Rex Coleman, 4, of Riverside likes everything you’d expect the average 4-year-old boy to enjoy — especially trucks. He’s fascinated by them. “The bigger, louder and messier, the better,” his mom, Holly Coleman said. “He knows all the correct names for different vehicles and for all their parts. It blows my mind. Garbage trucks are his favorite and the fact that they stop by our house on a weekly basis makes them that much more thrilling.”
From that weekly garbage pickup, a special bond was formed between Rex and Horace Jenkins, a Solid Waste Truck Driver from the City of Jacksonville’s Solid Waste Division. So when Rex’s fourth birthday approached earlier this month, Jenkins made sure it didn’t go unacknowledged. That Saturday morning, the Colemans received a call letting them know they’d have a special visitor. They played in the front yard while waiting for the horn to blow from Jenkins’ truck. The garbage truck parked right in front of the family’s home and out emerged Jenkins with a wide grin and armed with gifts including a City of Jacksonville giftpack, a toy truck and some truck-shaped chocolates from Sweet Pete’s.
“Of course, his most prized gift was simply the visit itself,” Coleman said. “It was so special because I knew how much it meant to Rex. Horace has pretty much reached superhero status in our home, and after a tough year and a half with so much uncertainty, this was pure magic.”