Sunday Fun

I spent way too much time playing with this this morning! Get your own here.

Vote for Zoe

Local author, Laurie Halse Anderson, is trying to get her children's book into Cheerios boxes and needs your vote. You can read her post and then Vote! You'll find Zoe on the third page of the ballot.

The Cheerios Spoonfuls of Books program gets books into the hands of kids that might otherwise not have any. Be sure to look for the boxes next year and consider buying a few and donating them to your local food pantry.

Spout Takes the Bus

Sprout started preschool this year but since we don't transport the pre-k kids on our regular routes, Bean has to drive her to and from school. They do get to ride on our buses for field trips though.

They got to go all the way across town to the pumpkin farm.
(Across town takes about five minutes.)

There were other fun activities too.

The ride back wasn't nearly as exciting.

As much as I would have liked to be the driver for her first field trip it wasn't my turn. Instead I took Twig to a fund-raising breakfast back at the garage. We had a good time but I forgot to take pictures so here are a couple Bean shared with me.

Catch 22 in Michigan

State budgets are tight all over. This story out of Michigan is just unbelievable.

Michigan State Police informed school administrators by letter this week that all 11 state school bus inspectors will be laid off as of Oct. 31. Without certification from inspectors, school districts cannot legally operate buses.

Buses can continue to operate only until their inspection sticker runs out. So some buses will be good for almost a year but others will have to stay off the road or run illegally as early as November 2. School districts have been told to seek the advice of their own attorneys. There is mention of a possible amendment to the law making the inspections optional.

So if inspections are optional I would assume most school districts would continue their own bus inspection programs and do all they can to insure the safety of their students. But with school budgets tightening I see an awful temptation on the part of a few to cut corners if no one is looking over their shoulder.

I'm sorry Michigan, this is NOT an area where you should be looking to cut your budget.

Driver Training in Tulare, CA

I ran across this new story today and thought it was great. We weren't the only ones volunteering our time yesterday for bus safety.

A couple of things struck me about the bus they used. No roof hatches and no amber warning lights.

For some reason the embed won't work so try this link.

Safety Expo 2009

I woke up early and immediately checked the radar and the rain/ snow mix was knocking on our doorstep. By the time we started setting up the sun was out in full force, which was great because it was chilly!

Some people couldn't make it at the last minute but others jumped in and filled their slots. We had more kids than last year but I'm still a little disappointed that we didn't have many more.

My policy is not to share pictures of student's faces so my pictures may make it appear that we didn't have a crowd which is not the case, I just have lots of pictures I won't share here.

The first two expos were held at the elementary school. It was great to be able to host it this year at our new facility.

The safety team bus, ambulance company, ladder truck and State Police.

We are lucky that two different fire departments participate. One department brought their off road rescue vehicle which is popular with kids and dads both. Both departments bring hand outs for the kids and the kids get little plastic firemen's helmets.

I'm thinking I can get a couple of more vehicles in there next year. Who can I invite?

The safety team bus simulates what a bus would be like in a roll over.
The Trooper brought lots of stuff to hand out too.

We let the kids ride up and down on the wheel chair lift to see what it is like for kids that have this ride every day.

The smoke bus was just as popular as ever. A member of our staff is also a volunteer firefighter and he does a great job with this and lots of us like to work at this station.

Sparky the Fire Dog was very popular. I had to crop out many faces but picture a large crowd off to the right.

New this year was a bike rodeo and it very popular. That's Nikki taking a turn on the course.

And of course I have to give equal time to Liz.

Here are Alex and Mike playing are you Safer than a 5th grader. One of the mechanics hooked up some old red lights with buttons that make them light so the kids can try to ring in first.

Here are other kids playing the game. We roped off the shop for safety but wanted everyone to have a peek at our new state of the art facility.

We had inside safety displays too. We were lucky to get someone from the power company to volunteer her time and bring this display.

And there was lots of food and drink in our training center so everyone could get a break from the cold.

There were other displays that I don't have pictures of to share. We had one of the huge parking lot plows and the local police out on the loop. A driver and attendant taught safe crossing. We had a table full of health hand outs and one of the building nurses doing blood pressure checks. Transportation staff also manned tables displaying items you can't bring on the bus as well as the very popular face painting. Bean let us borrow her pop corn machine and it ran non-stop.

And as always we ended the day with a drawing for the bikes that had been donated.

This was by far our best year yet. I'll be working on thank-you notes next week and then planning will start for next year. If you have any ideas for displays or activities we could incorporate for next year I'd love to hear them!

Happy Exhaustion

The week before the Safety Expo is always stressful for me as the event coordinator and this week has been no exception. BUT this year instead of having a few key helpers and feeling overwhelmed with all that has to be done I've had more help than I know what to do with.

The last two days I just wanted to hide. Every time I walked in the building several people all needed just a moment of my time - to make suggestions, to ask how they could help, or to worry over details I hadn't quite worked out. A totally different type of overwhelming than I'm used to! (And being sick all week didn't help.)

Knowing that Mom had physical therapy today and that I'd be unable to stay on my mid-day break I spent some time yesterday making diagrams of what had to go where and then I created a long list of jobs that needed to be done. A few of us planned to set up as much as we could today after work. The head driver made a pot of clam chowder and I put the diagrams and to-do list on the bulletin board in case anyone finished earlier than I and wanted to get started.

I left Mom's a few minutes early so I'd have a few minutes to get something done before my afternoon shift. I walked into the break-room and there were people spread out already working on a couple of the jobs on the list. I had been worried that we wouldn't have enough candy and was told right away that the donations had been counted and we have considerably more than the number I was figuring on. I answered a couple of quick questions and had time to sit and relax!

I went out on my route, the kids were great and I finished a bit early and headed back in to work on finishing up the rest of my long list. Just as I expected several people started talking to me at once but it soon became clear that they were DONE WITH THE LIST and what else needed to be done? And come look at what we did with this. And does this look ok or should we put it over there? On a Friday afternoon more than a dozen people stayed to help and by the time I got in there was very little left to do. We moved things around and got some things done I just didn't think we'd have time for. People trickled out and the few of us that were left sat down and chatted over dinner.

We got so much done that I told everyone to sleep in and show up a half hour before the event. More than half of them plan to be there early, just in case they're needed.

Yes, I am certainly overwhelmed! And excited about tomorrow. They say three times is the charm and our event tomorrow is going to be great. All we still need is for lots and lots of kids to show up. (Oh, and please no rain or snow!)