Upper St. Clair students celebrate School Bus Driver Appreciation Day
Harry Funk/The Almanac
From left, Tori Slagle, Sarah Christensen and Molly Maher get ready to suprise the bus drivers with goodies and other items of gratitude.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Sarah Christensen gets ready to present a bus driver with a gift of appreciation.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
A bus driver gets ready to sample one of his gifts.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
From left are Declan Gessel, Joseph Markovitz, Sammie Seewald and Claire Hoffman.
Colin Eccher, left, and Karsen Damon display a banner of gratitude.
The Upper St. Clair Panther cheers on the district's bus drivers.
From left are student council members Yoshna Venkataraman, Kayla Lumish and Lily Gessel.
As soon as the buses started lining up at Upper St. Clair High School, a trio of student council members sprang into action.
Moving quickly from vehicle to big yellow vehicle, juniors Sarah Christensen, Molly Maher and Tori Slagle knocked politely on the front doors and were greeted by friendly drivers who were in for a big surprise.
“Thank you!” the students said as they delivered bags full of baked goods and letters of gratitude to each of the good folks behind the wheel.
The occasion was School Bus Driver Appreciation Day, and on the afternoon of Feb. 26, student council members in ninth through 12th grades were out in force to display a variety of well-wishing signs and banners. Even the school’s Panther mascot was on hand to help cheer on the drivers as they sampled the goodies delivered by Sarah, Molly and Tori.
“Student council recognizes that there are a multitude of people who work extremely hard to help keep our school functioning,” Tori said. “We appreciate all their hard work, and we felt it was finally the time we showed them.”
In addition to the special event on behalf of the bus drivers, members of student council have surprised the school’s custodial staff with an appreciation luncheon, and they celebrated School Principal Week with thank you letters to each of the three building administrators.
The students also surprised their teachers with notes and signs of thanks during their remote classes in December, and plans are in progress to recognize the school’s nutrition center staff this spring.
“Events like this are important because we are one big Panther family here at the high school,” said Stephanie Spina, another 11th-grade student council member. “Despite our different roles and responsibilities, we all affect each other’s day in one shape or another. By showing that we appreciate all groups in our school, we emphasize that everyone is important and that everyone matters. That is an important message to get across when it comes to advancing our school culture.”
RJ Shontz, junior class president, credits student council’s mission statement – Unite Voices, Serve the Community, and Commit to Progress – as the impetus for their work.
“All of our council’s initiatives work toward accomplishing this goal,” he said. “We want our community to know we value all new ideas and feedback.”
He encourages students and other members of the school community to email Brooke Tarcson, activities coordinator and student Ccouncil sponsor, at btarcson@uscsd.k12.pa.us, or Constantine Tripodes, student council president, at tripodesc@uscstudents.org.