Donation gives thousands of students new safety tool for the bus stop
ELKHART, Ind. -- Nearly 3000 students in Elkhart County now have a new tool that could keep them safer at the bus stop.
It’s thanks to a massive donation by a local auto service company.
"With all the recent events, people going around buses, people getting hurt at bus stops, we wanted to do something for the community,” said Pete Swinehart, a manager for Monteith Tire in Middlebury.
The company decided to purchase more than 20,000 reflective blinkers for local students in hopes to make the trip to the bus stop safer by making kids more visible.
On Tuesday, representatives from Monteith Tire dropped off 3000 of those blinkers for students in the Concord Community School District.
The district’s transportation director, Shannon Simon, says visibility of students has been a concern.
“Bus drivers and parents have called in and said you know we can’t see them,” she said
Now every student in the district from Kindergarten through 6th grade will receive a blinker to attach to their backpacks.
“The fact that they blink is I think going to make it more exciting for them and make them more likely to use them,” said Simon.
Swinehart says he’s excited to give students a safety tool.
“When I go to work in the morning I pass a bunch of bus stops,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the lights out there.”
Simon says she’s looked in to getting blinkers like this before.
“It’s a big expensive thing so we really appreciate the fact that they took the time and the money and the effort and put that into the Elkhart County kids, it’s fantastic,” said Simon.
Monteith Tire plans to donate these blinkers to all public school students in the county.