A bus driver is the first face many children see in the morning as they start school and the last person they say goodbye to when leaving for the day.
School transportation workers play an integral part of students’ school experience, and for that they are honored at an annual transportation appreciation banquet that this year will be held May 2 in the City Auditorium.
“This is something that we do to try to show our transportation department — bus drivers, bus monitors, mechanics, everybody that works in transportation — how much we appreciate them, how much they are needed,” Vicksburg Warren School District transportation director Robert Bass said. “We just want to show our appreciation.”
The banquet, which is held separately from the VWSD, is a way for transportation workers to be recognized for their diligent work in the community and for the school.
“A lot of people don’t realize how important the job of transportation specialist is. Bus drivers are carrying what we believe are the most precious cargo and our job is to get them to and from school as safely as possible and try to run as close to on-time as we possibly can,” Bass said. “Their job is very important. It’s a very rewarding job, and my job would not be the way it is without the great drivers that we have.”
Because the banquet is not held in accordance with the school district, attendees must raise the money to fund it themselves. To do that, workers are selling raffle tickets for a chance to win a dozen roses from Helen’s Florist, a box of millionaire candy and a dozen chocolate-covered strawberries from The Cricket Box.
Superintendent Chad Shealy was the first to purchase a raffle ticket Thursday morning and stressed how important transportation workers are to the success of a school district.
“When you look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there’s a couple of things that you have to have in place, and that’s safety and security before learning can occur,” Shealy said. “You talk about transportation safety and the relationships that our bus drivers build with students, they set the day.”
Raffle tickets can be purchased through school district employees until the day of the event. To purchase a ticket or for more information contact transportation worker Lucille Forman at 601-218-0190 or Brenda Brown at 601-218-3869. Donations are also accepted.
“The thing I like about this particular bus team is they have a family atmosphere. They’re doing this individually for themselves so they can have a banquet for themselves. That doesn’t happen everywhere,” Shealy said.
“A lot of our bus drivers have been here for 20-plus years, which is a testament of the wonderful program they’re running. They’re just great, and they’re essential to our education purposes too because if we can’t get (the students) here safely, they sure can’t learn.”