OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Thirty area children ages 7- to 12-years-old boarded a bus headed to camp at the Old Orchard Beach Salvation Army on Friday morning. As the parents waved goodbye, they could rest assured they were in good hands.
Just before the young people piled into the bus, Old Orchard Beach Salvation Army Major Beverly Smith gathered everyone outside and presented bus driver Dana Bradbury an award for “going the extra mile.”
Bradbury was volunteering his time, as he has for several summers, to drive the young people to Camp Sebago in Standish.
Bradbury, a bus driver for Old Orchard Beach schools for the past 14 years, said he enjoys volunteering his time and working with children.
“It’s fun. The kids are great,” he said.
Although some might think being a school bus driver is a stressful job, he maintains it isn’t and said he loves the job. He knows all the students who ride his bus by name and enjoys getting to know them and seeing them grow up over the years.
Bradbury is someone who is, as Smith said, “community minded.”
Regional School Unit 23 Superintendent of Schools John Suttie said in a phone interview that Bradbury was a great asset to the school department, and was reliable and dependable, and the kind of employee who was a good problem solver and able to look outside the box.
“He takes a lot of pride in what he does,” said Suttie. “He’s always looking out for the greater good and doing more than asked.”
Suttie said on the last day of school when Bradbury was finished with his bus route, he came back to the Loranger Memorial School and barbecued lunch for the staff.
Bradbury has also offered up his barbecue skills to the town’s recreation department. The recreation department acknowledged him in a humorous July 2017 Facebook showing some young campers bowing down to thank him when he drove up to a campground they were staying at and cooked dinner.
Bradbury is also a member of the Old Orchard Beach Lawn Mower Drill Team, a group which participates in local parades and this year raised more than $500 for the Travis Mills Foundation.
— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or [email protected].
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