“He looked up and came running so I opened the gate and, as soon, as he saw the truck he was beside himself."
“He looked up and came running so I opened the gate and, as soon, as he saw the truck he was beside himself."
Five-year-old Royce Warren is obsessed with rubbish trucks.
So when Adrian Griffiths pulled up outside his house in a Cleanaway truck as Royce celebrated his birthday last Saturday (11 September), it was a dream come true for the boy, who is autistic.
Adrian was only too happy to take a few hours out of his day to visit the family home in Maryborough in Queensland after receiving a request from Royce’s mother Kelly.
“He was on the jumping castle in the back yard when he heard the sound of the rubbish truck in the street,” Kelly recalls.
“He looked up and came running so I opened the gate and, as soon, as he saw the truck he was beside himself.
“He grabbed our neighbour’s bin, which was the closest one he could find, and pulled it out to the kerb near where Adrian parked the truck.”
Adrian continues: “I pulled up, blew the horn a few times and all of kids came running out with their parents. They were having a look around at the truck. I let him sit in the seat and he thought he was driving it but I made sure it was done safely.”
Pictured: Adrian showing Royce his ride
Kelly says Royce was diagnosed with severe autism at the start of the year and is only now just starting to talk.
“More than a year he’s had a fascination with trucks and diggers. He’s up and waiting for the bin man when he comes each Tuesday,” she says.
“He’s never had a birthday party before and my partner said ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we could get a truck to come out to the house?
“We had to pry his fingers off the steering wheel to get him out of the truck.”
“We’re so grateful to Adrian and Cleanaway because you made a little boy very happy.”
Pictured: Adrian dressed up the front of his truck for the occasion
Adrian, who joined Cleanaway more than two years ago and has a three-year-old-son of his own, said he was happy to pay a visit to Royce’s birthday party on a day off.
He also handed out cardboard Cleanaway truck cut-outs and tiny blue wheelie bins as gifts to the birthday party guests, complementing the rubbish truck-themed cake prepared for the birthday.
“It made me feel really good,” Adrian says.
“What some of us take for granted, others think of as a luxury. If I can help somebody else, I will.”
Pictured: Royce having a close up look at the driver’s seat
Fraser Coast Branch Manager Scott Campbell paid tribute to Adrian as a “top bloke” who is willing to help others.
“He’s one of our model Cleanaway employees who lives up to all of our values including doing the right thing and making a difference,” Scott says.
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