‘This job is fun:’ Metro Atlanta parents throw ‘thank you’ party for school bus drivers

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Bus drivers are the stewards of the most precious of cargoes.

“You see them for 15 seconds in the morning and 15 seconds in the afternoon, and you wave to them,” neighbor Elizabeth Kay said.

Neighbors in Gwinnett County’s Peachtree Station community told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen they deserve more. On Thursday, those neighbors threw a thank you party for the nearly three dozen county school bus drivers whose routes are in the neighborhood.

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“The kids. The kids are the whole thing,” school bus driver Marrika Howell said.

Bus driver Latashia Porter started two months ago and Joyce Yearwood started 36 years ago. Altogether, the drivers have more than three centuries of experience.

“We’re at the lot at five every morning, and last all the way into the evening until 5:30 or 6 o’clock,” team leader Greg Hughes said.

Which is why the gathering had a time limit. The drivers had to be shuttled back to work, aboard a school bus of course.

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“You get to know the kids. You get to know their parents. I used to be in corporate America,” school bus driver Donald Trout said.

And the job deserves a round of applause.

“Yay! Four more days! Four more days,” the drivers chanted.

Four more days until the end of the school year. They all deserve a summer vacation.

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