罗马科兹洛夫

看哪，一群人在建造仓房，他们在搬运木头, 与他人的重新联系, 大家为了一个共同的目的而提供的帮助. 我们每个人怎样才能树立一个积极的榜样呢? 我们怎样才能在大大小小的方面提供帮助呢? 当我们共同努力时，可以发挥多大的潜力?

罗马科兹洛夫 was raised to consider the value of supporting others by his Christian parents in his native Ukraine. Born before the country officially declared itself an independent state from the Soviet Union, the 37-year-old observed the negative effects of communism on his family and community. 我小时候住在卡米扬斯克, 他在扎波罗热附近的小村庄, the boy watched his resourceful father fill the greenhouses on their property with cucumber starts, 玫瑰和其他植物, 一旦成熟, 能在早春卖掉养家吗. The government allowed its citizens to grow and keep the profits from food because the country needed it.

他的父亲, 看门人尤里, 是他的英雄吗?, Kozlov recalled: His mind and heart were fixed on the future and the needs of others. "To gain something, you had to be ready to give up a lot," 他说 he learned. “我就是这样长大的. 你必须有 先给予 的态度. Even though the team is more important than one person, a team is only as strong as its members.

“我欣赏自我维持, 但是你可以 达到 甚至 更多 一起工作, 提升, 相互激励和鼓励."

科兹洛夫带着一颗谦卑的心在RTD工作, where he is one of 25 division supervisors who serve as the backbone of the agency’s three operating divisions: East Metro, in Aurora; Platte, in Denver; and Boulder. 在任何时候, 一年中的任何一天, Kozlov and his colleagues tend to the details that ensure RTD can execute 600 bus pullouts every day. The pace is exceptionally busy, he says, and “all of it has to have happened 10 minutes ago.”

But beyond the Tetris puzzle are opportunities for human connections. Bus operators talk with Kozlov, sharing their experiences and seeking his thoughts. 他听.

“我告诉他们，生活是如此美好，”科兹洛夫说. “你甚至不知道你今天帮助了多少人. 你不知道你的好话有多好, 力量和微笑可以振奋10个或10个,000个可以鼓舞他人的人, 司机和乘客. 它可以提高.”

Kozlov understands operators’ perspectives because he began his career with RTD in 2013, mainly driving Platte-based routes but also helping at Boulder and East Metro. He knows the feeling of shouldering responsibility for a large bus and the people inside it while watching out for all the surrounding vehicles. The number of people an operator encounters every day seems endless, 他说. “尽管一些 客户可能会 要求,科兹洛夫补充道, 每天成千上万的感谢帮助我继续前进.”

担任监督角色, Kozlov feels a fatherly responsibility for his colleagues, 他视他们为英雄, 他的家人和朋友. “我发自内心地相信爱情，”他说. “找到一些伟大的东西，并阐明它. Celebrate greatness, and people will believe and be great. 我看到了人们聚集在一起的真正潜力.”

Despite the political conflict occurring in the background, Kozlov’s childhood in the Ukrainian countryside was largely a happy one. He worked hard in school, loved reading books and cherished attending church on Sundays. 夏天是温暖和绿色的. He cared for chickens and rabbits and dragged a hose around the farm to water the plants. 当工作完成时, he swam in the family’s pool – dug over a two-year period with a shovel by his father. The first time Kozlov was given a banana – an unheard-of luxury before the Soviet Union collapsed – he savored it during a 3-plus-kilometer walk to school.

Kozlov knew that his family worked hard to support him and his siblings but didn't realize the extent to which the community valued them. At 9 years old, when his father died of leukemia, he grasped that love at the funeral. 他从未见过这么长的送葬队伍.

When he was 12, Kozlov’s mother and new stepfather sought a new life – in America. Before leaving, they sold the family farm to their friends for almost nothing. 科兹洛夫登上了飞机, 他的第一个, 穿着t恤和袜子, not knowing whether there would be clothes for him at his destination. Extended family met them at their new apartment in Sacramento. 厨房柜台上放着一串香蕉.

America was a dream he was sold, Kozlov said – and it is real. The United States is about abundance that can be achieved with hard work, perseverance and luck. 他曾就读于萨克拉门托州立大学, 去为家族企业工作了, 并娶了安吉拉, 他的高中恋人, 他称她 为“美丽”, 固体, 聪明和睿智,生活中让他最快乐的部分.

Kozlov and his family decided to move to Colorado in 2013. Upon arriving in their new state, he needed to find work to support his family. Kozlov learned about RTD during a church visit in Brighton, when a parishioner approached to say he had heard Kozlov needed a job. 他说，RTD正在招聘. 科兹洛夫第二天申请了一份公共汽车操作员的工作. He learned later that the churchgoer was Orlo Petersen, a manager with the agency.

“I was so excited that I got to operate these huge machines,” Kozlov said. As a college student, “I wanted to be part of the Air Force. I wore a brown uniform, which was the color of the Marines. 开车去机场, 我记得我告诉过我的一个乘客, ‘看, 我在离地面几英尺高的公共汽车上飞行, 而我是飞行员.’”

Bus operators are true public servants, Kozlov says, the bloodline of our cities. 这个职业是一种使命, and his colleagues work hard every day in ways the public will never see. But he knows – and because Kozlov knows, he is grateful to each of them. 最高奖赏, 他说, is seeing past bus operators succeed at RTD whom he encouraged to pursue new positions. They are now division supervisors, street supervisors and dispatchers.

科兹洛夫成为了一名美国律师.S. 去年的公民. 作为一个美国人意味着什么? 半个乌克兰人, half Russian answers quickly: “I am grateful and honored to be a part of this great country and to serve the people through RTD, 一个公共服务组织，有真正的, 对当地社区产生深远影响.”