It’s hard to miss a big bendy bus, especially when volunteer transit drivers park it smack in the middle of a St. Albert parking lot and hang a sign outside that reads, ‘Fill-A-Bus.’
Today, Dec. 6, look for St. Albert Transit buses in parking lots at Costco, Walmart, Canadian Tire, both St. Albert Safeway stores and Sobeys. If driver Dave Stevenson has his way, each one will be filled with food and toys for the St. Albert Kinettes to distribute to the less fortunate in our community.
The volunteer transit-driver campaign will be out again on Dec. 13 at the two Save-On Foods stores in a special food drive with all donated non-perishable items to go directly to the St. Albert Food Bank.
“We’re doing it twice this year. The first time is for the Kinettes’ hampers and the second one for the St. Albert Food Bank,” said Stevenson.
Twelve years ago Stevenson came up with the wonderful visual idea of filling a bus with goods to help others at Christmas time. As a bus driver, Stevenson was well aware that some of the customers sitting in the seats of his bus were often the ones most in need of a helping hand.
“Some of my regulars share stories sometimes. We know there is a lot of need in the community and so we worked with St. Albert Transit and got the buses for the day and then we got the drivers to volunteer,” he said.
That first year there were two buses but each year the initiative grew until this year he expects seven buses for the main Kinette hamper drive and a further two on Dec. 13.
“It starts with the drivers who donate their time,” said Stevenson, adding that each bus will have two or three drivers, often stepping in after they finish their regular Saturday shift.
“If you are there for a long time, it can get pretty cold because the doors on the bus are open all the time,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson cannot help but marvel at the community’s generosity, which each year, does indeed “fill-a-bus.”
“In the past 12 years, we’ve filled 60 bendable buses and seven regular buses. That’s not counting the $40,000 in donations,” he said.
He especially likes to see the youngsters who climb so eagerly onto the buses to give a donation.
“There’s little kids coming on the bus. Often it’s their first time on a bus and their parents will give them two or three cans to put on a seat. There’s older people too, who just want to make a donation. If it wasn’t for those people making donations, it couldn’t happen. It just makes your heart warm to see all this generosity,” Stevenson said.
St. Albert Transit buses will be out today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and again on Dec. 13 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
