – you couldn’t believe it,” Marcheschi said.</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">Marcheschi has completed his apprenticeship and is now a full-time SWEO with his own route. His childhood dreams have also come full circle -- the kid who once followed around garbage truck drivers now has kids who come follow </span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“The drivers I saw growing up, they inspired me to do what they did,” he said.</span>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}">Now the inspiration lives on for another generation.</span>
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</html></div> | https://phoenix.gov/publicworks | Video | | public-works | | Public Works | | | | #garbagetrucks #trashtrucks #publicworks #recycling | Garbage collection, solid waste | Spencer Blake | 602-501-0620 | | | | spencer.blake@phoenix.gov | | | | | | | | | TalkingTrashPHX | |
