Kurt Royce Honored with 2024 Bill Dane Award
Willows, California – On September 17th, 2025, Paratransit Services was honored to recognize Kurt Royce as the recipient of the 2024 Bill Dane Award. The Paratransit Services Board of Directors established the Bill Dane Award in 1995 to recognize the contributions of William R. Dane to Paratransit Services. During his 5 years of employment until retiring at age 85, Bill Dane was recognized as an "Ambassador" of Paratransit Services. He is well remembered by those who worked with and knew him for his exemplary performance, professional demeanor, dedication, and for the songs he sang regularly to his passengers.
Kurt began his time with Paratransit Services in March 2015 as an on-call driver for the dial-a-ride service. He came to our company with experience driving box trucks, delivering the mail to a depot in Sacramento. For nine out of the ten years he has worked for Paratransit Services, Kurt has worked both jobs. Even with this busy schedule, he has been consistently an exemplary employee. Kurt is dedicated to making customer service a priority and his attention to details made him a favorite among our passengers. He even knows their pet’s names and their children’s names. Kurt makes all of his passengers them feel special and prioritizes transporting them safely.
General Manager, Michelle Wehe, had this to say about Kurt:
It has been my pleasure to work with Kurt Royce my entire career with Paratransit Services. His ability to diffuse riled customers is due in large to his calm demeanor and empathy. These abilities, along with his patience, make him an excellent OJT trainer. All current drivers at the Willows site have benefited from his tutelage and leadership.
Kurt works all of his scheduled shifts and is always dependable when needed for extra cleaning duties. Kurt has gone above and beyond more times than I can think of. If he sees a problem, he fixes it in a timely fashion without making a fuss. Kurt has a wonderful personality. He is a polite, easy going, engaging individual who is always reliable to brighten someone’s day. His ethics and integrity are exemplary. If he makes a mistake, he owns up to it and does his best to fix it, so it never happens again. He is always looking for ways to improve a task.
Currently Kurt is our first driver of the day, starting his shift at 4:30am. I can count on him walking in the door by 4:25 in a clean uniform ready to face the day with a positive attitude. He makes my job easier knowing I can count on him. Kurt has my respect and admiration and I believe every site should have an employee that is like him.”
The awards ceremony was held at our Willows office, with Paratransit Services Chairman of the Board, Bryan McConaughy, in attendance to present Kurt with his awards. Others in attendance included President/CEO David Baker, GM, Michelle Wehe, fellow employees and members of the corporate office who joined the celebration via ZOOM.
Paratransit Services is committed to making a difference each day in the lives of our employees and in the communities we proudly serve. It is an honor to recognize Kurt Royce for exemplifying the heart of service and excellence Paratransit Services stands for!