Pequea Valley townlively.com
SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LX • NO 37
Fall Sports Look Inside
Saying goodbye to bus number 5 BY ANN MEAD ASH
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“ You gotta let the kids know you’re the boss, and they have to do what you tell them,” she said, noting that most children were well behaved. “If they hadn’t been good, I wouldn’t have been here this many years,” she said. According to Kreiser, she drove a few students who stood out over the years. “I remember one (little boy) that came up the steps and plopped a kiss on my cheek,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from?” She also knows of one young man who did not always behave for her, but sent an apology through a fellow bus driver. “He asked if I was still driving, and he said, ‘Tell her I am so sorry. I should never have done that,” said Kreiser, who noted that one thing that has changed over the years is the support she receives from both the bus system and the school district. “If you write up a child, they take care of it (now),” she said. When Kreiser started driving,
See Bus driver pg 12 Pequea Valley bus driver Elaine Kreiser with bus number 5
Partnership provides opportunities for students
Making generational connections
BY ANN MEAD ASH
BY ANN MEAD ASH
John R. Haughery, assistant professor, Automation & Electronic Technologies with Millersville University (MU), remembers when he was a high school student and wanted to learn more about manufacturing and automation. “There’s a law that you can’t go into a manufacturing environment unless you’re 18 and over,” said Haughery, explaining the Robotic WorX Program to a group of high school students from
When eight 3- and 4-year-olds from New Holland Early Learning Center (NHELC) arrived at the Fallcrest Household skilled nursing care section of Garden Spot Village (GSV) on the morning of Aug. 1, the sounds of their laughter broke the relative quiet. GSV resident Jackie Thompson was prepared to read the children a story as they gathered on the floor before his chair and within a circle of seated residents who had
John Bridgen of Precision Cobotics explains to a group of visiting
See Robotic WorX pg 10 students how robotics can be used in manufacturing.
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ack in 1970, a friend of Elaine Kreiser was encouraging her to go to work driving a school bus. “She kept bugging me,” recalled Kreiser. “She was a driver, and she kept saying, ‘You gotta go drive bus.’ I said I would try.” In 2020, during COVID-19 restrictions, Kreiser hit the 50-year mark for driving a school bus, transporting elementary, middle, and high school students for the Pequea Valley School District through Brightbill Transportation, located in New Holland. Now, Kreiser is saying goodbye to bus number 5 - the bus she has driven the majority of her years behind the wheel. “When I started, I think I had number 35 for a few years, but then I switched to 5 and I’ve been with 5 ever since,” said Kreiser, who has now officially retired from driving the Gap hill route near her home. In the future, she may
work as an aide on buses for students with special needs or drive a van if Brightbill fleet manager Dana Riehl needs her to fulfill that duty. Before Kreiser was trained to drive a school bus - she said she pretty much “took to it” - she was familiar with the many benefits the job offers to a mom with a busy family. “It is a good job when you have kids,” said Kreiser. “You’re off when they’re off (during the school year), and you’re off all summer.” As a driver, Kreiser began her days at 4:45 a.m., picking up her first passenger at 6:35 a.m. She finished with her morning route by 9 a.m., and then was off until 2 p.m. to do her own errands and chores. At 2 p.m., she headed out to complete the afternoon route, and she was done driving for the day at 4:40 p.m. Kreiser pointed out that the attitudes and behaviors of the children she drives have not really changed much over the years.
anxiously awaited the children’s arrival. “Oh, it’s a good one,” declared Thompson of “Feathers for Lunch” by Lois Ehlert. The book is about a house cat who escapes his home and meets a variety of birds. The subject of wild birds coincided with the theme of the preschoolers’ visit to GSV. Thompson punctuated his storytelling with comments about the various birds the cat meets, giving away his own interest in baseball by pointing out a number of teams that utilize See NHELC pg 2
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